by Blake, Penny
The pain comes in waves, dark and furious. Three times I have to pull over to sob uncontrollably before finally reaching home.
When I step out of the car, another wave of grief hits me and I almost sink to my knees. Instead, I brace myself against the car, wracked with sobs before finally rushing toward my apartment where I can cry in private.
And that’s when I run smack into Drew standing at my apartment door.
Chapter 25
Lifeline
Drew doesn’t say a word, just wraps his arms around me and rubs my back in gentle circles while I sob against his chest. I hug him as hard as I can and cry and cry and cry. It’s amazing how much pain I have inside me. I cling to him like a lifeline.
I don’t say a word about what happened. I physically don’t have it in me to speak. But he just seems to know.
He picks me up in his arms and carries me into the apartment. Then into my bedroom, where he lays me on the bed and holds me.
Lying together like two spoons, he strokes my hair until I fell asleep in his arms.
***
The next morning, Drew makes me a plate of bacon and puts on the most ridiculous movies he can find. I spend the day on the couch watching Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot, Sharknado, I Know Who Killed Me, Valley Girl and Step Brothers. At one point, I even find myself laughing when Will Ferrell rubs his balls on John C. Reilly’s beloved drum set, something I never thought I’d do again (laughing, not rubbing someone’s balls on a drum set).
Drew never asks what happened with Rio and I still don’t feel like talking about it. I just rest my head on his shoulder while we sit on the couch watching terrible movies together. When Step Brothers is over, I look up at him and say, “Thanks for not telling me I told you so.”
He responds by holding up a fist, and I give it a bump. Then he puts on Serial Mom and orders a pizza with mushrooms and extra cheese, my favorite.
As the day wears on and I’m on the verge of falling into a junk food coma, I thank Drew for staying with me.
“You can go home anytime you want,” I say. “I’m sure you have stuff to do, and I’m not going to kill myself or anything. Thanks to you…and Will Ferrell’s balls. Do you think those were his actual balls?”
“Doubt it,” he says, picking a stray mushroom off my comforter and setting it aside. “It was probably a prosthetic. I don’t think he’d show his real balls for a movie.”
“Huh. That would be a weird job, making prosthetic balls.”
“Yeah,” Drew says half heartedly, then, “Ember, can I ask you something?”
“Sure, what?”
“Where the hell is your sister?”
To be continued…
Ember’s story concludes in
YOU WERE HERE ALL ALONG
Coming soon!
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Penny Blake is a kindergarten teacher by day and an avid romance reader and writer by night. In her spare time, she teaches yoga to the visually impaired and attempts to master her recipe for the world’s best German Chocolate cake. She lives in the country with her fiancé and rescue dog, Mino.