He touches my elbow again. “Abby.”
I shake my head, shuddering with the effort of not wanting to speak. I push through it, deciding that I want to trust him. I look up and manage two words. “I’m lost.”
Eric shakes his head. “No, you’re not. You’re right here. I see you.” There’s a smile in his voice.
My throat starts to close up, my tongue swelling.
Eric reaches for my hand, his skin warm like the underside of a puppy’s belly.
“You’re okay, Abby. You’re alive. You’re breathing.” A gust of wind blows a thick lock of hair into my face and he moves it away with his free hand. The gesture is so gentle I feel like weeping. “You’re okay.”
He says it with such conviction, but I don’t know who he’s trying to convince. I don’t know what to do with my hand so I pull it out of his grasp and stick both of them into my pockets. “I’m sorry if I ruined your night.”
Eric laughs. “You didn’t. People around here love a little drama.”
I look up at the balcony. Luna is up there, looking down at us, her shoulders sparkling in the light from the balcony. She doesn’t look very happy.
“Hey, um...I’ve been thinking about this,” Eric says. “There’s actually someone I want you to meet. Would you go with me?”
I frown. “Right now?”
“No. Tomorrow, maybe. We could stay for the weekend, and not think about things. It’s quiet there. I think it might be good for both of us.
I run my fingers over my eyes, suddenly exhausted. “I’m really tired, Eric. I don’t know.”
“You don’t have to make your decision right away,” he says.
I breathe.
“Let me grab my things and I’ll take you home.”
Eric runs back inside, and I wait under the amber streetlights as he says goodbye. I feel bad for making him leave, but my body is protesting fiercely.
We drive back in silence, much like the previous night when he’d taken me back to the motel. I keep replaying the night over in my head, wishing I’d done things differently. I would have said goodbye to Grace and wished her a safe trip. I sure as hell would not have called Benjamin because it resulted in me promising him to call back and I know that there will only be more questions.
Back at the apartment, we step inside wordlessly, Eric moving around me like smoke, circling in my lungs and settling in my hair. He starts to speak to me, but my head is so heavy I can barely keep track of his words. They stick in my head, rattling behind my eye sockets. I slump onto the couch, not bothering to pull out the bed. Eric makes me a cup of tea and sits with me on the couch for a long time, talking about things that don’t make sense to me at this point, like planets and pine trees and warm feet.
I finish my tea and rest against his arm. I can hear his heart beating in the ball of his shoulder. Some time passes, I don’t know how much, and Eric gets up from the couch.
“I’ll talk to you in the morning, okay?”
I nod, too tired to speak.
He walks to his bedroom, the spot where he’d been sitting cooling next to me.
“Abernathy?” Eric says. I like the sound of my name being spoken in full and look up to meet his eye. “What you said earlier, when we were on the balcony.” I’d said a lot of things, but wait for him to clarify. “You are not alone.”
His words cross the room toward me and hug me hard. My eyes spring full of tears.
“And for what it’s worth, I think you’re kind of beautiful too.”
Chapter Six
I am awoken the next morning, still fully dressed, by the chirping of Eric’s cell phone on the coffee table. It’s Thursday morning, just past eleven o’clock when I check the digits on the screen of the phone. The apartment is quiet except for the noise wafting through the perpetually open windows, and I am alone.
My mouth tastes awful, and I desperately need to pee. I walk to the bathroom, still half asleep, and am surprised to see that Eric is still in bed, one leg sneaking out from under the covers. His face is hidden by his pillows, but I can hear him snoring softly in the recesses of his bed. He’s shirtless, but I can only make out his bare shoulders from where I stand.
I have no idea if he’s supposed to be at work – at either of his jobs – but I don’t want to wake him. We had stayed up late last night and he’d come from work looking tired so I feel that I should let him sleep.
I brush my teeth and wash my face as silently and quickly as I can and tiptoe out of the bedroom, pulling the door closed behind me. It’s already hot in the apartment, so I carefully dress in denim shorts and a yellow tank top, using extra deodorant since I still haven’t showered.
It’s my intention to make coffee, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how the coffee machine works, so after considering my options I scribble Eric a note and stick it to the window above the sink.
I pocket some money and exit the apartment as quietly as I can to face the day. Outside, I can smell the ocean and the sun warms my shoulders and the back of my neck as I walk. I don’t exactly know where I’m going. I pass several houses and another apartment complex. Cars line the streets in intervals. Palm trees rise up to kiss the sky, and I am so enthralled by them for a moment I forget to take note of where I’m going, in case I get lost and can’t find my way back. I pause to get my bearings again and walk further until I reach a small cafe on the end of the block that sells coffee and breakfast.
The door dings above my head when I enter. The dining area is full, the booths and tables occupied by locals getting their coffee fix. There is a short line near the to-go counter so I step behind a thirty-something woman with stark dark hair typing furiously into her cell phone. Waitresses scoot past us to attend to their tables, and orders are rung up as I wait in line. The cafe is buzzing with activity and I feel – for someone who has just woken up – suddenly electrified. The line moves quickly. I peek over the counter to see what is on offer. There are croissants that look buttery and delicious, and breakfast bars that are flecked with fruit and an assortment of nuts. There are bagels and scones between which I cannot decide. I am still glaring at the display when I reach the front of the line.
“What can I get you, hon?” The clerk behind the counter smiles at me. She is in her late forties, maybe and has bright blue eyes rimmed with heavy eyeliner. I order two black coffees, large, and a few glazed donuts for Eric, a croissant for myself. I pay and tell the waitress to keep the change. My order is ready in less than three minutes. I count the palm trees as I walk back to the apartment.
My coffee is lukewarm and halfway finished when I get back. I cross the street toward the complex, and see Eric sitting on the front stairs, head in his hands. He is dressed in sweatpants and running shoes, and a baggy T-shirt. His cell phone is on the steps beside him.
He doesn’t hear me approach.
“Morning,” I greet.
Eric’s head snaps up, and his eyes get big when he sees me. “Abby!”
“Hi.”
“Where the hell did you go?”
I hold out the food to him, gesturing for him to take his coffee. “I tried to make coffee but your machine had it in for me, so I thought I’d find some around here.”
Eric looks enormously relieved. “Why didn’t you tell me where you were going?” His voice is a little high.
I sit down next to him, feeling strange about his demeanour. “I left you a note on the window.”
He gestures wildly. “What window? I didn’t find a note!”
“In hindsight, I probably should have left it on the fridge or something like that. I’m sorry. What’s the big deal?”
“I called the police.”
I gape at him. “You what?”
“I thought you were gone. I woke up and you were nowhere to be found.”
“And your first reaction was to call the police? I was gone for fifteen minutes.”
“You were upset last night. I didn’t know what you were thinking. I thought you m
ight do something.”
He was worried about me. He’d woken up and found me gone and I’d left a note but hadn’t thought about what would happen if he didn’t find it. I feel my face go red.
“What did the police say?”
Eric laughs, which makes me feel better. He drinks from his cup, resting an elbow on a knee. “They said I should call back and report you missing after you’ve been gone for longer than ‘maybe an hour’.” He looks at me, pressing his lips together. A shallow dimple materializes in his left cheek. “I didn’t tell them everything.”
We look at each other for a few moments, until I get shy and look out across the street. Eric thanks me for the coffee, but notes that it isn’t very good. I punch him softly on his knee, then share my croissant with him after he mentions that he prefers not to eat so much sugar too early in the day.
“Don’t you have work today?” I ask, draining the last of my coffee.
Eric shakes his head. “I got someone to cover my shift at the coffee shop. I feel shitty after last night.”
I replay the events that took place after we got back: Eric sitting with me until late, him calling me beautiful. I smile at the memory, trying to hide it from him.
“I need to go to the marina, though.”
“What’s there?”
“Apart from boats?” Eric asks, chuckling. “There’s this guy I work with at the aquarium.”
“You work at an aquarium?”
“Some days. I do computer installations and wireless network setups and stuff like that.”
“So you’re a techie?”
“I guess,” Eric says, with a nod. “Anyway, Charlie’s setting up this huge 3D screening room in his house. I’ve been helping him run routers and data ports throughout his lower level for the past two weeks or so. He wants to discuss something me with.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Between our bodies, Eric’s phone vibrates against the steps. He picks it up and hits the decline button, fake throwing it across the street.
“What’s all that about?”
Eric sighs. “It’s Luna. She’s been calling me all morning.”
“What for?”
He shrugs. “She wants to meet up with me to talk. She’s driving me insane.”
I stretch my legs out onto the steps below me. “Maybe you should just hear her out. Give her a chance to say what she wants.”
“I already know what she wants to say. It’s the same thing she’s been saying for months. ‘I’m sorry’.”
I consider this. “Maybe she is sorry.”
Eric looks at me, squinting through the brightness of the day.
“Maybe she realizes that she made a mistake. Maybe she didn’t know what she had until she lost you.”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
“No,” I say. “You told me you were prepared to marry this girl. Perhaps she’s discovered that you are her great love too.”
Eric scowls. “Abby, she ruined us.”
I nod. “I know, but everyone deserves a second chance.”
Eric stares at me, his eyes searching my face. I can’t tell what he’s thinking. I don’t know why I’m sticking up for Luna. She did an awful thing and had clearly hurt Eric, a man I am starting to care a lot about, but I once heard a song lyric that has always stuck with me: if it weren’t for second chances, we would all be alone.
“What about you, then?”
“I’m sorry?”
Eric turns his body to me, so that he’s facing me directly. “Don’t you think you deserve a second chance?”
I feel my chest start to tighten.
“I mean, you came all this way just so you could end it at all. Where’s your second chance?”
“I don’t want to talk about me right now.”
Eric stands. “I think we should.”
I rise to meet him. “Nope. Don’t want to.”
“Abby...” Eric says as I start to move into the building.
“Can we not do this right now?” My voice echoes through the empty lobby. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
Eric checks his phone. “Shit. You’re right. I’m going to be late.” We walk up the flight of stairs to get back to the second floor. “But we’re not done talking about this. In fact, I think you should come with me.”
“Or I could just stay here.”
“Yeah, right. After what I just went through,” Eric says, leading us into the apartment, cool air causing goose bumps to form on my arms. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
*
“Change of plans,” Eric says when he emerges from his room, dressed in blue jeans, a white tee and sneakers. “Charlie wants us to meet him at his house in ten minutes, which for him means half an hour.”
I slip on a cardigan over my tank top. “So we’re not going to see the boats?”
“Why? Did you want to?”
“Not particularly. Maybe just the water.”
Eric smirks at me. “I know that you’re not from here, but you realise that I live five minutes away from the beach, right? We can go anytime you want.”
I smile at him. “Okay.”
“Not right now, of course.”
“Of course.”
Eric drives to Playa Del Rey, a beachside community that reminds me of a place back home where my sister used to live. The houses are large and stand majestic by the water. Eric’s apartment pales in comparison to the mansions we pass. I wonder if the people who live here live better lives just because they see the ocean when they wake up.
We idle in front of the entrance to the driveway while Eric keys in a password into the automated gates. They roll open to reveal a large modern home with big windows and a massive expanse of front lawn.
“Is this guy some sort of billionaire or something?” I ask, as we pull up in front of the garage.
“Millionaire,” Eric says, chuckling. “I’m not big on the details, but Charlie invented something a few years ago that gets used in aquariums all over the world. Something that aids with the filtration or irrigation of the tanks or something like that.” Eric shrugs. “He’s an alright dude. Very down to earth.”
I nod, looking around. “Are we just supposed to wait here until he shows up?”
“Why would we do that if we have a key?” Eric asks, and pulls a key to the house from his pocket.
“I’m sorry. He gave you a key to his house?”
“Of course,” Eric says, and pushes the front door open. “He also gave me his security code. What can I say? He trusts me. I spend a lot of time here.”
Eric punches the alarm code into the key pad by the door once we’re inside, and the security system gives off a satisfactory beep without any hassle.
The house is a masterpiece. The walls are endless, reaching up to ceilings so high that I have to crane my neck to look all the way up. The inside of the house is washed in light streaming in through the massive windows. Sculptures taller than me greet us in the foyer, lifelike and regal. I am prepared to see more, but Eric doesn’t give me time to marvel. He leads me through the house, our footsteps echoing as we walk through the rooms.
“So what is it that you do for him exactly?” I say, trying to take in as much as I can as we go.
“The one thing you should know about Charlie is that he’s obsessed with the sky. He’s an amateur astronomer.”
“He’s a what-now?”
“An amateur astronomer,” Eric repeats as we walk through the kitchen. Everything is streamlined and has a minimalist look to it. The entire room is decorated in white. “The best way I can describe it is that they are these people who are continually looking up at the sky. Sometimes they just gaze up with their eyes, sometimes they use telescopes and stuff like that. It’s pretty cool, actually.”
“What are they looking at?”
“Mostly they just observe. They find the stars beautiful. The sky, the galaxy, all that stuff.”
“So far I’m following.”
“Charlie will be able to explain it to you in much detail if you ask. He can talk about asteroids and comets all day.”
We venture to the far end of the house and Eric slows. “Anyway, Charlie’s been photographing nebulas and star clusters for a while now. He’s compiled a mini clip show – or as he likes to call it, a documentary – of all his photographs and is having a screening for his friends next week. I’ve been doing some side work helping him set up his 3D viewing room.”
“Like a private cinema?”
“Right.”
Our voices echo through the empty house. Eric takes me into the last room at the end of the corridor and closes the door behind him. “Now, as you’ve probably noticed, Charlie is still in the beginning stages of furnishing his house, and this room is no different.” The room is air conditioned, with plush carpet that sinks when we step onto it. There isn’t any furniture apart from a small table near the door. “However, most of the technical components have been installed. I want to show you something.”
Eric leans past me, his arm brushing mine. Static electricity jolts through my elbow and makes us both jump.
“Sorry,” he says, rubbing at his skin. He starts to fiddle with something along the back wall, hidden from my eyes. He pulls out a remote control and aims it toward the ceiling. “There’s a computer hidden in the wall up there. Charlie’s plan is to have a big screen installed but we’re still waiting on the delivery.”
I try to find the outline of a computer, but my untrained eyes can’t see anything. Eric pushes a few buttons on the remote. Somewhere, a machine whizzes to life. After a few seconds, the entire room goes dark. In the pitch black of the room, I can only make out a solitary red light blinking above us.
“Eric,” I say, looking in the direction I’d last seen him. “I think you broke it.”
Suddenly, soft static noise starts to play overhead, like the distant sound of rain falling. Pallid lights flicker on the outskirts of the room, and Eric becomes visible.
“I would ask you to sit on a chair, but there aren’t any.” He holds out a pair of thick, plastic glasses to me. “Lie down for a second and put these on. They’re 3D.” He instructs, and folds his legs to get down to the floor. I absorb the length of his frame as he stares up at the ceiling.
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