Chapter 22 #2
“I know a few more days shouldn’t hurt, but he’s a mess. He’s masking it, but he’s desperate to make up with you. I know he has a lot to say to you that he hasn’t yet?—”
“I appreciate you calling me, and I’m so happy to talk to you again,” I said, interrupting her, “but things moved quickly between Bram and me. I am only just starting to take it all in fully. I will end my week with my best friend. Then I’ll reevaluate. This time apart is good for us. ”
I didn’t believe a damn word coming out of my mouth. I was desperate to talk to Bram. The time apart was torture, and I wanted to forget the past. I wanted to speak to him about what we meant. How real was our marriage? How would we decide when to part?
“It was always meant to be temporary,” I tacked on, and Kallie went still beside me. It felt like the air was sucked out of the car for a moment.
There was silence on the other end of the phone.
“Melanie?” I inquired.
“Okay. Just…please don’t make any decisions about the future until you talk to him,” she replied more timidly than before.
“I promise,” I vowed.
As we said our goodbyes, the call disconnected.
“That was brave of her,” Kallie remarked. “I like her.”
“Me too. But I had no idea what to say,” I replied, placing the phone on the car’s middle console.
“We haven’t talked about it in a few days. What is the plan here? When are you going to talk to him?” Kallie tried to act nonchalant, but I could see the eagerness in her eyes for me to spill my inner thoughts.
I sighed. “I don’t know. Does he even want to talk to me?”
“Well, his hot ass came over the night I arrived and growled at me to get to you.”
“I remember. I was there.”
“And, you said you love him.”
“I did say that, didn’t I? But he’s not perfect. He has a few quirks, things I should consider. He leaves his dirty shoes sitting all over the house, which drives me insane. He wakes up way too early.”
“Is this what we’re calling quirks these days? He sounds positively beastly.” Her sarcasm was palatable.
“He’s also stubborn, possessive, and overdoes everything. He can’t give the minimum. He has to give 110% to everything. It’s off-putting.”
“I can’t get Brandon to do shit. These sound like good qualities, not bad ones. You should talk to him.”
“I know, I’m going to,” I said with a sigh, “after you leave town.” I cocked an eyebrow at her. “I thought you didn’t like Bram.”
She shrugged. “He’s growing on me. And if you’re going to be married forever, I must learn to love him. And I guess your brother, too.”
I sent her a pointed look. “You don’t know Whit, don’t judge him too harshly.”
“I call them as I see them. And he was a terrible brother to shrug you off and make you fend for yourself after your grandmother died. Not a fan.”
“I appreciate your undying devotion, but if I have to forgive them both, you have to, too.”
“Was that not what I said?” She smirked and then began cackling enthusiastically. “You’re so gonna get boned.”
My mouth fell open. “Kallie!”
“Boned with a capital B . Actually, it’ll probably be all sweet and shit. Which is what you deserve for your first time.” Her eyebrows wiggled.
I rolled my eyes. “You’re insufferable.”
“Sometimes I can be. But listen, if his sister says he’s pining for you, then the man is pining,” Kallie shrugged, turning the car off the school’s street. “She would know.”
“I’m still looking for a sign,” I hummed. “He hasn’t texted my phone once.”
“Oh. It’ll come,” she replied with a grin. “That’s what she said.”
Our laughter echoed off the small interior, and I was grateful anew to have a few days with my best friend in the chaos my life has become.
I was exhausted by the time we returned home. Clenching the bag of tacos that Kallie and I had picked up for lunch, I nearly tripped over a small box in front of the door, sitting alone on the porch.
“Shit!” I cried out as I stumbled. Kallie shut the car door loudly, the click of her boots hitting the pavement as she hurried toward me.
“Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself? What is that? Is it a bomb?”
I looked down at the box and back at her. “Seriously? A bomb? Here?”
She shrugged and bent before me, retrieving the box, unfastening the lid, and peering down into the cardboard. “It’s…a pie.”
I investigated the open flaps and took in the creation. It was made by someone who knew nothing about pie-making. The crust edges were extra crispy brown, but it wasn’t a run-of-the-mill frozen pie crust. It had been hand-rolled and poorly shaped within the tin.
“Blueberry, maybe?” I said, grabbing the note that was slipped into the side of the cardboard.
Julianna,
After fifteen years without you, your absence has been torture. I hope you think of me as often as I think of you.
Happy 9-day anniversary. Enjoy this pie. It was the least burnt of the batch. Lakey enjoyed the other ones .
With Love,
Bram
I ran my fingers over the smudged black ink of his scratchy handwriting and felt my heart squeeze.
He’d made me a pie.
“He made you a pie,” Kallie said as if reading my thoughts. “I guess he knows how much you like pie?”
“Yes,” I simply replied. I met Kallie’s understanding gaze. “I have to text him.”
“Do it. And if you want to go over there, or if you want me to go home?—”
“No,” I said, grabbing her arm. “Not yet. Please stay until Sunday. I…I will text him, but I don’t want to see him until next week.” I needed time to gather courage.
She nodded, although the facial expression she gave me didn’t match her nod.
After going inside, I grabbed my phone and gingerly sat in the comfortable living room recliner. I typed, then erased it all. And retyped again. Erased again.
“Are you kidding me? You’ve been at this for ten minutes! Send something!” I looked up to see Kallie watching me from the kitchen island, knife in hand.
I shifted uncomfortably in the recliner. “I am being cautious. I want it to be perfect.”
She went back to cutting her lime. “Tell him you want to suck his dick.”
“Kallie!”
“What?”
I pursed my lips and looked back at the blank screen again. I was spiraling, worried I would say too much or not enough. What was he expecting? Did he want me to apologize for leaving ?
You miss him. Tell him that.
I swiped the words “Thanks for the pie” on the keyboard and pressed send before I could double- and triple-think it over.
The phone dinged with an immediate response.
“That was quick. What did he say?” Kallie walked toward me with a plate of tacos.
I opened the text.
“It says, ‘You’re welcome.’”
She paused. “That’s it? What did you say?”
“I said, ‘Thanks for the pie,’” I whispered, watching as my best friend’s face went slack.
“What?! You didn’t say, ‘Come over here right now and take me?’”
“No!” I exclaimed, taking the plate she offered me. “Ugh. Things were so kismet between us. And now it feels like everything has shifted. It’s all wrong. It’s…”
“Tainted?” Kallie offered, walking in with her tacos and settling on the couch. “Talk to him. Like a real person, not like a robot.”
I didn’t answer her. I curled up my legs into the recliner, feeling my back stretch uncomfortably, and I winced.
“We did too much today,” Kallie said, mouth full of taco.
“It’s fine, really,” I replied. The ache subsided once I settled. “It’s time for my next round of pills, that’s all. I hope the doctor tells me tomorrow it’s okay for me to drive.”
We ate in silence, and my thoughts ran in circles until I thought I might combust. Clenching my plate of tacos, I’d only picked over, I carefully stood up from my seat.
“I think it’s time to write,” I declared.
I would process and pour every emotion I had into my fantasy world, where the girl accepts the past and looks toward the future. And the guy gets the girl.