Chapter 58 Tommy
She’s here.
I have no idea what Courtney has been saying to me, but I know she tried to tug me back from opening the bathroom door. Sam locks the door, so the worst that’s going to happen is I’ll jiggle the handle. Thankfully, it’s unlocked and I can check on her. God, my heart is still pounding a full hour since Maisy pulled me aside at Maybel’s.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, not bothering to hide the desperation in my voice. My hands reach for her but don’t make contact in case I touch something sensitive. The thought of her being sick or in pain is still driving me crazy. I just need to know how to help her and I can calm down.
But she’s not answering me.
“Sam, I need to know how to help you, please.”
Her eyes look past me and Courtney pulls on my arm. “Let her breathe, Tommy, she’s in one piece.”
I realize that I just barged into the bathroom on someone who might be very ill.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” I begin. “I’ve been losing my mind with worry and the moment Courtney said you were here I couldn’t even think about anything besides getting to you.”
“I’m okay now, there’s nothing you need to worry about. I’m in good hands.” She has a washcloth in her hands that she’s twisting up as tight as possible. That’s the only sign she’s upset if it wasn’t for the tight set of her jaw. It looks like she’s barely holding it together.
What the fuck happened?
“Did Maisy say something to you?” I ask, trying to keep the frustration out of my voice at how I somehow missed Maisy crossing paths with Sam. Sam’s eyes are pleading with Courtney.
“Dude,” Courtney says, her hand still holding my arm.
Why does Courtney sound so frustrated? And with me?
“What?” I turn and ask her, trying with every fiber of my being to not snap at one of my best friends as Avery comes down, her eyes wide.
“I asked you to explain upstairs and you barge in like a fucking bull, ignore the fact that Sam was in the bathroom—”
“I apologized for that,” I mumble.
Courtney makes a frustrated sound. “You ignored that and now you’re asking her to tell you about Maisy? I love you, Tommy, but it sounds like you made your decision and I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why you’re rubbing it in.”
“What?” I ask again. I notice that Avery is now at Sam’s side, rubbing her back. “What decision did I make?”
Sam’s voice is so fucking small, it shreds my heart. “You left with Maisy.”
“I what?”
Tears fall down her face. “I saw it and I’m not standing in the way. She’s the one who got away and I get that. But please, just give me space.”
Everything plays back in my head in triple time.
“Oh fuck,” I say, sounding, and feeling, like I got punched in the gut. “It’s not what it looked like.”
I look at all three women. One looks like her heart has been ripped apart and the other two look confused but ready to ask me to leave.
Shit, I really fucked this up.
“Please let me tell you what happened, all three of you because I think my two best friends are close to castrating me, but mostly you, Samantha.” I take a deep breath, thinking of the order of events so I can fill in anything that she might not have seen. “I was waiting to get Elliot’s attention at the bar to make an oat milk coffee drink. They usually only have rice milk but Sam likes oat and he said I could drop some off and he’d make it for her during our date. While I was there, someone took my Stetson. Honestly, I thought it was you so I was surprised because, well, you know what it means and I didn’t know that you were comfortable with that…public statement.”
“But it wasn’t Sam,” Avery fills in for me.
I shake my head, letting out a rueful laugh. “Not even close. I stopped opening her messages months ago, stopped replying long before that, and finally blocked her, so I had no idea she was moving back before the fall. She caught me completely off guard and asked for five minutes. I told her no and she was persistent, even going as far as threatening to go talk to you and I freaked out. This was our first date in public and here was Maisy Jones pulling some childish shit. She said if I gave her one minute she’d stay away from both of us if that’s what I wanted. So, I told her she had one minute, no more.
“Maisy complained that it was too loud, grabbed my hand, and drug me to the back door. I was in complete shock at her assumption that it was okay to make any sort of physical contact with me and it wasn’t until we were almost to the door that I yanked my hand free. I grabbed my phone, set a one-minute timer, placed it on the table between us, and hit start.”
My eyes don’t leave Sam’s and all I want is to hold her in my arms and tell her everything she means to me. That I would never put her through what she thinks happened. But she deserves to understand what she saw, whatever pieces of that nightmare conversation.
“Maisy used her minute to tell me the reasons we should be together again. And I listened. For the full minute. I let the timer go off, took my hat off of her head, reminded her that she agreed to leave us alone, and walked away for the last time.”
“Oh Tommy,” Courtney murmurs.
“We can unpack that shitshow later,” I say, waving off her concern for me. “But after I said all that I’ll ever need to Maisy, I went back to the table. I thought you were still refreshing your lipstick, and I went into the bathroom to try to get my shit together. I was shaking with the audacity of Maisy and didn’t want to bring all of that negative energy into our date. It wasn’t until a few minutes later that Keith came by and I found your note. I drove right to your apartment and couldn’t get a hold of you, any of you, and eventually decided to take my chances here.”
Sam’s knuckles are white as she grips the washcloth, sadness mixed with hope in her eyes now. I keep my feet right where they are, respecting that she asked for space, but dying to go to her.
“I thought you left me to be with her.”
“Never.”