Chapter 32 #2
The song ends, and I wipe my face. This is the last time I will allow myself to cry over Rhett Cole.
It’s time to move on and create some kind of normal life again.
I have no idea what this scandal is going to do to my chances of getting a job, but I’ll just have to keep looking until I find a place that is willing to overlook the fact that my face is plastered on every magazine in the checkout line at the grocery store.
I make a mental note to myself: Don’t apply at grocery stores.
My phone rings as I’m unpacking my toiletries in the bathroom. I brace myself for the sight of Nate’s name on the screen—or, God forbid, Rhett’s—but it’s only Timie. I can guess why she’s calling. I answer anyway.
“Hey!” she says cheerily. “How are you?”
“I’m good.” I refrain from commenting on the fact that this is the second time she’s called me in the space of a month. “How are you?”
“Great!” Her voice sounds fresh and brisk as always, but we’ve been friends long enough that I can pick out the notes of tension in it. “Are you working today?”
“Nope, not today.” I set my shampoo back in the shower caddy.
There’s a pause, and I know she’s trying to think of the right way to bring up the real reason she’s calling. I let her flounder.
“Sooo . . .” She trails off. “I saw something crazy today.”
“Oh, yeah?” I have to force curiosity into my voice. I wish she would just cut to the chase and ask me.
“Yeah,” she says. “I was grabbing some things at the supermarket since the farmer’s market isn’t open today.”
I roll my eyes. Timie will never not mention anything about her quaint little idyllic village when given the opportunity.
“And I saw you on one of the tabloids there.” She punctuates this with a tiny hysterical laugh.
I bite back the urge to ask why that would be so surprising. Clearly, she doesn’t think my life could possibly be interesting.
When I don’t respond, she continues. “Is it true?”
“Is what true?” I have a cruel desire to make her say it out loud, delicate sensibilities be damned.
“That you’re dating . . . Rhett Cole?”
I sigh and toss my empty cosmetics bag into the cupboard under the sink. “Not anymore, I’m not.”
There’s a slight pause, and then she says, “But you were?”
“Yep.” Placing a hand on my hip, I judge my appearance in the mirror. No wonder Justine didn’t give me a shift. I look like a trainwreck.
“Oh.” Her voice is quiet enough that I have to strain to hear it. “I didn’t even know you were out of the country.”
“Yeah, I kind of kept that one under wraps.” The official story I gave Paula and Justine was that my parents invited me to join them on their trip for a few weeks.
“What about Nate?” Timie says.
“What about Nate?” I toss an armload of laundry into the hamper, and this time it all whooshes to the bottom.
“I thought you loved him.”
I give a sarcastic chuckle. “Nate and I haven’t loved each other for a long time.”
Several beats pass. “I didn’t know.”
If you would stop gushing about your fairy-tale life long enough to ask, maybe I could have told you. “Well, you’ve been busy,” I say, unable to keep the patronizing tone completely out of my voice.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” For the first time in this entire conversation, she seems to have picked up on my lack of enthusiasm for her call.
“Nothing, Timie. Nothing.”
“It didn’t sound like nothing.”
“You’re right. It’s something.” I slam the lid of my suitcase closed. “It’s the fact that you waltzed out of my life and expected me to be happy about it.”
I picture her mouth falling open as she takes this in. “Is that what you think?”
“Yep.” I give the zipper a yank.
“I see.” She clears her throat. “It wasn’t quite like that.”
“Yeah, I’m sure there were a few times you missed me, but the picturesque view out your window soon reminded you of what you gained from ditching me.”
“God, Saylor,” she says quietly. “Glad you’re finally saying what you think.”
“It’s true, isn’t it?”
“No, it’s not true. The view out my window?
It’s a fucking alley, and our neighbors always have too much rubbish for one bin, but they refuse to get a second one, so there’s always way more than what fits piled up beside the building.
” There’s a short pause as she takes a deep breath.
“And as for missing you, I cried myself to sleep for almost a year after we moved. I missed you so much, and I had so many regrets. I wished we’d never left. ”
I’m stunned speechless by both of these admissions.
She continues, “I begged Javiar to move back to the city, and he reminded me of why we chose this in the first place. It wasn’t because I thought I’d be happier away from you.
God, I can’t believe you’d think that. We didn’t want to raise our children in the city.
We both grew up there and wanted better for our kids. ”
I think about my own parents’ struggle to make ends meet working inner-city jobs. Combine that with the tiny flats, the high cost of living, and the pollution, and it’s easy to see why the countryside might be a preferable place to raise a family.
“There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by that I haven’t missed you.” Timie sniffs, her voice watery with tears. “I would’ve told you all of this sooner, but you stopped calling.”
I breathe around the catch in my chest. She’s right. I did stop calling. “I thought you were better off without me.”
She lets out a strained laugh. “I’ve been miserable for the past two years.”
“What about all the playground mums? Sounds like you lot are pretty chummy.”
An unladylike snort comes through the phone. “They’re all ridiculous. Obsessed with their hair and their morning yoga sessions. It’s completely obnoxious.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Sounds awful.”
“You have no idea,” she says, a smile evident in her tone. “I’m sorry for hurting you.”
“Back at you,” I whisper.
“Now,” she says in that voice that means business, “I want to know everything there is to know about you and Rhett Cole.”