“My apologies, Sage. Continue. Please.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I landed a big client. On my own. I decided to treat myself to a night out.”
“You came out here alone?”
“Yes.”
“What was your plan? To stay? Get a ride back… home…”
“Are you grilling me right now, Henry? Are you worried about me?”
She smiled.
I gritted my teeth.
I was quickly reminded about how much of a pain in the ass Sage could be when she felt like it.
“Forget I asked a thing,” I said.
I started to walk and Sage grabbed the back of my shirt. “Not so fast. What are you doing here, Henry? Your turn to spill the beans.”
I offered my left hand. “Let’s walk near the water. I’ll tell you my life story.”
“Oh, jeez.”
Sage took my hand and I was instantly thrown back in time.
All those stupid teenage feelings still lingering around.
Like a mold that was never properly cleaned.
I thought about how I just walked up to that bar and chased away the guy buying her drinks. Making her my responsibility now. There was no way in hell I would just let her go off on her own right now. If she still lived where she grew up, she was a good thirty minutes away.
And she was not in any shape to drive.
I had no idea how she even got here in the first place…
“Come on, let’s hear this story,” Sage said.
“My rags to riches story,” I said.
“Are you rich?”
“No.”
“Don’t lie to me then, Henry.”
“Maybe I should just back off then. I’ll give you a call when I’m rich.”
I watched the way she bit her bottom lip and had no clue what it meant.
“You know, I hated the way it ended,” I said. “I think about it all the time too. About you. About Leon. How is he?”
“Stubborn. Fierce.”
“Same as always then.”
“Maybe we should just not talk about the past then.”
