Will
Chapter Forty-Nine
Elsie really wanted to say something.
Based on the way her leg bounced restlessly against the seat, and the way she chattered on for the entire first minute of the car ride without taking a breath—I was betting money that whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be one of the more fun conversations we’d have.
After a brief monologue covering the topics of: the delicacies of Quincy Market, the energy of TD Garden, and a bizarre segue into the history of the Boston Tea Party, she finally threw me off by uttering dramatically:
“How ‘bout them Red Sox, huh?”
“It’s not baseball season.”
She frowned. “I know. It’s just an expression.”
I shot her a look. “‘How ‘bout them Red Sox’ is not an expression used when the Red Sox aren’t playing, Els.”
She groaned. “You’re impossible.”
“I’m impossible?” I laughed.
“Yes! Because every day you’re always trying to ask me about my life in Boston, but the one time I need you to bring it up, you flat out refuse to.”
My eyes widened as I turned to look at her in the dark.
I turned toward her. “You want to talk about Boston?”
She nodded.
“You could’ve just said so.”
“Yes, well. I’m emotionally stunted, Will. And sometimes it’s hard to talk about bad memories.”
“I get that.”
“I told you a little bit about the guy already—”
“Actually, you didn’t,” I said, considering I knew nothing other than that there was a guy. A vague, hazy image in my mind that I couldn’t help but hate.
“But I haven’t told you about my parents yet—”
“I’m curious to hear about them, too,” I said, because it didn’t make any sense to me that she wouldn’t mention them, call them, or make any notion of wanting to visit them soon.
“And I guess the easiest way to tell the story is to explain how they’re both connected. The guy. And my parents. And, uh, the reason I left.”
She swallowed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, as if she was scared I might judge her for whatever it was she was going to say.
But it didn’t matter to me what happened before. All that mattered was now and our future moving forward.
She didn’t have to be scared. And I was about to tell her that when we pulled into her driveway, only to find my spot otherwise occupied.
“Who the hell drives a Mercedes?” I looked over to her, finding her white as a sheet. “Elsie?”
But she was muttering under her breath, frantically unbuckling her seatbelt and leaping from the truck.
“Oh, God, Will. I am so sorry, but you have to go home.”
I sure as hell was not going home. Not while she looked that thoroughly freaked out.
“What? What are you talking about? Who’s here?”
She poked her head into the dark Mercedes, but it was empty. I followed Elsie as she rounded to the other side of the house, toward the front porch.
Then I saw him.
A man, on her front porch, his fist banging against the door, stopping only when he heard our footsteps.
“Please, Will,” Elsie whispered to me under her breath. “I’ll explain later, but just go.”
But the man was already turning, his expression grim when his steely eyes landed on us.
“Elspeth,” he said, sounding irritated.
“Andrew,” she responded, sounding guilty.
“Elspeth?” I echoed, not having a single clue what was going on.
“It’s Scottish,” she groaned, and then, turning her attention back to the prick in the tailored clothes, asked the question I’d been dying to know myself. “What are you doing here?”
I might’ve used a bit more colorful language if I’d asked myself, but the sentiment was relatively the same.
“Your mother has been worried sick about you. She asked me to come find you and bring you home.”
“Are you on her payroll now, too?” I scoffed. “Why the hell would you drop everything to track me down?”
“You didn’t come home for Thanksgiving, Elspeth.” His voice was frigid and disapproving. “You knew how that would look, but once again, you didn’t care.”
“I thought that what I do doesn’t reflect on you anymore. Wasn’t that the whole point of breaking it off?”
“That’s why I’m here. You and I need to talk. About everything that happened.” He paused, as if he were admitting defeat by even acknowledging it. “I figured you’d take off for a week, clear your head, and when you got back, we’d have the chance to go over it all. But it’s been months, Elsie.”
“Yes, Andrew. We have calendars here as well. But really, I don’t see that there’s anything for us to quote unquote go over, so you can open up your Waze app, navigate back to Boston, and have the best life, okay?”
His jaw ticked as he stared at her with infuriated impatience. A look I might’ve worn myself on occasion, but it felt wrong coming from anyone else.
“That’s it? That’s all you have to say after I came all this way to find you?”
“Yup, that’s the extent of what I’ve got.”
“We were going to be married, Elspeth. Don’t you think I deserve a little more than that?”
My chest gave way at the comment.
Married? She was going to marry this asshole?
“This is the guy?” I started, mouth dry, words bitter. The guy who broke your heart?
She turned to me sheepishly, but I had to know.
“Elsie, who is this?” I was uneasy and suddenly desperate to know the full story. There were missing pieces I hadn’t even known I needed.
“Will, please,” she shut her eyes, “just go. I can handle this.”
“I’m not leaving you alone with some guy, Els.” I stared at her, stunned. “If you want privacy, I’ll go in the other room, but—”
“I think you should listen to her.” The bastard turned his condescending gaze on me, as if he were entitled to her time or energy or conversation.
I hated him. Not just because he’d had some part of her before I ever knew she existed, but because it was clear from the way she curled in on herself that he’d clearly done a number on her.
“Elsie, if you want him to leave, I can make him leave,” I told her, desperate to save her from this situation.
“I don’t know who you are,” he narrowed his condescending gaze on me, “but you really have no business being here.”
“She’s my girlfriend,” I said, feeling like the word was wildly insignificant to describe what she was to me.
“Yeah. Okay.” He snorted.
“Will, please,” Elsie pleaded.
“What the hell does that mean?” I asked him.
“It means, if you are for some reason seeing each other, it’s hardly the relationship of the century. You’ve known her, what, three months?” Andrew says. “I’ve known her for twenty-three years. I was going to marry her.”
“And clearly, you never knew her at all,” I fumed. “Or else you wouldn’t have been able to walk away.”
“Elspeth,” he looked only at her, apparently deciding to disregard me completely, “ask your friend to leave. You and I have grown-up things to discuss.”
“Elsie, come on,” I pleaded. “You don’t have to stand here and talk to this guy.”
In fact, I wanted to insist that she didn’t. He didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as her. I didn’t even need to hear her story about what went wrong in Boston.
One look at this guy, and the entire story was written across his arrogant face.
Elsie and rich pricks weren’t ever going to be a match.
But instead of sending him back to his Mercedes where he belonged, Elsie turned to me with an apologetic look.
“No, Elsie,” I said, already knowing where she was going with it. “Please don’t.”
“I have to talk to him, Will. Please, just go home. I’ll be okay, I promise.”
I rubbed a hand across my face, hopeless and dejected. What could I say? No? I wanted to. But I’d never do that to her.
Even though I could tell she wanted to have a conversation with this guy just about as much as I wanted to leave.
But it was her choice.
I could only hope she’d make the right one.
“I’ll call you later,” she promised.
“Don’t call me later. Just come over,” I told her, needing to know that everything would be okay.
She just gave me a half-hearted smile, leaving me no choice but to make the walk back toward the truck alone.
I sat there long enough to watch the two of them walk into her house together, with the door shutting decidedly closed behind them.
I drove home right after.