Chapter 14
Chapter fourteen
Audrey
Islyly wick the sweat off my brow as Rhett strolls into the lobby, pushing the dolly ahead of me.
His baseball cap sits low on his head, his hair curling up under it, and he takes up a lot of space in the lobby.
Not only because he’s jacked. It’s the way Rhett commands a presence that I can’t quite decipher.
I’m not sure what was making my stomach churn more at the moment; that I would now be returning to my apartment with Rhett in tow—or as Penny referred to him, Red the Prick—or the fact that for the last few days, I have been truly bothered by a girlfriend who never existed.
The made-up girlfriend of a man who wasn’t mine.
I want to dunk my head in cold water and promptly hide inside the utility closet for eternity, but instead I steel my stomach, and trail behind Rhett into the elevator like nothing was wrong. Like my life lately wasn’t a rollercoaster.
“So, getting out of dodge, huh?” he asks as I hit the number six button.
“Come again?”
Rhett chuckles, readjusting his hands on the dolly, my eyes drawn to them. Ten minutes ago, I never wanted to see his face again. Now, watching his hands wrap around the handle, I could barely compose a thought.
“Are you leaving town?” he clarifies, but I shake my head.
“Oh, no. Not yet at least. I’m moving in with my friend temporarily.”
“Penny?”
I tilt my head. “You remember her name?”
“I remember everything,” he remarks, and it sends a tickle down my spine.
The elevator dings and there stands Penny in my doorway, with a strained look on her face as she struggles with an enormous box. As soon as she notices the tall drink of water behind me, she stops wrangling the box and silently mouths what the fuck to me.
Gritting my teeth in warning, I shake my head ever so slightly.
“Look who I ran into outside,” I muse, smiling at them both.
Penny tilts her head, daggers aimed at Rhett. “How convenient. And odd.”
“Rhett offered to help us move some boxes down.” I pointedly give Penny a ceasefire look.
“Wow, how generous of you. What a true gentleman. Helping all women, everywhere—ouch, Audrey!” Pinching her arm, I nudge her back into my apartment, beckoning Rhett to follow.
“We are going to continue taping up some boxes in here, if you want to take the boxes from the hallway down to my car.”
Rhett nods, scanning the inside of my apartment.
“Do you have another moving truck coming?” he asks, and I stop fidgeting, gazing up as he leans to peer down the corridor into the kitchen.
“No, just my SUV. Why?” I bite my lip.
“Your place is pretty big. I just wasn’t sure what all you were taking,” he adds, and I nod.
Because I understand exactly what he is saying and probably know what he is thinking.
This apartment is enormous, and full of stuff.
The built-ins that frame the fireplace are full of decor, gathered treasures from travels, and books.
None of it’s packed. None of it’s coming.
“Actually, I’m only taking what’s already packed up in the living room.”
Rhett nods now, scanning the haphazardly placed row of my belongings lining the living room. I had plans to organize and label everything.
It was extremely unlike me to just throw shit in a box and call it done. Jackson would’ve never allowed us to pack our own stuff to begin with—it was beneath him. And my parents, well, they would be appalled at my ‘careless’ way of living right now, too.
But there wasn’t a roadmap for this period in my life. I’ve never had to start over, and I'm beginning to think maybe this is how it always feels. Like you're flying and drowning all at once. Like you don’t even know who you are.
“Alright then, I’ll just start here.” He smiles, grabbing a few boxes, stacking them on the dolly, and I hand him my car keys.
“Thank you.” I smile as he finally leaves, and the front door clicks behind him.
I turn slowly toward Penny, unable to meet her gaze. Her eyes, wide with a mix of confusion and amusement, say it all.
“So, that’s a turn of events.” I shrug, pushing past her into the living room to assess what’s what. She is hot on my trail. “Are you going to tell me why Red has suddenly shown up to play hero, because I am not fooled and neither should you be. Oh, my god, Aud…is he stalking you?”
I laugh and sit down on the couch, desperately needing to take a load off.
“He was picking up a check from my neighbor, saw me struggling outside with the boxes and offered to help. As much as I want to hate him, no one else is coming to help us, Pen. He kind of saved the day. Like seriously, this would be too much for us and you know it.” We glance around in unison at the overpacked boxes.
She rolls her eyes. “What about the girlfriend?”
“Okay, so embarrassing story. Mabel is not his girlfriend. She’s his dog.”
We both go quiet for a moment before bursting into laughter, Penny's cackling echoing through the apartment.
“I’m mortified for you. But it’s not like you’re dating the man, so it’s fine.” Penny justifies in between bouts of laughter.
“Exactly, I’m not dating him.” I stand and pick up a photo of Jackson and I from a ski trip last winter, examining it. It feels like a lifetime ago. I set it back down on the fireplace mantel, in its rightful place because it’s just baggage from another life. One I want to shed.
“Exactly,” she replies slowly. “It would be scandalous to even kiss him.” A smile creeps up on her face, but I quickly peel my gaze away and walk to the window that overlooks the street.
Gazing out, I have a clear view of Rhett effortlessly loading boxes into my vehicle.
A three-row SUV was completely impractical for just one person, but right now, I’m grateful Jackson convinced me to get it a few months ago.
Penny and I keep moving the last few things into the hallway. I avoid her eyes, and she pinches her lips together tightly.
“Alright, what’s next?” Rhett strides back into the hall a few minutes later, a grin on his face, not even the slightest sign he’s out of breath.
I haven’t been around a lot of men who would happily give up their time to help a stranger. Certainly not my ex, and my father would rather throw money at a problem than solve it in any form himself.
Just another sign that Rhett and I were from different worlds.
“Do you want these?” Penny’s voice pulls me from my trance, and I swallow hard, feeling Rhett’s gaze on me.
Penny balances a box on her hip, pulling out mementos from Jackson and I’s relationship that I kept on a shelf in my closet. A ticket to the theater from our first date, a photo of us in Jamaica on spring break. She narrows her eyes, examining something close.
“Leave it. The whole box.” I glance back into the apartment through the open door.
“We are done here. If we could just grab the last few bags of clothing, that’s it.”
Rhett nods, squatting down to load up the final dolly. Penny doesn’t move, holding my gaze as I fling a dry cleaning bag over my shoulder and smile at her. A reassuring smile. It was as much for her as it was for me.
“You really are leaving everything else?” she asks.
I know it’s preposterous to her, even if she won’t flat out say that.
I packed all my clothes and the few things I wanted.
Most of my cherished items from childhood and college are in storage, and I hadn’t been planning on getting them out until we moved into the big house.
In truth, I was leaving 75 percent of my stuff behind. I had the money to replace it all if I wanted, but that wasn’t the point. I didn’t want to replace it. I didn’t want any of it. I wanted to shed the weight of my past. I didn’t want anything that reminded me of Jackson.
“I’m good. I have what’s important to me,” I shrug.
“It’s your call, babe.”
Rhett was waiting at the elevator, holding the door open as Penny stepped in. Before locking up, I peered into the apartment one more time.
This is the only goodbye I get to control—because Jackson was never going to give me the closure I deserved. But as I walk away, I’m struck by how good it feels, how freeing. Stepping into the elevator isn’t hard like I imagined it would be.
After all, I’m saying goodbye to an illusion.
Outside, Penny and Rhett load the last of the boxes into the SUV, and I shut the doors behind them.
“Would you like me to follow y’all to your place and help you unload?
” Rhett asks, his crystal blue eyes shining under the rim of his old baseball cap.
A sudden knot of fear tightens in my stomach.
What if saying no means this is the end?
Rhett feels like a stranger who’s somehow seen too much, and the thought of cutting him loose now feels more uncomfortable than continuing this… friendship?
“Actually, I roped my neighbors into helping, so you’re off the hook, Red,” Penny chimes in before walking around to the passenger door.
Rhett’s face falls slightly, but he readjusts his baseball cap to hide it.
“You are now free of me.” I slightly bow, awkwardly laughing. “Thank you for everything. I owe you.”
He pauses, his tongue poking out to lick his lip and leans on the car as his eyes bore into me.
“Let me take you to dinner tonight.” His voice is low and husky, and I thought I heard him wrong.
“Oh...” I start, my mind racing to find a reason to say no, but I can’t find one.
There is no logical reason to decline the invitation, even if his question made butterflies storm my stomach.
In a few hours, Penny is going to the airport to fly out for a destination elopement she’s shooting tomorrow, leaving me alone on a Friday night to unpack. Which just sounds sad and lonely.
But dinner with Rhett. That feels like a choice.
Like a major choice.
“It’s only dinner, I promise,” he interjects, like he can read my racing thoughts. So, I nod with an expressionless face.
“Yeah. Okay. Let’s do dinner. A thank you dinner.”
Rhett smirks, chuckling as he pulls out his phone.
“I guess that means I need your number.” He winks at me, and I put my info into his phone, parting ways as quickly as I can. Which also means glancing back to see him strut away to his truck.
And look way too good doing it.
“Say nothing,” I blurt out, sliding into the driver's seat as Penny swivels dramatically towards me, her mouth wide open.
“Audrey Elson, did you just agree to a date with Red?”
“It’s dinner. It’s simply a ‘thank you’ dinner.” I calmly pull out of the parking spot with my fingers tightly gripped around the leather steering wheel.
Penny taps her nails on the dashboard. “So, let me get this straight. He is taking you out to dinner...to thank you…for…”
I grow flustered, my words jumbling in my mouth. “I don’t know...he…we...it’s just dinner and...”
“You like him.”
The words hang in the air between us as we wait at the red light. Rolling my eyes, I try to settle the butterflies in my stomach.
“He probably pities me. I’m sure dinner is a formality. It probably feels like the proper thing to do for him.”
Penny snorts. “Yeah, okay. Honey, I don’t think that man cares about formalities. I think he sees a gorgeous single woman who he keeps running into and he wants to see where this goes.”
“Well, joke’s on him then, because I am not ready for a boyfriend. My life is a freaking mess right now. I barely know right from left.”
“Who said anything about a boyfriend? It could just be a casual fling. A summer fling!” My best friend claps like she just thought of the cleverest idea.
Chewing my lip, we turn down the next street, and it occurs to me I still need to tell Penny about the job offer and transfer to New York.
Now isn’t the right time though.
“That’s it. I’m canceling it. I don’t know what I was thinking. I cannot go on a date with him!” My palms grow sweaty on the steering wheel, and I want someone to shake some sense into me.
“Aud, listen to me.” I park the car into front of Penny’s apartment and put on the hazards, leaning my forehead on the steering wheel, overwhelm sinking into me with its deep talons.
“Don’t overthink this. You like him, yeah?”
The car feels like it’s spinning.
“He is a nice guy, I guess,” I mumble into the steering wheel.
“Then go to dinner. The worst that can happen is you have a really good meal and don’t spend tonight alone.”
“And the worst is…”
“The worst is you end up making out with him.”
I peek out from under my hands at Pen and we both laugh.
It’s only dinner. And Penny’s right. It beats being alone tonight.