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Not like Sage had done more than once.
“She wasn’t going through what you were,” she said. “A change of scenery can help but not if the underlying problem isn’t addressed. I know that.”
“Because in your words you ran here?” he asked. He didn’t believe it was running and had said that to her.
“Yes,” she said. “But I also knew that I had to accept what happened to me there and that things wouldn’t change if I stayed in that job. I came here and started over. I was lucky enough to have coworkers and bosses that accepted me. They helped me believe in myself when I had some doubts.”
“We all have doubts in life, Sage.”
He was pretty sure he had a lot more than she ever would.
“We do,” she said. “My point is, Savannah should have been there for you in your time of need and wasn’t. Henry should have for me too and wasn’t. I guess when it comes down to it, we both had the same things happen in a way.”
He didn’t believe that completely, but if he argued that point she’d want to know why.
“Do you have what you wanted to know?” he asked.
“Enough,” she said, smiling. She put his sandwich on a plate and handed it over.
The two of them sat down to eat.
He was trying to figure out what to say next. The silence was heavy in the room and he wasn’t sure if he was the one holding the weights or her.
Something still felt off, but since he wasn’t saying it all either, it could be his own guilt that were the barbells he was carrying.
“I should be done working by four,” he said. “The homeowners are back by then and would like us all gone.”
“I can’t believe they are living there through this,” she said.
“They didn’t have anywhere else to stay for a month. They said staying in a hotel would be no different than staying in the condo as they’d be without a kitchen in both places. It’s just the two of them. They are having both bathrooms done too but one at a time after the kitchen remodel.”
“I suppose it could work if they don’t mind the mess and dust,” she said.
“It wasn’t that bad for me. I hired someone to do the whole upstairs so most of the dust and mess was out of sight. I did everything else downstairs other than installing new countertops. That was just one day.”
He did it in stages. There was part of him that wanted to make the place his and the other part that didn’t want to change what his father had left to him.
“I’ve never lived anywhere that had work done to it. I’ve never done much more than paint a few rooms, and even then, not much. I didn’t touch anything here. It’s all up to date and modern and I like the colors. I only put some decor around.”
He liked her place. The walls were a neutral tone, but there were pops of color in the decor and furnishings.
Sometimes he wondered how his place would look if it had a woman’s touch added to it.
But he wasn’t sure she was there just yet.
He knew he could be but then asked himself how that was possible if he couldn’t tell her everything.
Then he wondered…the longer he held off saying it, how much harder it would be.
34
RAINING ON MY PARADE
Sage was at work when she got a notification of a private message on one of her social media accounts.
It didn’t happen often and most times was spam, but she recognized the name of an old coworker and her stomach filled with dread.
She opened the message on her phone and read the snide comment about still riding on Kate’s coattails. She was positive it had to do with the posts that Kate had been making.
