26. Archer
Chapter 26
Archer
He knew the summer would come to an end.
He just didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.
They got good at avoiding what would happen next.
Tea hadn’t spoken to him about how she was planning on heading back east, and for a while, he wondered if her lack of communication was her considering not going at all.
But if she was, if she really wanted to return, he was ready to offer to drive her himself.
Until her mom showed up.
Molly Richards tested for COVID, then drove twenty hours to northern Minnesota, only stopping once to sleep in her car and a couple other times for quick burgers, sandwiches, or any other easy meal she could get via a drive-thru on the road.
By the look of her surprised expression, he knew Tea had no idea her mom was driving up to the lake.
And by the look her mother was giving him , he had a feeling there was a lot that hadn’t been said between the two of them.
Archer kept quiet through dinner as everyone caught up around their outdoor table, bubbling with excitement that Molly was back in Silver Falls after eight years.
He wanted to be excited for her and for Tea, but the only thing he could muster was a feigned smile to mask his dread.
“Archer.”
He looked up from his half-eaten taco and across the table at Molly.
They were all sitting outside, the sun tucked away behind the trees, the night getting cooler.
Tea sat across from him and next to her mom.
He hated how far she was already.
He swallowed. “Yes?”
“Tea tells me you’re working in hospitality? Cocktails?”
He leaned forward and faced Molly head on.
“Yes, I’ve been working at one of the top cocktail bars in Minneapolis for a couple years now. But the lounge is closed, and I have no idea if it will open back up.”
She shrugged.
“It might. I’ve seen a lot of bars doing some creative things in New Brunswick. Outdoor seating, walking cocktails in bags or plastic cups.”
He cringed on the inside.
There was no way he was serving his cocktails in bags or plastic cups.
He’d rather find a new job.
If that made him sound pretentious, then so be it.
Dad leaned back in his chair, turning to Tea.
“And what about you? What will you be doing?”
“Did you ever hear from Bank of America?” Molly asked.
Archer clenched his fists tight.
Tea flicked her gaze in his direction before responding.
“Um, yes, actually. They offered me my position back. They want me to start mid-September.”
Everything around him went dizzy.
Archer released his fists and grasped the chair he sat in, taking long, slow breaths as everyone congratulated and cheered for her with clinked glasses.
Everyone except him and her grandmother, who sat next to him with crossed arms and pursed lips.
Tea’s smile was tight, her eyes not meeting either of theirs directly.
How could she not tell me?
“So does this mean you’re moving back east?” his father asked her.
Tea looked at her mom.
Molly tilted her head.
“I heard someone’s car broke down and maybe they would need a ride home?”
Her face went red.
“You drove all this way to pick me up?”
“If that’s what you want, yes. But we’ll have to head back tomorrow night. I don’t have much leave time…”
Tea’s eyes fell to her hands.
Archer wanted to melt into the damp grass beneath them.
He remained silent as everyone finished dinner, then helped his mother clear everything and walk it back to the kitchen.
He turned the hot water on and washed the dishes, concentrating on the soap and scrubbing and nothing more.
“Arch?”
He looked up from the sink.
“Can we talk?” Tea asked through the screen door.
He placed the dish down and wiped the suds on his shorts as he made his way toward her.
He didn’t look her in the eye.
“What the hell, Tea?”
She stepped into the cabin.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? Come on. You’ve had weeks to talk to me about this, and you waited until the last possible minute ?”
She hugged her stomach.
“What did you want me to say? That I was offered my internship back? That I’d eventually head east?”
“ Yes. You should feel comfortable talking to me about this.”
“And watch you fall apart again?”
He growled, then pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes.
“I’m not eighteen anymore, Tea. I’m a grown-ass man. I can handle a hard conversation.”
She dropped down to the couch near the window.
“Riley told me not to mess with you again. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Archer got to his knees in front of her and reached for her neck.
“Not talking to me does hurt me, love. You have to communicate. You have to tell me what’s on your mind.”
She scanned his face.
“What’s on my mind?”
He nodded.
“Okay.” She bit her lip.
“I can’t be the reason you give up on your dream.”
“Literally none of that matters when it comes to you.”
“But it should , Archer. You can’t give up your whole life because of me. You love what you do and you’re really good at it.”
She sounded an awful lot like Austin, and he absolutely hated it.
“I haven’t heard anything from them. I could find something else for the winter, maybe out east—?”
Her eyes went wide.
“Out east? Like, move there with me?”
His chest squeezed.
“Would that be so bad?”
She hesitated.
“I-I really don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“Because your life is here. Minneapolis is a lot closer to Wild Pines, which you just committed to, and you’re closer to your family. I couldn’t tear that away from you.”
He sighed, defeated.
He dropped his grip on her neck and placed his hands on her thighs.
“Then stay.”
“B-but—”
“You said you’re not sure where home is. So stay. With me.”
She covered her mouth with her hands.
She looked lost. Uncertain.
“Do you not want to be with me?”
Her shoulders sagged.
“Archer.”
“Do you?”
Her eyes were glossy with tears.
“What if…what if we did long distance? You stay here, and I go back with Mom? I-I can’t leave her, Arch. She’s all alone out there.”
Long distance.
The thought churned like acid in his stomach.
It would be back to what they were before—three months together, nine months apart.
It sounded like literal hell.
“It could be good,” she babbled on.
“A little space, maybe? To think it through? Figure out what we should do next?”
He stood up.
“I need to think. I’m going to take a walk or go for a drive or something.”
“Hey, wait—”
He didn’t wait.
This time, it was him who needed a little time to parse through his thoughts.
He snatched his keys and left.
Archer wandered the craft beer aisle at Hector’s.
It was the only place he could think of, and for some reason, looking at microbrew varieties calmed him.
He scanned the labels and took deep breaths and—
“Why am I not surprised to find you here?”
Janelle stood beside him, holding a basket of groceries and two bottles of wine tucked under her arm.
His instinct was to offer to hold them for her, but he caught himself.
He turned back to the fridge.
“Yeah, not a surprise.”
She stepped in front of him.
“You okay, Archie?”
He sighed.
“Not really. Came here to clear my head.”
“Want to talk about it?”
He eyed her, thankful his mask was hiding the scowl he couldn’t help.
“With you? No.”
“Girl problems?”
He scratched his head.
“Janelle, please.”
“So you are with her, huh?”
He sighed audibly and looked up at the fluorescent lights, not caring if they temporarily blinded him.
“Yes. For now.”
“For now?”
His chest flared as he looked back at her.
“Yes, for now. She’s heading back east like always and leaving me behind. To pretend like whatever is happening between us doesn’t exist. Or at least not for nine months of the year.”
She hummed.
“Sounds like this goes a lot deeper than one summer.”
He rubbed his forehead.
“Yeah. It does.”
“And now do you understand why our stars didn’t align?”
Archer hesitated.
When he was dating Janelle, he kept quiet about her love for astrology and zodiac signs and reading the stars, because he thought it was all a bunch of bull.
Yet now, as she looked at him with a serene and, dare he say, smug expression, he wondered if he’d written it off too quickly.
“Sure,” he admitted.
“I guess our stars don’t align.”
“Do your stars align with her?”
“No fucking idea.” He shifted back and forth.
“But in my opinion, they would align in every universe.”
“Then it sounds like you know what you need to do.”
He squinted at her.
“Why are you being so nice to me?”
She shrugged.
“Just because we didn’t work out doesn’t mean I don’t care for you, Archie. I will always want the best for you.
He looked into the fluorescent-lit fridge. “We never used to talk like this.
”
“Probably because it was never really meant to be.”
They stood there in silence, both staring ahead.
“You know when you finally open that school, I’ll be the first one to sign up for a class.”
He rolled his eyes.
“You’ll need it. You can’t make a cocktail to save your life.”
She laughed.
“Your margaritas are way too weak! I want double the amount of tequila.”
“Sadist.”
She laughed again.
The sound of it brought a smile to his face.
“You’re still going to do that, right? The cocktail school?”
He exhaled.
“Yeah. I think I am.”
He didn’t bother talking to Tea when he got home that night, or the following morning when he saw her take off in his sailboat with her mom.
He gave them their space; they hadn’t seen each other since last year.
Molly meant a lot to Tea, to the point where she was ready to give everything up so her mother wouldn’t be alone.
He watched from his cabin window as the two of them returned from their morning sail, smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes.
Later that day, he received an email.
To: Archer Vincent
From: Lyle Thorne
Archer!
Broski!
So good to hear from you, dude, what a crazy time it’s been.
Reaching out to let you know I’ll be opening up Hermes Lounge this fall.
Things are going to look a lot different.
We’re going to utilize outdoor seating with heaters until people physically cannot handle the cold anymore, and plexiglass dividers between tables indoors.
More details to come, but would love to have you back around.
When do you return from up north?
I think you told me this is the weekend you usually head back?
As for your cocktail classes, I had an interesting idea.
Given that we can’t have as many customers in, and who knows how long we’ll be able to utilize the outdoor patio, I was thinking…
what if we did the cocktail classes online?
Great way to make some dough during the winter.
They could log in to classes you teach on Zoom.
We’ll have to talk through details on how to get them materials and whatnot, still bouncing this around in my head.
Shall we meet next week?
Excited to get back into things.
Missed you, man.
Lyle
He tossed his phone back and forth in his hand.
He didn’t hate the idea of teaching classes online.
Obviously not ideal, but at least it was something to get him started.
He sat there on the couch, imagining what the next season of his life looked like, forcing himself to think through that season without Tea for nine months of the year.
Getting his stuff out of his storage unit, alone.
Finding an apartment, alone.
Experiencing another brutal Minnesota winter.
Alone.
It was impossible.
He typed out an email and sent it as his door creaked open.
He looked up to find Tea in his cabin.
He stood up from the couch.
“I can’t do it.”
She stood before him, silent.
“Long distance,” he continued.
“I can’t, Tea. I watched you walk away at the end of every single summer for eighteen years of my life. I don’t want to do that anymore. It’s too hard.”
She sniffled, then wiped a tear with the back of her sweatshirt sleeve.
“I have to go with her, Archer. Being in Chicago so far from her during all of this…I can’t leave her alone again, not with everything going on. I’m sorry.”
Archer worked his jaw, watching as she cried in front of him.
Tears filled his own eyes.
Right now, he was his own demise.
He was the one causing the pain.
Yet deep in his gut, in the heart of who he was down to his core, Archer Vincent knew this couldn’t be it.
It was always him and Tea.
Always.
Their stars were aligned in every universe.
He knew he would never experience love in the ways he’d grown to deeply love Theresa Richards.
Now that he had her again, was even more deeply in love with her than his teenage under-developed brain could have comprehended, he refused to believe this was the end.
He grinded his teeth, moving his jaw back and forth, blinking away the water in his eyes.
He nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay? We’ll do long distance—?”
He shook his head.
“No. Here’s what’s going to happen.”
Before she could stop him, Archer cupped her cheeks and brought her close.
She sucked in a breath, but she didn’t stop him.
Didn’t hesitate or pull away.
He scanned her face.
“You are going to leave, because that’s what you think you want.”
“It is what I want.”
“No, it’s not. You told me—” His voice cracked.
He cleared it and shook his head.
“You think we should take some space? I’m not going to give it to you. I want to be in your space. I’m not going to let you hold me at a distance, afraid to take the leap. You’re going to leave, and you will be unhappy. Because deep down, you know we are meant to be together. I know you feel the way I do and you won’t admit the truth.”
She swallowed.
“I told you the truth.”
He clenched his jaw.
“I don’t think leaving your mom alone is the real reason. You’re not admitting what’s really going on.”
“Which is—”
“You’re scared , Tea. You’re scared to be with me fully because like you said, our future together is not guaranteed. I could get cancer or COVID or get in an accident, and it scares you to put your heart on the line again.”
He knew he hit the mark when she didn’t respond, her eyes locked on his.
He squeezed, then brushed his thumbs across her jawline.
“I know I’m right. So I will wait. I will wait for however long it takes you to realize you’re making a mistake. And when you do, you’ll come back. You’ll stop forcing yourself to be miserable and finally be happy again.”
“We could be happy,” she whispered, her tone desperate.
“Next summer…”
“I’m not living like that anymore, Tea. I want you. All of you. And I know that you want the same.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because even when mates leave their nest, they always return to each other. They always come back home .”
She closed her eyes.
Archer leaned down, his lips practically brushing hers.
“You told me you wanted a place to call yours. Let me be that for you, Sweet Tea. I’ll take care of you. I’ll create that space for you. I’ll be your home.”
He made a move to kiss her, but then his brother’s words stopped him.
Put yourself first. Letting her go didn’t feel like putting himself first, but ultimately he knew he was.
He was choosing himself and sticking up for what he wanted.
And eventually, she would see that too.
He let her go, took a step back, then turned and left her alone in his cabin.
He clipped on the life jacket hanging on his porch, still fully clothed in jeans and a sweatshirt, and walked over to his boat.
He knew he was right about this.
But he wouldn’t allow himself to watch her leave again.
He already did that once, and it destroyed everything he had in him.