Chapter 30
CHAPTER 30
A NNIE
Sitting by the pool trying to work on my tan and enjoying my last day in the sun before heading back to Ohio, I’m lost in thought. I try to mentally prepare myself for going home tomorrow.
I realize that as much as I’ve been distracted by the activities and my new friends on the cruise, I’ve still had a lot of moments where I’m overcome with this intense feeling of devastation. I can’t imagine how much worse it would have been at home with all the constant reminders of… him. I miss my friends and Beanie a ton, but it’s going to be so hard being back there and not being with Jack. My heart literally hurts thinking about it.
Thankfully, I’m pulled from my downward thought spiral when Millie sits on the chaise-lounge chair next to me, looking so cute in a polka-dot swimsuit.
“Hey there, darling, are you enjoying the last day so far?” she asks.
I try to force a smile for her, not wanting to ruin her mood with my heartache vibe .
I swallow past a lump in my throat. “Sure. It’s… nice.”
She looks at me for several long seconds, then turns her eyes to watch Larry swim laps. She looks at him so adoringly.
Without taking her eyes off Larry, she says, “You know, sweetie, from the moment I saw you sitting there at that table alone on our first night at dinner, I had a feeling you were here nursing a broken heart. I hoped I was wrong, but I wasn’t, was I?”
Millie’s back to looking at me now, with a sad smile on her face and compassion in her eyes. A single tear rolls down my cheek. I shake my head, not trusting myself to speak without full on crying.
“I’m pretty sure you realize that, if you wanted to, Tony would love to help you forget that heartache, and yet you haven’t dipped your toe in those waters. I’m guessing that means you thought this fella was the one. I don’t know what happened, obviously, but are you sure it’s as bad as you think?”
“I don’t see how things could go back to how they were, even if I could forgive him,” I say sadly. “I think you and Larry are lucky to have what you have. I’m not sure that kind of love is in the cards for all of us.”
“Oh, sweetie. It’s easy to think that looking at us now, but we went through a pretty dark time, one neither of us thought we’d come through, early in our marriage. I did something that hurt Larry deeply. We truly thought it was over. Larry was eventually able to forgive me, though. We came through it stronger than we could have hoped. I’m not saying it was easy, but it was worth it. We’ve never taken each other for granted since that time.”
Now I’m openly crying, and she’s joined me on my chaise-lounge and holds me while I weep .
“I’m pretty sure Jack and I can never recover from this,” I choke out between tears.
“Oh, honey, never say never.”
It’s our last dinner together and we stay late at the table, drinking wine and exchanging contact info, promising we’ll all stay in touch. We even decide that maybe we’ll try to get together next fall for another cruise.
Dominic excuses himself after giving us all hugs. He has plans to catch up with his lady friends at one of the ship bars. Millie, Larry, Tony, and I head up to our favorite deck to have one last cocktail together. We spend the next hour laughing and reminiscing about our favorite cruise moments. Eventually, Larry and Millie decide it’s time for them to head to bed.
As Millie gives me a giant hug, she whispers in my ear, “Remember, dear, never say never.” Then she kisses me on the cheek.
Tony stands and shakes Larry’s hand, then hugs Millie. When we’ve said our goodbyes, Tony and I head over to the deck railing, looking out over the beautiful ocean as the sun sets.
“Annie,” he starts, “you know Elladine isn’t that far from Pittsburgh, right?”
“I think it’s about two hours?” I ask, not sure where he’s going with this.
He turns and faces me, placing his hand over mine on the railing. I don’t want to hurt him, so I don’t pull away, but it feels so wrong.
“I know you’re going through something, and I don’t want to pressure you, but I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I leave this cruise without telling you I really like you… a lot.”
“Tony—”
“No, wait. Please let me finish or I’ll lose my nerve… I can sense you aren’t ready for anything romantic. But, if you get to a point that you are, just know I’d like the chance to see if maybe we could be something more.”
I’m quiet for several seconds before I smile at him and say, “Thanks, Tony… I’ll… I’ll keep it in mind.”
We make small talk for a few more minutes, then I excuse myself and head back to my room, knowing it will be a long, long time until I’m in a place I can consider an offer like Tony’s.
JACK
I walk into Pat’s Diner and make my way to the booth where Shayna and Emily are sitting. They texted me today that they needed to meet with me and that it was urgent. I didn’t really want to come since it’s one of the rougher days I been having. But they made it sound like they needed me.
It’s been a week today since Annie told me it was over. She wasn’t in the ER all week and I’m going nearly crazy wondering where she is and when she’ll be back.
Janie won’t tell me a thing except that she’s safe. She’s like a damn steel vault when it comes to info about Annie.
I’ve barely sat down, and Shayna blurts out, “We have some information. You didn’t cheat on Annie.”
“I know I didn’t cheat on Annie,” I respond. “No matter what it looked like.”
“Oh, um, well now we have proof,” Emily says. She pulls out her phone and gives Shayna the side-eye .
Something in the look they exchange makes me suspicious of how they got said “proof.”
I tilt my head and give them both that big-brother look that always worked when I needed them to confess what they’d been up to in high school. They were two years behind Teddy, Ben, and me and we had to do a lot of looking out for them since they always seemed to have such an easy time finding trouble.
“Ok, don’t be mad,” Shayna starts. “You know Chelsea is one of the mean girls from our class in high school, right? Like, we have history.” Not waiting for me to respond, she continues, talking so fast it’s hard to keep up. “So, Em and I decided we knew you wouldn’t do this to Annie, and we had to help. We reached out to Chelsea on her social media and told her we needed to talk to her. She said no initially, but let’s just say we can be persuasive, and maybe have a little dirt on her. She doesn’t want her friends to know. So, we met for coffee, and Emily… well she recorded it. I know that seems shifty, but we had to do it.”
I take a long sip of my coffee and wait for her to continue.
“She actually admitted that you had done nothing. Apparently, that douchebag Joel Reid told her you were wasted and that he’d heard you and Annie had broken up. He told her you were interested in her.” She looks at me to make sure I’m tracking her. “He sent her over to you, Jack, and we have it on good authority that he texted Annie to come to the bar, making her think you needed her. She admitted that when you put your hands on her, it was to push her away, nothing else. We have it all recorded; we just need to tell Annie and maybe everything will be okay,” Shayna says, finally taking a breath.
“Wow, that’s… a lot.”
Shayna and Emily are both staring at me.
Fucking Joel Reid. He’s been trying to get with Annie since she arrived in Elladine. I basically handed her to him with how I was acting.
“Listen, I really appreciate you two having my back. I’ve got a lot more than just what happened at the bar that night to explain to Annie, though. I’ve been treating her bad for weeks. I’m hoping she can forgive me,” I tell them.
“She has to, Jack,” Emily says. “What you two have is special. Anyone who has seen you together can tell how much you love each other. Annie’s smart. She isn’t going to want to let that go.”
“I really hope you’re right because I don’t know what I’m going to do if… if I’ve really lost her.”