Chapter 35
thirty-five
QUYNH
T wo weeks.
It’s been two whole weeks since she made her dramatic exit from Willowbrook. Away from Ruth. From Griffin. Instead of giving Griffin a chance to explain, she fled town like a coward.
In hindsight, she knew a small part of her left because of Ruth, but a bigger part of her knew it was because she was scared of having her heart broken.
Of being vulnerable. Again. But with Griffin, it was different.
She wouldn’t have survived the heartbreak if he had been lying to her the whole time they were together.
Even if they had only been together for a few weeks.
She was the happiest she had ever been in all of her adult life. Which was saying a lot, considering her age. She worked hard for her college degree and a successful career. Well, she considered herself to be pretty successful before she was fired. And her boss possibly committing insurance fraud .
Her heart ached as more time passed.
And they said distance would make things easier.
She scoffed. If anything, she felt worse as the days passed.
Most nights, she’d cry herself to sleep thinking about what she walked away from.
Did he even miss me?
She’d only seen one missed call from him, and he didn’t leave a voicemail. Quynh resisted the urge to text him. She needed to figure out her life first.
What do I even have to offer a man like Griffin right now except for the broken pieces of myself?
Instead of being abandoned, she left Willowbrook behind in a delusional attempt at controlling her situation. All she ended up doing was making a bigger mess of her life.
During the daytime, she kept herself busy with fixing her resume and looking for jobs around the city.
There were dozens of positions she was more than qualified for, but nothing seemed appealing.
The idea of going back to long hours in the clinic, followed by long hours working from home every night, didn’t seem appealing to her.
She realized losing her job was a blessing in disguise.
It pulled her out of a haze of her own making.
The burnout she experienced was so pervasive, she assumed it was a normal part of her life.
Except when she worked for Griffin at his shop.
Only then did she realize what it was like to actually enjoy what she was doing.
Not to mention, her creative juices started flowing again.
Quynh recalled a time when she wanted to be a writer.
She spent some time writing short novels and fan fiction, but when her aunt became ill, she realized a career as an author was not what would help pay her bills.
Having close proximity to her aunt’s declining health and then her mother’s subsequent demise opened Quynh’s eyes to the role of nurses.
At first, she went to nursing school and worked in the field for a couple of years before deciding to further her education to get her master’s degree.
She’d landed a job as a nurse practitioner before she even graduated at a prestigious practice affiliated with the local major health corporation.
She’d tucked her head down and soldiered on despite her unhappiness.
Through her years of hard work, she squirreled away a healthy nest egg.
It was a bonus her employer paid to move her and for her housing.
Her lease would be up at the end of the year.
She’d have to figure out her next steps soon. She couldn’t push it off any longer.
Sitting in her living room with her laptop open to the job listings, Quynh resisted the urge to scream. All she wanted to do was lie in bed with a tub of ice cream and mope. But doing so meant she’d have to think about Griffin and how much she missed him. She missed everything about him.
How can I miss someone I barely know so much? How much time is appropriate to get to know a person?
Her mother and father’s courtship was brief before she ended up pregnant, and look how well that turned out.
Did the passage of time dictate how well you knew someone? Or, is it true ‘when you know, you know’?
It wasn’t like either of them was in their early twenties anymore. At this stage in her life, Quynh knew what she wanted out of a relationship. And, right now, that person was Griffin.
Thoughts of what their future might have looked like if she were brave enough to stay taunted her.
She imagined what it would be like to be a permanent resident of Willowbrook.
To be within walking distance of everything she needed.
She imagined herself still working at Griffin’s auto shop while writing during the downtime.
Maybe she’d be able to finish the book she’d been thinking about writing for the past few weeks.
Her parents’ tragic love story inspired her to rewrite their history.
What if they ended in a happily ever after instead of how it really turned out?
Her mother’s translated journals added some necessary background historical and cultural elements to their story.
She’d been so excited at the thought of writing a book. It was a small and humble dream, but it was hers. Reality was a much harder pill to swallow. Eventually, she’d run out of funds to fuel her passion. She didn’t want to consider being broke, homeless, and living off of ramen again.
Her stomach gurgled at the thought of food. She’d forgotten to eat breakfast, and now it was nearing lunchtime. The fridge was empty of any fresh food, and all she had were some stale chips and Pop-Tarts. The thought of eating made her queasy. She missed Griffin’s home-cooked meals.
She missed Griffin.
Her thoughts always circled back to Griffin.
Pickles let out a grumble as she flopped back on the couch. She let out a big sigh as she stared up at her popcorn ceiling.
What a fucking mess.
Just as she was contemplating whether she should just woman up and call Griffin, there was a loud buzzing at her door.
Frowning, she swung her legs off the couch and got up.
The buzzer sounded again. She rarely had visitors unless it was for food delivery, but she hadn’t ordered anything to be delivered today .
Pressing the talk button, she leaned in to speak into the speaker box.
“Hello?”
“Quynh. It’s me,” a deep, gravelly voice sounded through her apartment.
She knew exactly who ‘me’ was. Griffin. He was here.
He was here! Wait, why was he here?