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“Oh, that’s right! He’s probably looking for a hookup tonight. Well, I think you shook his confidence a little bit. When you came upstairs, he came to talk with me. As if I would help him in any way. That man is delusional.”
I don’t want to deal with this any longer. “Hey, Ellie…how about a sleepover at your place?”
She sits up and yelps, “Yes!”
“All right, I’ll go let my mom know, and then we can slip out before John even notices I’m gone.”
“And we’ll need to silence your text alerts, at least the ones from John. Don’t want to miss any from your British boyfriend!” She yells those last two words down the staircase. I’ll have to remember to change my lock code on the phone before I go to sleep tonight. I don’t need her texting Henry while I’m sleeping.
Friday morning begins earlier than we would have liked after Ellie and I stayed up far too late last night. It doesn’t matter how much older we get—we revert to thoseteenagers who stay up all night talking when we are together.
Now, armed with our extra-large amounts of caffeine, we are on to the first stop of our shopping trip. Ellie has a drink that is almost the color of milk due to the copious amounts of cream and sugar in it. I ordered my usual—cold brew, black. It works quicker this way and I plan to sip on it between the many shops we plan to visit.
After hours of shopping and too much caffeine in our systems, we reach the last of our stops. “How are you going to get all this back to the UK with you?” Ellie asks as she looks at the numerous shopping bags filling the back of my mom’s SUV.
“I don’t plan on taking any of it back home with me. It’s all staying in my bedroom here until Christmas.”
“Did you just say, ‘back home’ when referring to London?” Her shoulders drop, and sadness covers her face. “Lucy, here is home. I am home.”
“Ellie…” After closing the back hatch, I pull her into a hug. “You are home. You always will be.”
She pulls away, and we move to get back into the car. Once she is situated in the passenger seat, she says, “I don’t blame you if you make London your home with your new boyfriend.”
“Ellie, he’s not my boyfriend. You know the truth.”
“Oh, I think I do know the truth… It’s you that’s trying to convince yourself otherwise…” She gives me a knowing look.
“Okay.” I try to appraise her. “Let’s go. It’s nap time and then take out for dinner and wrapping these gifts at my mom’s place if you’re up for it.”
“Yes, as long as there is wine… Wrapping grates on my nerves. I need wine if we are doing that.”
“Well, then, I guess we have one more stop on the way home,” I say while switching our driving route to the closest winery.
After a much-needed nap, Ellie arrives at my mom’s and we begin our evening of wrapping presents. My mom has offered to wrap the presents I ordered online for Ellie when they arrive, so I don’t need to hide anything from her tonight.
“I can’t believe you are leaving already, Lucy. It’s as if you just got here,” Ellie whines as she selects a roll of wrapping paper with baseballs on it. She must be starting with a gift for her dad.
“I know. I’ll miss you, but I’ll be back in a month. Then, in the New Year, you must come to visit,” I insist.
“That’s true—a month isn’t that long to wait. And I’ll try to get a trip in before the season begins.”
My phone is buzzing again, I look down to check it to find more texts from John. He’s quite upset that I disappeared last night “before he could say goodbye” and is insistent on seeing me tonight before I leave.
“That guy is persistent, but that’s something we already knew.” Ellie doesn’t pick her head up from her current present. “It feels different this time…”
“What feels different?”
“You and John. You’ve been mad at him before, even ignored him, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting you asmuch as it once did.” I wait for her to bring up Henry, but she doesn’t. “Who knows what the future holds for you, but I’m getting the feeling that this might be the time John finally remains in the past.”
“Thanks, El. Me too.”
Twenty-One
HENRY
This day is movingat an expeditiously slow pace. It was grueling enough to spend the last week stressing about Lucy in the States and her seemingly over-interested ex-boyfriend, but now I am once again worried about her flying over the Atlantic Ocean. Of course, air travel is a relatively safe form of transportation, but I’ll feel better when she lands.
And I can see her.
