Page 4 of Promise You Forever
Amber turns, her eyes flashing with malice. She hates when he speaks to me like this, and I know she’s seconds from yanking the phone from my hand.
“Grams died,” I say quietly.
“What? When?” The question softens the sharp edges of his tone.
“Today.”
“How?”
“I don’t know yet. We just landed.”
“We?”
“Amber came with me. I was at work, and Patrick heard me crying; he called up his jet to bring us here.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
That’s a good question. One I’m not ready to answer. My first instinct should have been to call my fiancé, but until he called me, I didn’t even think about it.
“I was upset.” I look out into the dark night and shake my head. “I just thought about getting here.”
“That’s pretty fucked up. I could have pushed my showings and flown out with you. When is the funeral?”
“Tuesday.”
“So you didn’t even need to get out there so quickly.”
“Sorry.” I want off this call. “Hey, we’re about to go through a tunnel and lose service. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
Luke’s eyes meet mine in the mirror as he registers my lie. There’s no tunnels on this stretch of road.
“Don’t call until after three tomorrow, though. I have showings lined up all day in Orange County.”
“Alright. Good night.” I hang up before he can say anything else.
Amber reaches back and squeezes my knee in support. I avoid meeting Luke’s gaze in the rearview mirror again, but I feel it all the same. Instead, I focus on the feel of Charlie’s soft fur under my fingers as she lays her head in my lap while we drive quietly through the night.
Two
LUKE
She’s engaged.
It’s all I can focus on. That bright, shiny diamond on her finger taunts me with every sparkle. It’s obnoxiously big on her slender fingers.
But what did I expect? She’d give me a second thought? Unlikely, and I deserve nothing less. I was an idiot. An asshole. The world’s biggest prick.
I regretted it before the words were even out of my mouth. Watching the pain bleed from her expression shattered my heart. The heart she had helped to mend.
As soon as she ran off, I bent over and vomited. I don’t have the stomach for hurting the women I love, for letting them down. The night she left I dreamt of Amy; her eyes were full of disappointment as she walked backwards away from me. I’d never tell a soul, but I think it was a message from her. It felt so real. Usually when I’d wake up from dreams about her, I’dsink into a spiral of guilt and shame, but that morning I woke up ready to start healing.
I called Janey and asked for the number of the therapist she always wanted me to see. That’s what I’ve spent the past three years doing, therapy and healing. Focusing on the promise of a future yet to be determined.
I can just barely hear Eli’s fiancé as he speaks to her with no compassion. I glance over at Amber, who’s glaring at the phone in Eli’s hand as if it personally offended her. She finally turns back as Eli lowers her voice, and I cast a look in her direction.
“Piece of shit,” she mouths to me.
I’m not sure if she meant me or him. It’s certainly warranted on my end, but the fact that Eli jumped on a plane without even calling her fiancé to let him know leads me to believe he’s not that great.