36. Millie
CHAPTER 36
Millie
Will
I need you
I’m on my way
I finish with the customer that I’m working with and put a ‘brB’ sign on the door, making sure to switch the sign to closed and lock both the back and front doors. I wrestle my jacket on, loop my scarf around my neck, and speed walk to Carter Records.
I’m surprised Rob is working behind the counter when I get to the store.
“Oh, Millie, hi. Need a new record?” he asks, coming from behind the counter to greet me. He walks over to the new releases. “We have some new indie records that you might like.”
“Hi, Rob. I’m here to see Will.” I beam, hoping that he won’t try to wrangle me into a conversation.
“He’s in the back checking some inventory, I believe. Feel free to walk back.”
“Thank you!”
He goes back to flipping through some records, and I’m trying to walk with a pace that some might consider a speed walk. When I reach the back, I don’t find Will.
I’m about to text him when a door opens to my right, and I see Will slumped over a box.
Will looks to meet my gaze, his eyes bloodshot and puffy. His hair looks like it’s been through a wind storm, going in every direction. I rush over to him and put my arms around his neck. He responds by standing, hugging me back, and closing the closet door so we are both inside. I’m assuming he doesn’t want his grandpa to see the state that he’s in, as I’m sure something happened this morning to make him this upset.
He sobs into my shoulder, and I stay quiet, rubbing circles on his back to provide the small relief that I can. When he loosens his arms and his breaths become more even, I pull away enough to let me grab his face. I press a kiss to his forehead, then rest mine against his.
“Thank you,” he whispers.
I don’t need to say anything to him because being here is enough. Showing him that I care is enough. If he wants to talk about it, he will do so later, not when he has to be in a presentable manner before his grandpa meets Kristie for the first time.
Will takes a big sigh and slumps on the box. I let him go and move to sit next to him.
“Stuck in a closet together again,” I say, trying to joke.
Will chuckles and says, “Except this time you don’t hate my guts.”
“I never hated your guts, I was upset. There’s a difference.”
“Okay.” He chuckles again. “Thank you for coming, I know you didn’t have help in the store this morning. “
I press a hand to his cheek, and he leans into it. “For you? I’d close the store for an entire day. You’re important. And it helps that you’re a short walk from the front door of the shop.”
“True. Grandpa didn’t have a great morning. He was working when I got here, but he had a memory lapse. It’s all happening so fast.”
“No one prepares you for this,” I say earnestly.
“Nope.” Will rubs his eyes. “They don’t, but it’s going to be okay. I needed a moment and honestly, seeing you again reminded me that I have so much good in my life.”
“It’s okay to be upset though, to be mad at what’s happening.”
“I know,” Will says and grips my knee. “I do.”
“Do you want a hug?” I ask.
He looks at me with a sly smile. “I always want a hug from you, Rose.”
Will reaches over and grabs at my waist, pulling me to straddle him.
“Can this box hold both of us?” I say, trying to find a place on the ground to place my feet. My head swivels side to side making sure the box isn’t going to crumble to the floor.
“It’ll be fine, I promise. It’s sturdy.”
I’m not sure I believe him, but I’m not going to argue. If it does break, he’d be the one to catch my fall anyway.
“Don’t you have to get back out there?” I ask, twisting my head to peer toward the front.
“There’s something else I need to do first,” Will says.
I whip my head back toward him and say, “Wha?—”
But his lips are on mine, his hands on either side of my head, stabilizing me from the sudden kiss. It doesn’t take long for me to relax into his arms, as this is something I’ve gotten used to. The feeling of him wrapped around me is comfortable, it feels like home.
I’ve always loved kissing Will, even looked forward to it whenever I heard from Jeremy he was coming home, but I never let myself daydream about what would happen after. I never wanted to hold out hope that one day we might talk about our feelings because there was still distance between us. He had his life in the city. I had my life in Willow Pines .
But now? With him staying in town? I can daydream away.
I can envision what we will be doing this summer.
If we should go on a vacation.
Or plan hikes for when the weather gets nicer.
I can also picture him moving in with me in a few short weeks and how I’ll be able to do this all the time.
Visions of us in different stages of life swirl around my head the more we kiss, and I find myself holding on to him tighter, not wanting to let him go.
“Millie,” Will rasps against my lips.
I kiss him again.
“Millie, you need to stop, otherwise I will fuck you in this closet. Do you want people to catch us here? The wall isn’t sound proof.”
I bite my lip and shake my head, realizing I was slowly grinding on him for most of the few minutes, likely causing fantasies of his own.
“I didn’t think so,” Will says with a chuckle. “Okay, well, you’ve helped my mood tremendously. Are my eyes still red?”
“Well, it’s not the best lighting in here," I say, leaning back a few inches to get a better view of his face. “They appear okay. If anything, you’ve been rubbing your eyes because you’re tired. That’s plausible.”
“That’s true.” He grips my hips once and I take it as a sign to stand.
I reach my hand out for him.
“You going to go back to work?” Will asks as we exit the closet.
When I peer around another stack of boxes to the front of the record shop, Rob is still standing there at the register, having no clue what’s going on back here.
“Yeah, I have to prepare a little for a wedding this weekend. Kristie and Mom will be helping with the setup, but I have some work I can get done to make it easier for all of us.”
Will smiles .
“What?” I ask.
“Nothing. It’s nice to see you accepting help and not having to do everything the morning of.”
“It is nice.” I stand on my tip-toes to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Text me if you need anything else, okay? And I’ll come right back.”
“I will.”
“Good luck with today. Are we still on for dinner later?”
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
“Great.”
He doesn’t let me leave without pulling me in for one more kiss, and even though I find it hard to tear myself away from him, I manage. Being with him brings me back to how I felt at twenty-one when we kissed for the first time.
I had a crush on him for a long time, and although we flirted from time to time, it never was more than that. It was Will, my brother’s best friend. There were years that he was as much my friend as he was Jeremy’s, but it was different between us.
And it wasn’t only the extra jokes or saving me the last cookie but the conversations we had when no one else was around. The secrets I’d rush to tell him first before any of the girls. He knew, or rather knows, more about me than anyone, and I’m thinking that if I could tell my twenty-one year old self one thing, it would be to hold out hope. Things will happen eventually, and when they do, you’ll feel magical.