She nodded. “I know without a doubt in my mind. That’s her. When Jamie and Charlie came out of surgery, I didn’t know what to do, who to check on first…so she sat with Jamie while I sat beside Charlie.” She looked at me with confusion in her stare. “Why do you have a picture with her?”
I took the picture back from Dad and stared at a smiling Elizabeth, trying to get a grip on what was happening. She stayed by Jamie’s side. “I don’t know.”
40
Elizabeth
Goodbye.
“No,” I whispered, standing in the waiting room as a doctor stood in front of me.
“I’m so sorry. He didn’t make it out of surgery. We did everything we could to stop the bleeding, but we were unable to…” His lips kept moving, but I couldn’t hear him anymore. My world had just been stolen from me, and my legs gave out as I lowered myself to sit in the closest chair.
“No,” I murmured again, covering my face with the palms of my hands.
How could he be gone so fast? How could he leave me here alone?
Steven, no…
Before the surgery, I held his hand. I told him I loved him. I kissed him one last time.
How could you be gone?
The doctor walked away after telling me how sorry he was, but I didn’t care. Kathy and Lincoln showed up a few moments later, and their hearts shattered right along with mine. We stayed at the hospital for the longest time, until Lincoln said we had to leave, we had to start planning.
“I’ll meet you back at your house,” I said. “God. Emma’s at Faye’s house. Do you think you can pick her up?”
“Where are you going?” Kathy asked me.
“I’m just going to stay here for a little longer.”
She frowned. “Honey.”
“No, really, I’m fine. I’ll be over soon. Can you just…can you wait to tell her?”
Kathy and Lincoln agreed.
I stayed for hours in that waiting room, unsure what I was waiting for. It seemed that everyone in the waiting room was doing exactly that: waiting for an answer, waiting for a prayer, waiting for hope.
In the corner was an older woman crying her eyes out, completely alone, and I couldn’t help but feel drawn to her. Her body was bruised, battered, as if she had just walked away from an ungodly event. Yet the pain in her stormy blue eyes was what haunted me the most. I shouldn’t have stepped into her world of waiting, but I did. I held her, and she didn’t push me away. I held her, and we fell apart together.
After some time, a nurse informed the woman that her grandson and her daughter-in-law were both out of surgery, but in critical condition. “You can see them. You can sit in their rooms, but they won’t be responsive. Just so you know. But you can hold their hands.”
“How do I…” her voice shook and tears fell. “How do I choose who to see first? How do I…?”
“I’ll sit with one of them until you can,” I offered. “I’ll hold their hand.”
She sent me to sit with her daughter-in-law. When I entered the room, a chill raced through me. The poor woman was drained of all of her color. She was almost a living ghost. I pulled up a chair beside her and took her hand into mine.
“Hi,” I whispered. “This is weird and I’m not even sure what to say. But, well, I’m Elizabeth. I met your mother-in-law and she’s super worried about you. So I need you to fight. She said your husband is on his way back from a trip, worried sick. So I need you to just keep fighting. I know it has to be hard, but keep going.” Tears fell from my eyes as I stared at the stranger who seemed so familiar to my heart. I thought about how broken I would’ve been if I didn’t get to at least hold Steven’s hand before he passed away. “Your husband is going to need you to be strong.” I leaned close to her ear and whispered, hoping my words would find her soul. “We have to make sure your husband’s okay. We have to make sure he gets to hold you. We have to make sure he can say he loves you. You can’t let go yet. Keep. Fighting.”
I felt her fingers squeeze against mine, and my stare moved to our hands.
“Ma’am?” a voice said. I turned to the door to see a nurse staring my way. “Are you family?”
“No. I just…”
“I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
I nodded once.
And I let go of her hand.
“He keeps leaving these Post-It notes.” I sighed, sitting on the seesaw with Faye as Emma played on the monkey bars and went down the slide. “Every now and then I find a Post-It on my window, and I just don’t know what to think about the messages. He says he still loves me and wants me, but then…nothing. I don’t know what to think.”
“He’s playing mind games, and that’s not cool. I just don’t understand why he would do some crap like that to you. Do you think he’s just being rude? Like, getting back at you for not telling him about the accident?”
“No.” I shook my head. “He wouldn’t do that.”
“It’s been months, Liz. He hasn’t called once. He hasn’t reached out except for some random pieces of paper every now and then. That’s not normal.”
“There never was anything normal about Tristan and me.”
She pushed the seesaw down and looked up at me. “Maybe it’s time to find a new normal, then. You deserve a normal life.”
I didn’t reply, but thought maybe she was right.
I just wished the Post-Its didn’t bring me so much comfort that he might come back to me one day.
I just need time to figure things out. I’ll be back soon. I love you. –TC
Wait for me. –TC
Everyone was wrong about us. Just please wait for me. –TC
“You have purple stuff on your lips, Sam,” I said as I walked into the café for my shift. He was quick to run his hands over his mouth as I watched his cheeks redden. For the past few weeks, Matty had started tossing Sam into the kitchen for the lunch service to learn to cook the café’s menu. He seemed so happy finally doing something he loved, and it turned out he was pretty amazing at it.
“Thanks,” he said, lifting up a stack of plates to take back to the dish room. As he walked through the door, Faye walked out, and they did an awkward tango of who-gets-to-step-out-of-the-way-first.
When Faye saw me, she shouted my way, greeting me. I smirked. “Nice purple lipstick you have on, friend.”
She smiled. “Thanks! I just bought it.”
“I swear I’ve seen it before.”
“Nope.” She shook her head. “I just got it last night.”
“No, I mean, I think I’ve seen it like, five seconds ago on Sam’s lips.”
Her face flushed, and she twiddled her fingers together, rushing over to me. “Oh my gosh, shit! Creepy Sam wears the same lipstick as me? I need to find myself a new color.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “You’re so full of crap. So tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“Your nickname for his you-know-what.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh my gosh, Liz. We are almost thirty. Do you think we can not act like five-year-olds for one day?” The seriousness in her voice as she walked over to the counter to get a customer a cheese Danish made me wonder if she was truly growing up—until she shouted across the room, “Supersized Sam!”
I burst out laughing. “And to think, these past few months you convinced me that Sam was a creep.”
“Oh, he is. He’s a total creep. Like, he did this really creepy thing last night,” she explained, pulling out a chair at an empty table and sitting. I was still completely confused how she managed to keep her job at that place.
“What did he do?” I asked, sitting across from her. If you can’t beat them, join them.
“Well, for starters, he’s always asking me how I’m doing, which is just weird. It’s almost as if he wants to know about me.”
“Dude. Okay, that’s totally weirdo territory,” I mocked.
“Right! And then! Last night, he came over to my place, and I asked him which room he wanted to
bang in, and he was all like, ‘No, I want to take you out somewhere fancy.’ Like, what? And then after dinner and drinks, he walked me up to my porch, kissed my cheek, and said he would love to take me out some other time! He didn’t even try to meet my vagina last night.”
“WHAT A CREEP!”
“I KNOW!” She paused, glancing back at the kitchen where Sam was getting started on the griddle. A tiny smile played on her lips before she turned back to me. “He’s not that creepy, I guess.”
“No, I guess not. I’m so happy he gets to work in the kitchen too. I remember him telling me how much he wanted to do that.”
“Yeah, plus, he’s just freaking amazing in there.”
“I’m surprised Matty let him cook.”
She shrugged. “He kind of had to. I blackmailed him by threatening to send the video of him dancing naked to the Spice Girls to everyone who works here unless he gave Sam a chance.”
“You’re a terrible person, Faye.” I pushed myself up from my chair and went to head back to work. “But a really great friend.”
“It’s that Scorpio in me. I love you until you do something to piss me off. Then I turn into your personal Satan.”
I laughed.
“Oh crap,” Faye shouted, leaping out of her seat, placing her hands on my shoulders, and rotating me around from facing the front windows. “Okay. Don’t panic.”
“About what?”
“Well, remember when your husband died and you disappeared for a year and then came back, but were super depressed and you started banging an asshole who turned out to not be an asshole but just a dude who was hurt because his wife and son died? And then you two like kind of fell into a weird sexlationship where you pretended you were both someone else but then one day you were like, ‘But I want you to be you and me to be me,’ so you fell in love. And then you found out that your husband was involved in his family’s deaths, and then shit got weird and the dude left town, but for some reason thought it was okay to keep leaving you Post-It notes that just left you even more confused and hurt and totally, ‘Oh my gosh, it feels like I’m PMSing for four weeks out of every month and I can’t even eat any more ice cream because my hot tears melt it every time I cry into the Ben and Jerry’s.’ Do you remember all of that?”
I blinked repeatedly. “Yes, I believe that sounds familiar. Thank you for the trip down memory lane.”
“You’re welcome. Well, okay, don’t freak out, but here’s the thing. That dude you fell in love with? He’s across the street in the voodoo shop.”
My body shot around, and I saw Tristan standing in the store with Mr. Henson. My heart skyrocketed from my chest to my throat, and I could feel my body tingling with nerves.
Tristan.
“You’re freaking out,” she said.
I shook my head. “I’m not.”
“You’re freaking out,” she repeated.
I nodded. “I am.” My voice trembled. “What is he doing here?”
“I think you should go find out,” Faye said. “You deserve an answer for all of those damn Post-It notes.”
She was right. I needed to know. I needed closure. I needed to move on by letting go of any hope that he would someday come back for me—because I was definitely still waiting.
“Matty, Liz is taking a lunch break,” Faye shouted.
“She just got here! And it’s breakfast time!” he replied.
“Fine. She’s taking a breakfast break.”
“No way. She’s working her whole shift.” Faye started humming “Spice Up Your Life” by the Spice Girls, and Matty’s face turned beet red. “Take all the time you need, Liz.”
41
Tristan
I pulled up to Mr. Henson’s shop and hurried inside. He’d called me the day before and had sounded very distressed, telling me the shop was closing due to issues with the town asshole. I knew Tanner had something to do with it, and I knew Mr. Henson was probably falling apart. I had to check on him to see how I could help—after all, he had been one of the first to be there for me when I was completely lost.
When I walked into Needful Things, my eyes widened when I saw Mr. Henson packing up the store. It was as if everything magical about the place was gone. All the shelves emptied. All the mysterious items boxed away.
“What the heck is going on?” I said, moving toward Mr. Henson.
“Tanner is getting his wish. I’m closing down shop.”
“What? I thought you called me here to try to figure this out.” My fingers ran though my hair. “You can’t close up shop. Did he do this at the town hall meeting? He can’t do this!”
“It doesn’t matter, Tristan. I already sold the shop.”
“To who? I’ll get it back. Whatever it takes. Who did you sell it to?”
“The town asshole.”
“Tanner can’t have this shop. You can’t let him win.”
“I wasn’t talking about Tanner.”
“Then who were you talking about?”
He turned my way and took my hand, placing a set of keys in my grasp. “You.”
“What?”
“It’s yours, every inch, every square,” Mr. Henson sang.
“What are you talking about?”
“Well,” he said, sitting on top of one of the boxes. “I’ve lived my dream. I’ve seen the magic this place can create. Now it’s time I give it to someone else who needs a little magic in their life. Someone who needs a little dreaming.”
“I’m not taking your shop.”
“Oh, but see, that’s the beauty in all of it. You are taking it. It’s already yours. I set up all of the paperwork. All you have to do is cross a few t’s and dot a few i’s.”
“What would I even do with it?” I asked.
“You have a dream, Tristan. The furniture that your father and you create would get a ton more people into this space than my old crystals ever did. Don’t let anyone ever kill your dreams, my boy.” He pushed himself up from his box, moved over to the counter, and picked up his hat. Placing it on his head, he began walking toward the front door.
“What about you? What are you going to do?” I asked, watching him open the front door, sounding the bell overhead.
“As for me, well, I’m going to go find a new dream, because you’re never too old to dream a little dream, to discover a little magic. I hear there are rumors going around that the town might need some repairs, and I have a few dollars lying around. We’ll chat through the details later on, but for now, I’ll be seeing you.” He winked, walking out the door.
I moved to the store door and opened it fast, glancing in the direction Mr. Henson had disappeared in.
My mind started to wonder if he was some kind of weird hallucination, but when I looked down at the keys in my hands, I knew he was real.
“What are you doing here?”
I turned around to see Elizabeth standing behind me, her arms crossed. “Lizzie,” I muttered, almost stunned to see her standing so close. “Hi.”
“Hi?” She huffed, barging into the store. I followed her inside. “Hi?!” she shouted. “You disappear for months, not giving me a chance to explain myself, and then randomly show up in town, and all you can say is ‘hi’? You’re a…you’re a…a DICK!”
“Lizzie,” I said with narrowed eyes, stepping toward her. She stepped back.
“No. Don’t come near me.”
“Why not?”
“Because whenever you’re near me, I can’t think straight, and I need to think straight right now to say what I need to say.” She stopped talking and took a moment to look around the store. “Oh my gosh. Where is everything? Why is it all boxed away?”
I placed my thumb between my teeth and studied her features. Her hair was longer, lighter too. She was makeup free, and her eyes still had the ability to make me fall in love with her. “You stayed with her.”
“What?” she asked with her back leaning against the counter.
I walked closer to her, boxing her in as my hands r
ested against the countertop. “You stayed with Jamie.”
Her breathing pattern became uneven, and she stared at my lips as I stared at hers. “Tristan, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The day of the accident, my mom was in the waiting room by herself because Dad and I were still flying back from Detroit. You saw her, and you held her.”
“That was your mom?” she asked, her eyes narrowed.
I nodded. “And she said when Jamie and Charlie were out of surgery, you sat with Jamie. You held her hand.” My lips hovered over hers, and I could feel the small exhales leaving her mouth. “What happened when you went into that room with Jamie?”
Her voice shook, and she blinked a few times before tilting her head back slightly to meet my stare. “I sat down beside her bed, held her hand, and told her she wasn’t alone.” My fingers rubbed against my forehead, taking in her words. “She wasn’t in pain, Tristan. When she passed away, the doctors said there wasn’t any pain.”
“Thank you,” I said. I needed to know that.
My left hand moved to her lower back, and I pulled her closer to me. “Tristan, don’t.”
“Tell me not to kiss you,” I begged. “Tell me not to do it.”
She didn’t say a word, but her body shook in mine. My lips brushed against hers and I kissed her hard and deep, apologizing for everything I’d done, every mistake I’d made. When our mouths pulled away, she kept shaking against my hold.
“I love you,” I said.
“No. You don’t.”
“I do.”
“You left me!” she cried, yanking herself away from me. She crossed the room, ran her hands against her lips, and stood strong. “You left me without giving me a chance to explain.”
“I didn’t know how to handle everything that was happening. Jesus, Lizzie. Everything in the past months happened so fast.”
“Don’t you think I know that? I was living the same nightmares as you, but I wanted to explain to you what happened. I wanted to make it work.”
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