Page 73 of Echoes

Violet could see it now, why they would’ve ended up together. And that vision had been a year ago. It was not as clear as it had beeninitially. She wanted to jump back into it to find out more and maybe stay longer somehow or arrive sooner. She needed to know how they got together in the first place. Had she asked Rachel out that night at the bar or the first time she visited the house? Maybe in that version of events, Rachel hadn’t overheard Mark’s ridiculously immature assistant spreading rumors about Violet, and they’d talked. Maybe they’d gone out after their collectively long day of final interviews and hit it off.

Violet needed to know, so she took a deep breath and pressed the button again. When nothing happened, she tried to close her eyes on her own, waiting for the same sensation as the last time, but many seconds later, she saw no hospital room, and after opening her eyes back up, she found herself still in her garage. Desperate now, Violet pressed the button again, harder this time, but yet again, nothing happened.

“Fuck,” she muttered. “How do you charge?”

She picked up the device and turned it around in her hands, hoping she could find something to connect it to. The cable that stuck out of the end had nothing on it that would help her, though. It was as if the cable just ended. There were two copper-colored wires sticking out, but it wasn’t a standard USB or USB-C or anything else that would attach to a computer or an outlet, and she didn’t want to electrocute herself trying to shove it into something.

“Fuck!”

Apollo barked from his position of standing in the open doorway that led to the laundry room.

“I’m okay, buddy,” she said. “IthinkI am, at least.”

Two Weeks Later

“So, I haven’t heard you talk about the woman you’ve been seeing in a couple of weeks,” Violet pointed out as they sat down on her sofa.

Rachel placed her wineglass on the table, so Violet did the same while she waited eagerly for her response.

“Oh, I’m not seeing her anymore.”

“No?” she asked, suddenly much more interested than she had been when she’d brought up the topic.

“No, it didn’t work out.”

“Sorry, Rach,” she said and found that she meant it.

She was in love with Rachel Bailey, yes, but if Rachel was with someone else and happy, Violet wanted that for her. Somehow, Rachel’s happiness had become even more important to her than her own. She knew that because she’d listened to Rachel talk about this woman and their dates for weeks and had been the one to bring up the topic a few times because she’d known Rachel wanted to talk about it, even thoughVioletwould have preferred to never think of Rachel being with anyone else.

“I’m not,” Rachel replied. “I liked her. I just don’t think it’s meant to be.”

“Why not? Did something happen?”

“Not exactly.” Rachel looked around the room.

“Okay… That’s vague. You’re not usually vague.”

“Icanbe vague,” she argued as she looked back at Violet.

“Last week, you were describingGone with the Windin so much detail that it felt like I rewatched the movie. And I haven’t watched it since high school.”

“It’s a good movie.”

Violet smiled softly at her and thought about how cute Rachel was sometimes. It hurt her that they weren’t a couple, though, having a conversation about a movie and were, in fact, merely two friends who worked together talking about a woman Rachel had been seeing.

“Who ended it?”

“She did.”

“Shit. Sorry.”

Violet had been hoping thatRachelhad ended things either because she was in love with Violet or because she’d decided to stick with her plan of not dating seriously until she at least reached that SVP role she’d been hoping to get. The former would’ve been preferred, but Violet would have understood and accepted the latter, too.

“Um… Can I talk to you about something?” Rachel asked, seeming nervous now.

“You can talk to me about anything,” Violet replied quickly before she actually thought about the fact that Rachel might want to talk to her about the sex that she’d had with this other woman.

“I know we’re friends, and we talk about stuff most people who work together don’t talk about, but this might be different.”