CH 29 - #roommate
Riley
“LOOK AT YOU!” Jacinda said when I walked into the dental office.
“What about me?”
“You’re still floating around because of Rhys.”
“He is so wonderful.”
“Did he get your locks changed?”
“Yep. He also mowed my lawn and took me to Razzoo’s.”
“Nice!”
“Guess who showed up while we were eating.”
Jacinda shrugged. “Who?”
“Chad and his parents.”
“Oh boy. What’d you and Rhys do?”
“Enjoyed our meals the best we could.”
“Did Chad and the Nolans say anything to y’all?”
“Only Chad did after we left. He came up to us in the parking lot and congratulated Rhys for being able to steal me away from him,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“What did Rhys say?”
“He told him that I’d always been his.”
“It’s the truth.”
“And it hurt Chad. I saw it in his eyes.”
“He asked for it, though, coming up to you and Rhys like that.”
“I know. I hope it’s the last time we’ll ever deal with him. I was going to get my clothes and stuff from his house, but I’m not worried about doing that anymore.”
“The price of peace.”
“Exactly. I intended to return my engagement ring to him, but he told me to keep it in an earlier text. I don’t want to, though.”
“Have it made into a different piece of jewelry or sell it.”
“Macie said the same thing, but I’ll just mail it to Chad. He can give it to the next woman he fools.”
I had just finished putting on Rhys’s T-shirt to sleep in when I heard the TV in my living room come on. Alarmed, I grabbed my cellphone off my bathroom vanity and cautiously walked down the hallway to see if what I was hearing was real or my imagination.
When I peeked around the corner, I saw the movie The Notebook playing. It was Rhys’s favorite and mine. But how in the hell did my TV come on? No one was here but me.
I walked into my living room, picked up the remote, and turned my TV off, back on and off again. Everything worked as it should.
Still puzzled, I entered my kitchen and looked around for anything odd. There was nothing, so I headed toward my dining room, noticing two chairs scooted together but not by me.
When I reached them, I saw petals from the daisy bouquet Rhys had given me lying on the table. Nothing was odd about them being there, but the double heart shape they’d been arranged in had just blown my mind.
Holy shit.
I snapped a picture and texted it to Rhys. He called me seconds after he’d seen it.
“Did you steal my ghost?” he chuckled.
“If I did, it wasn’t intentional. Can you believe this?”
“Yep.”
“Guess what else your ghost did?”
“There’s no telling.”
“It turned on the TV in my living room, which made me go in there. Then I discovered the surprise in my dining room.”
“I’m jealous. My ghost interacts with you more.”
“Rhys, I don’t know how to feel about it. It’s just…weird.”
“It shouldn’t be, considering the paranormal activity we grew up around.”
“Yeah, but I’ve never dealt with anything here or anywhere to this degree. It’s very personal.”
“Take it as a compliment and try to relax. I hear the stress in your voice.”
“It’s going to take me having a glass of wine to relax after all this.”
“Do what you need to do.”
“I wish you were here,” I sighed.
“Three days, and I will be for the whole weekend. What would you like to do while I’m there?”
“For certain, I want to show you the botanical gardens. They’re so beautiful.”
“We’ll go then. What else would you like to do?”
“Spend the rest of our time together here at my duplex. I want to cook a yummy country meal for you.”
“I could certainly go for that because I hardly ever cook for myself.”
“You don’t eat supper with your parents at their house anymore?”
“On occasion, I will. I try to be mindful of them having an empty nest now, which equates to a second honeymoon phase for them.”
“I hadn’t thought about that. I hope they’re enjoying it.”
“Jackson and I can both tell they are.”
I returned to my kitchen and grabbed a half-full bottle of sauvignon blanc out of my refrigerator. It’d been there since the day before I made the trip home to Cypress Hills, ran into Rhys in front of the grocery store, and my whole world changed. The wine wasn’t from Josh Cellars, but I planned to pick up some tomorrow to have on hand, especially on ghostly nights such as this one.
“Do you know what else I’d like us to do this weekend?” I asked Rhys as I filled a glass.
“Not a clue.”
“Watch The Notebook because that’s what was showing on my TV screen when I walked into my living room a few minutes ago.”
“You’re kidding me?”
“Now you sound weirded out, Silverman.”
“I don’t understand how the ghost knows about the little things that mean the most to you and me. It’s not as if I’ve discussed them with it.”
“Maybe ghosts can read our thoughts.”
“And maybe other things. That might be how our ghost knows about the linked hearts. It read the Valentine’s Day letters that you wrote to me.”
“But what about the movie? Have you thought about it or watched it since we last did?”
“Several times.”
“Me too.”