She can feel the rage building inside and knows that if she doesn’t get into her car soon then she is likely to explode.
“You are scum and I hate everything about you. So just leave me alone, Rich,” she shouts before heading towards her vehicle.
“I still think about you, V. No one else has ever measured up.”
As she tilts her body into her car she sends out her last words.
“I don’t think about you at all.”
Her tires squeal as she accelerates harder than necessary, but Everleigh can feel the panic setting in. She has spent eight years turning the other way when Rich popped up in her life, so many things that she missed because of him being too close. Her family thought that they had suffered a bad break up, and they had, but it was everything leading up to the breakup that had morphed her world. But turning around every time he is near means that he still holds that piece of control over her, that control he craves, and until she finds it in herself to break free from it she will always be under his hand.
She pulls off at a gas station just outside Asheville and leans against the headrest to catch her breath. She had needed to get out of the city and fast, her body practically driving the car based on muscle memory.
Knowing what she needs she steps from the car and enters the convenience store with two things on her mind – sour gummy worms and a Dr. Pepper. Everleigh likes to think she is health conscious, but sometimes when she has had a bad day these two items, clutched tightly to her chest, are her only relief. Some people went to their friends Ben and Jerry, she always relies on the Dr.
Back in her car she opens the packages and lets one of the worms dangle from her fingers before plopping it into her mouth. The mix of sweet and sour instantly hit her palate and she sighs in ecstasy. She takes a sip of her caffeinated beverage of choice and puts the car back into drive and heads back home.
“Hey, Tamara,” she calls out to her technician. “Can you get me Doc Nelson’s son’s number? I need to see if he can work the pharmacy on Friday and Monday to cover for me.”
“Sure, boss lady.”
Her eager employee starts filtering through the Rolodex, searching for the requested number and Everleigh takes a chance to read through some emails on the computer. She always has found it funny how people come through Carson and think that they're back wooded rednecks and not technologically savvy, but it is so far from the truth. Her brother Jameson has been building and selling software applications since he was eleven. She’s pretty sure he even hacked the school account and changed some report card grades. Unsurprisingly he is gearing up to launch his own company of software and security development next door above the pediatric clinic.
Which reminds her that her husband, for all intents and purposes, has yet to sign the annulment papers. She emails her lawyer, letting her know that the papers still reside with Brooks, but that she will follow up with him as soon as possible.
That man just infuriates her further after her morning run in with Rich.
Brooks probably burned the papers so he can’t return them, she ponders as she asks her lawyer for an additional copy, just in case.
“Here you go, boss lady,” Tamara exclaims as she waves the card wildly in the air as if she’s won a game of bingo.
“Tamara, how many times have we talked about you calling by my first name?”
“Um…,” she begins to calculate, tapping her wildly painted fingernail on her chin. “Forty-seven times. Not including just now.”
“Good, so let’s start practicing now.”
“Yes, ma’am, Ms. Everleigh.”
Smiling brightly Everleigh looks up from her computer and assures, “Good job. See, isn’t that a little better?”
“Whatever you say, Ms. Everleigh. Pro RX Robotics left a message and said they can install the device in two weeks and offer three days of onsite training. Would you like me to call them back and confirm?”
“That would be great, Tamara. Thank you. I’m going to get started on these prescriptions in the workflow queue.”
The two work in silence, the only interruptions being the occasional patients and the phone. Tuesdays are the slower of their days in the pharmacy and Everleigh purposefully schedules her appointments around it.
Before close, Everleigh shuts down the pharmacy, and she and Tamara package up prescriptions that will go out on the Wednesday home deliveries, a service that is slowly dying at pharmacies across the country, but it gives a high school kid a job and keeps the older residents in Carson happy.
She watches from the back of the warehouse as Tamara steps into her boyfriend’s car before locking up her shop and heading up to her apartment. Her heavy bag slides from her shoulder and clangs loudly on the hardwood floors as Everleigh steps through the door. The kitchen calls her name just as her stomach growls loudly and she tosses a frozen dinner from her freezer into the microwave.
She takes a seat on her small loveseat and sighs as she grabs her tablet from the end table and begins to order some furniture for her new place as the wheezing from her microwave lulls in the background. Fifteen minutes later she has a bedroom and living room set scheduled to be delivered to her new house on Friday. Her excitement boils over and she grabs the keys to her new place and contemplates her next move.
Food long forgotten, Everleigh shuffles an oversized and overfilled box in her arms as she works to unlock the front door to her new house with her squished hands. She hesitates for a moment as she notices that the lock doesn’t engage, then she slowly opens the door into the darkened space.
She takes a few steps into the foyer wondering if the house was left unlocked by the previous owner before the lights shine brightly and a group jumps up and down in her living room causing her to drop the large box at her feet in alarm.
“Surprise!” the group shouts as she takes note of her siblings and their significant others offering words of congratulations in her direction.
