Fifteen Years

by Allison Rios

  “Red thread?”

  “What red thread?” Micah’s curiosity got the best of him, even though he knew asking Reed for an explanation would add more questions than it answered.

  “The red thread of fate. You haven’t heard of that? Come on James, there’s no way a romantic like you hasn’t heard of the red thread of fate. The idea that two people who are destined to be together or to help each other in some way are tied together by this invisible red thread of fate.”

  The blank stares told Reed neither had ever heard of it.

  “You and Rae, you’re tied together. That’s why you can’t stop thinking about her. It’s like she’s a constant pull and it distracts you from the present, and neither of you will be able to move forward with life until you’re back together.”

  “How do you know she hasn’t moved on?” Micah couldn’t stop the words, though he knew as well as Reed that Rae had done anything but move on. Nella, Brooke, and Ava were always sharing whatever news they heard from Rae, as long as James wasn’t within earshot.

  “Because you two are peas in a pod, my friend,” Reed said, “and you’re more alike and stubborn than you are smart. If she were over you, she wouldn’t avoid this town like she was going to die if she sets foot here. And you, well, you’d be happily married. Doesn’t take a fortune teller to know that you guys are tied together by the red thread.”

  Reed wasn’t entirely wrong. James had always felt connected to Rae, even when she was across the country. He’d never considered that she didn’t come back because maybe she still cared about him, but Reed’s explanation made sense.

  The summer after high school had been the best of James’ life until it came time to head to school. James and Rae hadn’t even been together that summer. Instead, they maintained a friendship. Their lives were about to take them in different directions, and they’d decided that they needed to learn not to depend on each other before he left. He hadn’t given up hope on reconciliation because he knew he’d love her enough for both of them if that’s what it took.

  He hadn’t loved her right away when they first began dating. Those feelings came later after he’d gotten to know her. They were sixteen, and the world reminded them continuously that a teenager doesn’t know what love is. He despised the assumption. He knew then what love was, and only believed in himself much later on when he realized that he wanted her to be happy even if that meant the opposite for him. She asked for space; he gave it to her. She asked to be left alone; he obliged though it nearly broke his heart to do it. And yet fifteen years later, his heart still ached for her just as much as it did the day she packed up a car for college, though he’d never told another soul as much.

  “I have been happy. I have a family; I’m putting my skills to use. Not all of us want to be in a corner office, Reed.”

  “I’m not saying that’s what you want. I’ve known you nearly thirty years. What you want, my friend, has nothing to do with a career and everything to do with a big family.”

  “Would you shut up before anyone hears you? The last thing I want is for anyone to overhear and gossip to Katie and make her feel any worse than I’ve probably already made her feel.”

  Reed ran his fingers across his lips, signaling to James that the conversation was over.

  The boys were right. James had been thinking about this weekend ever since the invitation arrived in the mail. His first thought upon reading the words emblazoned across the blue cardstock shifted to the idea that he might see her again.

  The last time he’d spoken to her, she had come to visit him over spring break in college. Alone after their friends went out, they spent the next few hours discussing everything about their lives; everything except what they both wanted to say. Sprawled out across the top bunk in a dingy dorm room, they talked for hours as they had a hundred times before.

  Tears stained her cheeks as she poured out her fears and regrets as though they’d lived a lifetime longer than they had. He’d brushed the light brown strands away from her eyes and used his shirt to dry her tears as he comforted her over a boyfriend he didn’t care to know much about. He’d never met the man and hoped he never would. Surrounded by memories of their glory days in high school, he’d said his final goodbyes to a love he’d been holding on to long after she’d let it go.

  It took everything he had to let her get in her car the next morning. That was the morning he realized she wasn’t coming back to him and he could either move on or wallow in the pain. He sent her off with a wave and a smile, and hoped that she’d find whatever it was she was looking for. Once her car dwindled in the distance, he’d taken a deep breath and began to run for the better part of three hours. His heart ached, and his lungs burned like the oxygen had evaporated from the atmosphere. To him, it may as well have.

  The anger and resentment filled him no matter how hard he tried to deny it. He’d given so much of himself to her, and he couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t let him in. He’d been in love with her for more than three years at that point and had held out hope that she’d change her mind and come back.

  When she pulled away, he knew such fantasies existed only in the sappy movies he’d always watched with her because she loved them. The hardest moment in his life until that point came as he stopped running and realized he’d never be able to give her the movie ending she was expecting. Their relationship – their bond – was something valuable and a part of him that time nor life could scratch away, even though for Rae it would never be enough.

  That’s when he saw Katie. She stood alone near a park bench stretching for a run. Determined to start focusing on something other than his loss, he abandoned his fear and forced himself to look ahead as he asked to join the beautiful woman standing in front of him. Six months later, he was asking Katie to spend her life with him, with a ring he’d bought for someone else.

  Chapter 5

  Thursday, October 1

  While most work weeks drag on for Rae amidst meetings and agendas, this particular week flew by. That morning, she found herself breathless and anxious for the start of an early weekend.

  “Do you have your suitcases? The car is picking you up here,” Becca said as she organized the papers on her lap for their weekly close-out meeting.

  “No. I have to pack. I can get myself there.”

  “I thought you might say that. Which is why your faithful assistant has picked up a wholly new and fresh wardrobe for you from your favorite stores and packed it neatly for you in suitcases out by my desk.”

  “What if I don’t like it?”

  “Please. I’ve picked out ninety percent of your clothing since we started working together because you’re too busy to do it yourself. You’ve never returned an item nor left it unworn in your closet. I’m fabulous.”

  “I could have done it myself.”

  “Could have and would have are two different things, as you always say. I’ve picked up your prescriptions. They are tucked neatly inside your carry-on. Now, the car will pick you up–”

  “I can get myself there.”

  “I’m sorry, but Brooke has tasked me with making sure you get home on time tonight. I don’t want to disappoint that girl. She’s threatened things that would never allow me to sleep again. Or walk. And I enjoy both of those activities. Plus, they think you’ll chicken out.”

  “I’m not going to chicken out.”

  “You’d chicken out. Nevertheless, I’m going to accompany you to the airport.”

  “You’re babysitting me? Are they paying you?”

  “Nope.” Becca grinned. “You are.”

  “Are you going to board the plane with me, too?”

  “No, ma’am. Because you’re so happy with my work and how amazing I am, you’ve purchased a plane ticket for me, too. I’m going to board a plane an hour after you with the handsome man I spoke about the other day and head off to a weekend of wine tasting, which means I can keep you company while you wait for your flight. Aren’t you lucky?”
/>   “So very. Did I buy you a new wardrobe, too?”

  “No. I dress so well that not wearing what I have would be a detriment to society.”

  “How do you accomplish so much without a smartphone and with a complete disdain for computers?”

  “Just because I don’t like something doesn’t mean I’m not willing to give it a chance.” Becca grinned as she flashed a shiny, new, smartphone to her boss.

  “Did I buy you that, too?” Rae rolled her eyes and quietly admitted defeat.

  “I will be here in half an hour to escort you to our awaiting vehicle, and dinner will be waiting for us. Time to go back home.”

  Rae gave up on escape plans, convinced that no matter what ideas might pop into her head, Becca would have already thought of an alternative.

  “And just in case you consider bolting, I’ve equipped the doorman with a stun gun, I have a friend from the police department who owes me a favor and has booted your car, and I had a locksmith to your apartment early this morning to change the locks. I have the only key, and it is hidden. If all else fails, that dreadful ex-boyfriend of yours is waiting on standby in case you manage to get through the locks. All of his hairiness and chews-with-his-mouth-open awesomeness will treat you to a weekend of dinners. Sounds less appetizing than some hot high school ex, right?”

  “I don’t understand why you won’t try for a management position. You’ve surely got the brains and the deceptive brawn to do it.”

  “I don’t want to be the boss. I like what I do, and if I’m in charge, I won’t have time to think up ways to drive my boss crazy. See you soon!”

  When the door shut, Rae slumped back in her expensive chair and sighed. If she was ever going to go home, she knew the present would be best. Each tick of the clock signaled one less moment on earth, and it was as good a time as any to make amends.

  The plane ride proved uneventful. Becca kept true to her promise to Brooke and had not left Rae for a moment – going so far as to stand at the entrance to boarding so Rae couldn’t make a mad dash away.

  Rae couldn’t help but laugh at the lengths everyone had gone to bring her home. Although she’d been planning on going home anyway at some point, she’d needed the push. As people poured into the aisle, she took another look at the invitation to her high school reunion and the list of names adorning the back. The bile inched its way up her throat when she thought about her friends learning the truth about the woman she was.

  She reached down at the baggage check to claim the beautiful new bags Becca had packed her when she heard the one voice she missed most of all.

  “How’s our little girl?”

  Her mother swept her up into a hug and Rae had to fight the tears threatening to escape.

  “Hi, Mama!”

  “It’s been a long time,” Lorraine said, grasping the not-so-chubby cheeks of her little girl in hands that were beginning to look their age. “Too long! Let me look at you!”

  “Mama, you just saw me at Easter.”

  “That was basically a lifetime ago,” her mom replied. “Besides, I know the last few months haven’t been easy for you. Especially not on top of everything you’ve already gone through.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “You should talk about it with someone.”

  “I’m a grown woman. I can handle any situation that presents itself. Notably in regard to men.”

  “A broken spirit is much harder to mend than a broken heart.”

  “Mama, you sound like a fortune teller when you start talking in quotes and phrases.”

  “Mothers are much wiser than fortune tellers, dear. Are you hungry?”

  “No, I ate at the airport. With my watchdog.”

  “Ah, yes. Brooke told me she had Becca making sure you arrived here okay.”

  “Have you all been plotting?”

  “None of us alone could get you home. We had to involve the whole town.”

  “Please tell me you’re kidding.”

  “A little. Maybe. Don’t worry; the parade isn’t until tomorrow morning.”

  Rae’s eyebrow shifted in utter frustration. At this point, she wouldn’t put a parade past any of them.

  “I could have driven and saved the airline fees. It’s only six hours.”

  “We both know you wouldn’t have made it down here. You’d have found an excuse. You have plenty of money and no time to spend it. Just consider it worth the splurge. Are you feeling okay?”

  “I’m fine, Mama.”

  Her mother pulled her into another warm embrace, and this time, Rae felt the trembling in her protector’s arms.

  “I don’t know that I’ll ever have hugged you enough,” her mother said.

  “Mama, I’m not going to die tomorrow.”

  “A thousand years still wouldn’t be enough time to hug you,” Lorraine replied.

  Chapter 6

  Thursday, October 1

  He descended from the treehouse with the spirit of a child. No sooner had his feet touched the leaves collecting on the ground than he heard the sweetest of voices calling out to him.

  “What are you doing in my treehouse?” the teenager laughed.

  “I believe I built this, Ruth, and am merely letting you borrow it.”

  “Aren’t you a little old for a treehouse? You’re like, a million years old.”

  “Aren’t you a little young to be mouthing off to the man who decides if you’re grounded or not? Wait until you get to be thirty-three. You’ll realize it’s really not that old.”

  “Seriously, what were you doing up there? Please tell me you weren’t adding more photos.”

  “It’s my tree house,” he said, “and I’ll decorate it any way I want.”

  “Really? You’re strange. It’s weird that you still decorate in there.”

  “I’m a mysterious guy.”

  “Creepy sounds more accurate. I should know, I live in the same house.”

  He adored raising Ruth. With a marriage teetering on edge for a long time, he’d found an escape in parenting. Katie didn’t talk to him much in the last few months unless it was something about the divorce. The only conversations in the recent past took place at dinner with Ruth, listening to her stories about her day at school. He could hardly believe that the little girl he’d known since birth was in her final year of grade school and about to embark on a new journey in high school in just a few short months.

  “Hey, while I have a free moment of your time before you ascend to your castle here,” he said, “can we talk about something?”

  “Sure, what’s up?”

  “Did you figure out what you wanted to do for your birthday?”

  “We can just do cake and ice cream. No biggie. Maybe

  I can have a few friends sleep over?”

  “Okay,” he said. “I mean, if that’s what you want.”

  “Yeah, low key is good. Why, did you want to do something else? I don’t mind if you want to do something just you and me.”

  “Well, I just thought that it might be hard to return those eight tickets I bought to the big concert next month. The one you’ve been dying to see. But if you and your friends don’t want to go, we can just cancel.”

  “Are you kidding me?” she yelled. “You did not!”

  “I did!”

  “You are the best!” she said as she pulled him into a hug. “I can’t believe it! You bought tickets?”

  “Yep. And I already called your friends’ parents to make sure they could go. And obviously, I’ll have to tag along as a chaperone, but I’ll make myself scarce. I don’t want to end up a social media meme of an old guy at a concert.”

  “This is going to be the best birthday ever!”

  He relished in her happiness. He hadn’t gotten much right in life, but raising Ruth had always been his proudest achievement. She’d seen her share of sadness, and he wanted nothing more than to see her excel.

  Her excitement reminded him of his favorite birthday; one coordi
nated by a love a long, long time before.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” she said. They’d been sitting around James' house for an hour. The summer air brought with it summer dresses, shorts, and tank tops – all of which he liked, especially on Rae. She’d come over earlier than she normally would, though he didn’t mind the extra time with her.

  “Where to?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. Around? It’s so nice out. Don't coop me up inside.”

  There wasn’t much to walk around and see that they hadn’t already seen a thousand times. She seemed eager to get out though, so he obliged as he always did when she had a whim.

  Their sandal-clad feet strolled along the curb, through the twist of the oldest subdivision in town to the edge of the main road. The tiny strip mall had nothing more than a liquor store and a ballet studio, neither of which they would look to spend time in.

  “Bet you can’t walk that entire row of stopper-thingies faster than me.” She pointed out to the empty parking lot at the cement parking blocks peppering the black abyss.

  “Stopper-thingies?” He raised an eyebrow and let out a laugh.

  “Yes, stopper thingies. That's what they’re called.”

  “Says who?”

  “Says me.”

  Never one to decline a challenge, he started at the beginning and did his best to jog clear to the end.

  “Twelve seconds,” she yelled out to him.

  “That sounds like you’ve added a little bit to it. I counted ten.”

  “Then you counted incorrectly.”