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“He makes me happy, too.”
“Then don’t give up on him.”
“Should I go to his place to talk to him there?”
Janessa frowned and shook her head. “I think he’s left town. Or at least that was the impression he gave Gareth, and when Gareth went by his place before work, Jay didn’t answer when he buzzed his apartment.”
Misha’s heart sank. He was gone? Even hearing he wouldn’t be in the office for a couple of weeks, she’d not considered that he would leave Serenity completely.
“He’ll come back,” Janessa assured her. “And when he does, I think he’ll tell us the whole story. He has a tendency to keep things to himself and not share anything with us until he’s worked it out for himself.”
“If we’re going to be together, he needs to learn to share the burdens.”
“I know, but he hasn’t had a relationship like that before. Casey was the burden in his life. Just have some patience as he learns how to be in a healthy relationship for once.”
Misha would be as patient as needed, including waiting for him to return.
That evening, she went to the gym, just like she would have on any other Monday evening. Jay had gotten Misha her own membership, so she didn’t need him in order to get in. But it felt wrong walking into the gym without him there. She also didn’t need him there to guide her through the workout they did together, but that, too, felt wrong.
She felt close to tears as she stretched on the mats, and she had to fight the urge to get up and leave. He would want her to keep working out. She knew that, and so she would.
All afternoon, she’d wondered if she should text him or try to call him again. Fear had kept her from reaching out, but as she walked on the treadmill—her pace much slower than normal—she couldn’t help but take a picture of the empty machine beside her.
Opening her text messages, Misha pulled up her conversation with Jay. After attaching the picture, she typed outMissing you. Hope you’re doing okay.She added a heart, then hit send.
It wasn’t the way she wanted to converse with him. However, she’d tried to call him after work, to no avail, so it was the only way she could think of to reach him right then. Even if he didn’t respond, she’d continue to send the messages unless he told herto stop. Nothing excessive. Just one or two a day when the pain of missing him became unbearable.
She closed out her messages and got off the treadmill, even though she hadn’t spent even ten minutes on it. Her body just didn’t have the strength to push on. She’d come back on Wednesday and try again.
After doing an abbreviated stretch to go with her abbreviated time on the treadmill, Misha cleaned up and left the gym. As she drove home, she went past Jay’s building. She’d only been there once, when he’d invited her to join him and Will to watch a basketball game.
Looking up, she counted the floors to the one his apartment was on, then looked across to the windows she knew belonged to him. All of them were dark. It was possible he had curtains covering them, but in her heart, Misha was sure that Janessa was right, and he’d left town.
There was no reply to her message by the time she got home, and there was no reply to her message when she crawled into bed.
Tears soaked her pillow that night, and she had a fractured night of sleep once again, but Misha resolutely got out of bed the next morning. She had responsibilities she had to fulfill, and she needed to be focused on her patients for the duration of her workday.
She had smiles for the patients, but they took more effort than usual. Unfortunately, there were no smiles when she and the others gathered in the breakroom for lunch. Clearly, she wasn’t the only one struggling with what had happened with Jay.
“Will texted me this morning,” Gareth said as they sat around the table. “He said he’d heard from Jay, and he’s okay.”
Relief filled Misha, and the tension that had been present in her body since realizing that Jay was gone, eased a little bit. Not completely. That wouldn’t happen until she could see him again. Until she could hug him and feel his arms around her. Until she knew that things between them were going to be okay.
“Where is he?” Janessa asked.
“Will didn’t say.”
“So he doesn’t know?”
Gareth shrugged. “I think he probably does, but Will will always protect Jay if he thinks he needs to.”
Janessa grumbled something about siblings being closer than best friends, her expression dark.
“Just be glad he’s in contact with someone, Nessa,” Gareth said.
“Iamglad,” Janessa said. “I’m also still mad because all he needed to do was talk to us. He’s never acted like this before.”
“Jay is a grown man, so unfortunately for us, he can do what he wants. All we can do is pray that he realizes we’re here for him.”
