Page 94 of Townshipped
“He’s different around you,” Laura says. “Like you bring out this protective streak which he’s always had, but it’s more.”
“I see that too,” I agree. “But is it more as in,Hey, you’re the woman who crashed into my treemore,or more likeI finally met the woman of my dreamsmore? Gah! I can’t believe I just said that out loud!”
I sit there, grateful for the darkness, but also wishing I had a word vacuum to suck back all the verbal overflow that just spewed out of my mouth.
“Welcome to the club,” Lexi says.
“Yep,” Laura adds.
“We all go there,” Shannon agrees. “Questioning the man we crush on. Wondering if he feels the same. Convinced he does. Then just as convinced he doesn’t.”
“And who might this mysterious crush be?” Jayme asks, pointing her finger at Shannon.
“I’m talking about when we like a guy. In the hypothetical,” Shannon deflects. “And right now we’re talking about Em and Aiden.”
“Nice try,” Jayme says. “You’re not off the hot seat, missy.”
“Agreed,” Laura says. “But we’re still here for Em.” Then turning to me, she says, “You’ve been holding all this in without anyone to sort it through with.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s so hard,” Lexi says. “A woman alone in her own head is a dangerous place.”
“I’d rather go through that creepy fun house at the fair alone than spend too much time upstairs in my own head without you three as a sounding board,” Jayme agrees.
“That place is creepy,” Lexi says.
“My head or the fun house?” Jayme asks.
“The fun house!” Lexi answers. “Because of the clown faces.”
“And that one clown head that moves while making that eerie laugh. Who thinks up these things?” Laura asks.
“Creepy clowns,” Shannon adds. “As if they needed any help making us weirded out over clowns. They have to put them in a fun house tunnel and add those otherworldly laughs. And what were our parents thinking taking us through that as impressionable children?”
“I had nightmares of those things,” Lexi says. “That laugh!”
They all mock the laugh of the clowns and that leads to us all dissolving in laughing fits.
Slowly a pensive quiet falls over us. “Here’s what I know,” Laura says. “Time reveals all things. You’ll either find out you and Aiden were merely friends and he kissed you because you’re a beautiful woman who’s too hard to resist while you’re staying under his roof, or you’re going to find out he’s falling for you. Unfortunately, you’re just going to have to wait this out.”
I nod. She’s right.
“And, I feel so torn,” I tell them, wondering if they spiked my cocoa with truth serum. “The more my memories come back, the more I’m like a woman doing the splits over two moving vehicles.”
“Nice simile,” Jayme says.
“What do you mean?” Shannon asks me.
“I’ve got the life here that I want to build. But then I remember my life elsewhere and I miss parts of it. Like my best friend—Gabriela. I miss her and want her back. If anyone ever finds me, I’ll have to choose between Bordeaux and the life I had before I crashed here.”
“Everyone goes through that,” Lexi says. “When you think about it, life is a series of forks in the road. We can’t go both ways. We have to choose.”
“The road less traveled,” I mutter.
“What?” Shannon asks
“Frost,” Jayme answers. “The poem. He stood at a fork in the road and stared. He took the road less traveled and it made all the difference.”
