Page 86 of Full Circle

“You better not be out there, Wesley!” she screamed through the door.

I rolled my eyes. “Like I would leave at a moment like this!”

“Why not? Leaving’s what you’re good at!”

Okay, I definitely deserved that. At least now I knew we were gonna be duking it out right away. This was where the heavy groveling part of my plan commenced.

“Lovebug, I have a good reason for being gone. You have no idea how sorry I am, and if I live to be a hundred, I’ll never make it up?—”

“You don’t even deserve to speak to me!” Celeste raged through the door. “Get out of my restaurant!”

The door handle rattled as she tried to pull it open, so I held on for dear life.

“No, ma’am!” I called back. “You aren’t leaving this room until you agree to hear what I have to say!”

“HOW DARE YOU?!” she roared. “You no good, slimy?—”

“Hey, Wes,” Jesse said, standing in the doorway to the kitchen. He didn’t seem surprised to see me or hear our heated exchange. This was just life back to normal for him.

I gave him the man nod. “Hey, man, what’s up?” The office door gave a violent shake and I added my other hand.

Jesse nodded towards the office. “Don’t really sound like she’s too happy.”

Leaning backward to hold the door, which now rattled as though being attacked by a wild bear on the other side, I shrugged and shook my head. “Women, am I right?”

He snickered. “I’ll leave you to it, then.”

That earned him another man nod. “Yeah, say hi to your mama for me.”

Pounding now erupted from the door. Celeste couldn’t pull it open so I guess she settled for beating it down. She was still calling me all sorts of names, but I expected nothing less.

“Celeste, you have to talk to me,” I yelled.

“Like hell I do!” she shouted.

“Lovebug, we both know you don’t have anywhere else to go right now! This is the only way out of there.”

A brief pause and then, “Fine!”

As soon as the door swung open, Celeste’s fist came flying out. She wasn’t forming the fist correctly and we were too far apart for her to actually get much power behind it. Even still, I dipped my head to the left to dodge the hit and smirked at her.

“You’ve literally watched me train with an ultimate fighter,” I scolded.

“Oooh, you!” She stomped her foot, then brushed past me and down the hallway. Apparently, she was too angry to finish her statement.

It wasn’t until she was two steps ahead of me that I realized she had swapped out her jean capris for a pair of Daisy Dukes that made me bite my knuckles and pray for mercy from a god I didn’t believe in. She must have slid on a pair of flip flops in the office, and when I followed her back into the kitchen, held out a broom and dustpan for me to sweep up the mess out front. Celeste went over and started filling the mop bucket with soap and hot water.

Being allowed to clean up had to be a step in the right direction. Metaphorically and literally.

By the time I got into the dining room, the couple who had been in the booth was gone. I really hoped they hadn’t stiffed Celeste on the bill. Sweeping all the glass, I became acutely aware when she came back out in the dining room. It was like the electric charged air right before a lightning storm. We worked in silence for several minutes to clean up the mess, including wiping down the barstools and the base of the counter that got splashed.

Finally, when there were no remnants anywhere, I opened my mouth to speak but she beat me to it.

“What are you doing here, Wes?” Celeste wouldn’t look at me, gazing obstinately at her feet.

It gave me a moment to note all the changes since I had last seen her. Blonde hair, almost similar in shade to mine, was the biggest difference, but she had also gained weight in all the right places. Her body was now like an hourglass and I couldn’t wait to feel it pressed up against me to fall asleep at night. We probably wouldn’t be at that point for a while, though.

“Celeste, I’ve been trying to come home to you for years,” I eventually said.

---