Always and Forever

by Harper Bentley

  And now he gives me those two words. The first words he’s spoken to me in over a year. A year!

  And they involve a fucking fish.

  “What about her?” I inquire cautiously knowing it can’t be good if he’s here, but I’m still stuck on the fact that this is the first time he’s talked to me in months and I’m starting to get even angrier.

  I watch as he purses his lips then mumbles as he looks at the floor, “I found her floating at the top of the tank when I ran home after lunch just now.”

  I can’t help but stare at him, entirely at a loss for words. I mean, I haven’t even thought about the stupid fish since we broke up. I know she represented something between us at the time, but with all he’s put me through, I just can’t find it in me right now to be upset over it. I’ve had a year of being upset and I’m sick of it.

  I take a deep breath and as nicely as I can offer, “I’m sorry.”

  His head comes up and his eyes look directly into mine. I haven’t had his eyes on me like this in forever and it feels as if my heart’s being squeezed by some invisible hand inside my chest. “I-I’m gonna miss her… I…” he clears his throat, “miss… you…”

  Wow.

  Of course, this is something I’ve been dying to hear from him for a long time, but now that I have, it just seems anticlimactic.

  As in, big fat wow.

  So all I can do is keep staring at him as the thoughts inside my head start pinging off the walls of my skull like a pinball stuck between a bumper and the side of the machine as it racks up a gazillion points.

  He misses me.

  Because a fish died.

  He misses me.

  Because now I guess he’s realizing he’s truly alone.

  Just like I’ve been for the past year.

  And he hasn’t talked to me in such a long time.

  But he finally comes to me because of an idiotic fish.

  He’s ignored me when we’ve passed each other on the street, seemingly content in not even acknowledging my presence even though I’ve caught him staring at me every other time but always from a distance.

  And now he says he misses me. And he says it on the day I didn’t tear up when I saw him and hoped it meant I was finally getting over him.

  And now I’m chewing on my thumbnail, damn it.

  I lower my arm and feel my hands ball into fists at my sides gritting my teeth because I want to bash his friggin’ face in then yell at him or vice versa. Either works. But then I remember myself, remember that I’m in my store and that anyone could come through the door at any time and I wouldn’t want to lose business because I’ve turned into a raging bitch. I breathe in deeply through my nose and let it out trying to calm myself which works for the moment. “You miss me…” I state quietly, my eyes narrowed as they remain locked on his.

  I see his jaw muscles jump as he stares back at me. Then he nods slowly.

  Well, this is just too much.

  I huff out a laugh, putting my hands on my hips. “I think it might be too late, Brody,” I state a little snottily, seeing his eyes go hard upon hearing that. Whatever.

  “What’re you saying, Piper?”

  I shrug nonchalantly although every muscle in my body is tight. “I saw you walking to Mags’ earlier and to be honest, I felt nothing. After more than a year of wanting to cry every time I saw you, today that didn’t happen.” I shrug again to get the point across even as my heart’s beating a hundred miles an hour in my chest.

  “Huh.” I see his eyes flash with anger but whoop-ti-doo. I’m angry too. Then he throws me a zinger. “Is it because you’re in love with that guy?”

  I want to roll my eyes so badly it’s all I can do to keep them still in their sockets.

  I’d gone out exactly two times with Alex Troxell who I’d met on a trip to an antique show last October. He was from Richmond and made Shaker style furniture that he sold in a shop he owned. We’d immediately hit it off but when he’d asked me out I’d been hesitant. When he’d persisted, I’d finally explained to him about the breakup letting him know I probably wouldn’t be good company. He’d understood but had continued to pursue things, asking me to give him a chance. He was very cute and very sweet, so I’d finally agreed. After our second date (we’d gone to Jen’s and I’d run into Brody on the way out which had been all kinds of awkward), I realized Alex would never be anything but a rebound, which I hated because he was such a nice guy, but my heart couldn’t be convinced otherwise, so I’d ended things with him at my front porch where he’d given me a chaste kiss then told me to call him if I ever got to a place where I thought I could move on.

  And now Brody’s asking if I’m in love with him, a guy I haven’t seen in three months and who I seriously could’ve seen myself with if it hadn’t been for my feelings for Brody. And with his accusatory tone, he’s trying to make me feel guilty about it when he’s the one who broke up with me! And now here comes my temper.

  “No, I’m not in love with him! And it’s all your fault!” I hiss.

  His head jerks back as he frowns at me.

  I nod. “Yeah. If it wasn’t for you, I could be dating him right now!” I step into him and jab my finger into his chest on the words you and now but stop because his chest is rock hard and that just pisses me off more. Putting my hands back on my hips, I continue. “Alex is a wonderful man but I had to let him go because I realized I wasn’t over you yet!”

  When I see his lips twitch at that, I see red.

  “What’s so fucking funny, Brody Matthew Kelly? Is the fact that I’m still not over you and had to end it with a great guy that hilarious?” I screech.

  He frowns again.

  Now I go for the throat. “And what’s more is, he didn’t have a problem with me only wanting two kids!” Total lie because Alex and I never talked about kids.

  Brody’s eyes spark with anger again and I’m glad I’ve hurt him because he’s hurt me so much. The next thing I know, he grabs me by my upper arms and turns, pushing me against the wall and gets right in my face, his voice all rumbly. “You listen to me, Piper, and listen good. I love you! You’re mine! I wanted to rip that fucker’s head off when I saw him with you at Jen’s but knew I had no right. I’ve got a right now.”

  His lips come crashing down on mine and I’m so stunned I don’t even try to resist. But when he pulls back and looks down at me, I gaze up at him, definitely shaken by what’s happened until my head stops spinning enough for me to realize what he’s just done and I’m livid. To prove it, I haul off and slap him, feeling some satisfaction that I’ve actually made him step back from me.

  “Stay away from me, Brody!” I snap, pushing at his chest but of course he doesn’t budge which just serves to make me madder than I already am. “I mean it. You lost any rights to me when you ended things between us!”

  His eyes are on mine as he rubs his cheek slowly and I see an edge to them, as if I’ve offered him a challenge.

  Great.

  And now the bastard grins. “We’ll see about that,” he replies smoothly as he turns to leave. “Catch you later, Greer!” he hollers without a look back just before he walks out the door.

  Greer comes up and stands beside me, both of us watching Brody walking down the street toward the firehouse, hands in his front pockets all easygoing and shit.

  “Jerk,” I mumble.

  I see Greer nodding out of the corner of my eye. “I do have to say, though, that was pretty steamy, Pipe.”

  I glance over to see her staring dreamily out the window and elbow her in the arm. “Whose side are you on?”

  “Ow!” She rubs her upper arm frowning at me. “My arms are sore enough, Piper! God, you keep doing things to make them worse, then I’m definitely on his side!” She turns and walks to the back and I hear her grumble, “Especially now that he’s decided to man up.”

  ~~~

  “So, I heard B
rody paid you a visit today,” Ryan says when she calls me at home that night.

  See? It’s like there’s a gossip hotline around here.

  I bend my head, holding my phone between my shoulder and ear as I squirt a buttercream frosting bow onto a high-heel shaped sugar cookie then place it onto the wax paper where the rest are. Tomorrow is Saturday and it’s the annual After the Holidays Hullabaloo where every business in town offers huge sales and other goodies. I’ll be giving a twenty-percent discount on everything in the store and giving out my signature cookies which are always a big hit.

  The Hullabaloo has been a major to-do in Serenity Point ever since I can remember and practically the whole town comes out for the fun. There’s a silent auction to which most of the businesses donate goods, anything from Mags’ homemade pies or cakes, a free haircut from The Mane Event, a flower arrangement from Patty’s Petals to new tires offered by Hale’s Garage which is down the street from my store. This year I’ve donated an antique quilt I purchased at an estate sale in Richmond. There will also be a carnival (the same one where Brody won Dory all those years ago) where local organizations have game booths, a cakewalk is run, different bands play throughout the evening and finally a bachelor/bachelorette auction is held with all the proceeds from everything going to the maintenance of the city library and park.

  Now, as for this bachelor/bachelorette auction? Only men can bid on women and women on men, so in previous years, Brody and I hadn’t participated because, well, we were together. Last year we hadn’t because we’d just broken up and I think we both were in a stupor from it, but this year I’ve decided to enter just for the hell of it. I mean, all that happens is someone bids to win a particular person then that person is theirs for a day, usually doing yardwork for them or something of the sort.

  Well, except for two years ago when old Mrs. Neely, former Miss Virginia and who’s about a hundred years old and has been a widow for as long as I can remember, bid and won Mike Heller who’s in his early thirties, owns the local gym, is a boxer, and is pretty much an all-around badass. She’d had him take her to Richmond where they’d had dinner then attended the opera. Afterward, Mike informed Kade, Brody’s older brother who owns the lumberyard in town and who Mike works part-time for, that they’d taken her early 80s Lincoln Town Car (where, according to him, she tried groping him a couple times as he drove) to one of the fanciest restaurants he’d ever been to. He said she’d ordered oysters on the half shell first, telling him they were an aphrodisiac as she waggled her eyebrows at him. For dinner they’d had lobster, which had been served whole and he admitted he hadn’t known what to do. She’d taught him how to take it apart, crack the shell then eat it which he said was messy but pretty cool. He also said their conversation had been good until she kept trying to talk him into becoming her own personal American Gigolo to which he’d graciously declined. Overall, he said the “date” had been fun until they got home and she’d tried to kiss him after he’d walked her to her front porch. He relayed that the worst of it all had been when she’d puckered up, her dentures had shot out and he’d had to retrieve them from a flower pot on her porch.

  So to help my town—and maybe to make Brody a little jealous but whatever—this year I was going up on the auction block in the hopes that I’d get someone who only wanted me for something easy like raking leaves or vacuuming their house. I’d asked Dad to make a bid so I could help him clean out the shed but he’d laughed and said he’d have me do it for free another time.

  “Yeah. He told me he misses me. Can you believe it?” I say to Ryan as I continue decorating cookies.

  I hear her cleaning up the salon in the background. “Yes, I can believe it. He’s moped around town with puppy-dog eyes for the past year. He still loves you, Pipe. I think he regrets what he’s done and wants you back, plain and simple.”

  “This whole thing is weird,” I mumble.

  “Yeah, it really is. You’d think I would’ve at least heard something about why he did it but I got nothin’,” she replies.

  “That is strange,” I agree. This town is like Peyton Place, so whatever secret Brody’s keeping which led to our breakup should’ve come out a long time ago. And speaking of Peyton. “I still think it has something to do with Peyton. Brody acted like he was scared to death of her when we ran into her at his birthday party. And Kade’s been bend-over-backwards nice to her the past year, well, until he and Amelia got back together.”

  Peyton Capps is the town bitch. Every town has one, and believe me she takes her role seriously. She was the mean girl in high school and still wears that crown to this day. Her dad had been mayor throughout her high school years and I guess she thought that meant she was royalty because she acted as if she was so much better than everyone. During school, she’d broken up tons of couples by starting rumors either just to be mean or because she wanted to date the guy. My freshman year she’d been a senior so I hadn’t been in her line of sight, but many others had and she’d wreaked havoc wherever she’d gone. I think the entire town gave a huge sigh of relief when she’d headed off to college the next year. When she’d come back two years later after dropping out, everyone thought she’d settle down once she was married and had kids, but nope, that wasn’t the case. Her husband’s job had taken him out of town quite a bit and she’d ended up cheating on him with the current mayor which led to her divorce. Now she spends a lot of time at Jen’s scoping out guys with her bitchy group of girlfriends.

  “And you know what? I’ve been in a coma the last year with everything but I’m waking up now, so I think I’m gonna get to the bottom of things with her,” I inform Ryan.

  “Just be careful. She’s evil. As in, try to make you eat a poison apple, prick your finger on a spinning wheel, steal your voice, your Dalmatians and then lock you in a tower, evil.”

  I chuckle. “You’ve been hanging out with your nieces for too long.”

  “I know. I cried the other day when Elsa wouldn’t build a fucking snowman with Anna.”

  This makes me laugh as I set my phone down, putting it on speaker while I put more frosting into the bag. “So, you’re doing the bachelorette auction too tomorrow, right?”

  I hear her sigh. “Yep. Third year in a row. Instead of having to cut some old balding guy’s hair for free, I keep waiting for Prince Charming to ride up, bid on my ass, swoop me onto his horse then we ride away into the sunset where I cut his hair on a golden throne but it hasn’t happened yet.”

  “My house Sunday, you, me, Sons of Anarchy marathon to get all this Disney shit outta your head.”

  “For real. I’m so there.” I hear water running in a sink as she cleans. “But, God, you’d think there’d be one guy around who I’d wanna date so I didn’t have to hang out at my brother’s all the time with my nieces. I’m sure he and Camille are tired of me coming over almost every weekend even though I do babysit.”

  “Have you thought about dating Dwight? Or Mike?”

  Dwight’s the sheriff and he’s from The Point. He graduated two years ahead of Ryan and me and is single and really good looking. Mike’s the guy who owns the gym in town who Mrs. Neely won in the auction two years ago.

  “I told you I think I’m too curvy for them. The last girl Sheriff Dwight dated was smaller than you! And Mike is Mr. Fit Boxer and I’m Ms. Five-ten 36-26-36. I think he likes them smaller too. I also think I scared him away at the New Year’s Eve party when I told him I could beat him at arm wrestling.”

  I laugh again. Ryan’s beautiful: tall, long blond hair and hazel eyes that turn green when she’s happy and flash to brown when she’s pissed. She modeled some when we were in high school and probably could’ve gone places with it, but her love for making others beautiful led to her getting her hairdresser’s license and opening her own shop instead. “Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. His eyes got huge and he acted like he couldn’t get away fast enough. Meh. So he’s a wuss. I know there’s someone out there for you. In t
he meantime, just enjoy being single with me.”

  She lets out a “Pffttt” sound. “Yeah, you’ve enjoyed it so much this past year.”

  “Well, I’m gonna start to enjoy it now! I’m tired of being a Debbie Downer. Be ready ‘cause I’m gonna be coming in to get my nails and hair done soon!”

  “Uh, you do that once a month anyway, Pipe.”

  “Well, I’m gonna do it with more pep!”

  She giggles. “Thatta girl. ’Kay, I’ve gotta close up then run by Josh’s and help Camille finish making cupcakes. Hot guys are waiting to bid on us tomorrow so get a good night’s rest!” she says before hanging up.

  Hot guys indeed. I’ll be lucky if I don’t get stuck with Gus Batchelder who’ll probably want to go skinny dipping in the ocean. Never mind that it’s January or that he’s eighty-something and married. He already streaked down Main Street a couple years ago, so it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if that was his plan.

  I finish the cookies then proceed to place them into my multi-tray cookie courier and seal it up. After a quick cleanup, I pour myself another glass of wine then taking it with me, head back to the bathroom where I turn the water on in my clawfoot tub and pour a generous amount of my calming bubble bath in. It’s been a long day and I need a long, soothing soak, I decide. I’ve also not allowed myself any time to think about what happened earlier with Brody and now’s as good a time as any.

  After going to my bedroom to strip down and grab my robe, I return to the bathroom and stepping into the tub, sink down into the mass of bubbles with a sigh. I retrieve my wine from where I placed it on the windowsill and take a sip before lying back and resting my head against the tub. God, if we could wear plastic suits filled with bubble baths all day every day, life would be so much less stressful.

  I stick my toe out and turn the cold water knob by degrees eventually shutting it off but allow the hot to run for a bit longer before doing the same to it, having now acquired a just-right temperature. As I lie there in silence, eyes closed, the lavender smell of the bath relaxing me, it’s then I realize that I’m crying, big tears running down the sides of my face. I sniff and bring the wine glass to my lips again, allowing myself this time to break down a bit. I’ve known all day it was coming so I’m not surprised.