Page 133 of Will Bark for Pizza
“I’m going to do one last walk-through,” Kira said as the others piled onto the elevator.
I nodded, grabbing a couple of trash bags and taking the stairs. I waved the others off as they filed into Lila’s car, and went back inside for another load.
When I returned to the apartment, I found Kira standing in front of the same small box on the kitchen counter, visibly shaking.
“Is there a bomb in there or something?” I teased, hoping to calm the tension pouring off her in waves.
“Not quite,” she said, sniffling through a forced smile, drawing my attention to the redness in her eyes. Hell, had she been crying?
“Hey, if you don’t want to move, we can unload that truck right now?—”
Kira sputtered a laugh through the tears. “It’s not that.” She wiped beneath her eyes with the back of her hand. “It’s . . . hard to explain.”
I leaned against an adjacent counter, giving her space but staying close. “You want to try?”
She took a deep breath and released it slowly. “A couple of weeks after I broke up with Travis, he showed upbearing giftsfor my thirty-second birthday.”
I made a mental note to learn her birthday the first chance I got. But for now,I just listened.
“I asked him not to contact me. After everything I went through with him, I thought it was the least he could do for me. But, of course, he didn’t like that. He tried everything to get me to take him back. When I ignored the influx of phone calls, voicemails, and texts, he decided to show up at my apartment with presents. I didn’t let him in, but he left them outside my door when I refused to answer.”
“I’m guessing he didn’t come over much?”
Kira let out aha!“He was always too good to spend time in my apartment, since he had a perfectly good house. It was his way of punishing me for not moving in with him. God, I’m so fucking thankful I never caved on that.”
The urge to reach for her, to pull her gently into my arms and hold her, overwhelmed my senses. I gripped the granite counter behind me, hoping it was enough to root me in place as she continued.
“He went out of his way for my birthday. Bought me all these gifts that were so specifically me. I know that sounds sweet, but after the couple of birthdays before this one . . .” She shook her head. “Let’s just say, his idea of giving someone a present was to make them feel guilty for wanting one at all, and eventually taking them to a store and telling them to pick their own. And then acting like he did you the greatest kindness ever.”
“Geez.” I had a whole helluva lot more to say on the matter, but I kept my thoughts to myself so Kira could finish.
“It was infuriating getting this stupid box of presents. It proved he was paying attention the whole time, but never wanted to put in the effort until it mightbenefit him. But it was too late to matter. I donated all the gifts to a shelter. But he also wrote me a letter.” She opened the box and pulled out a single envelope with a folded-up sheet of yellow legal pad. “The only reason I’ve held on to it is because I wanted to burn it. But they kind of frown upon setting fires inside apartments.”
“I imagine they do.”
“I’m not taking it back to Colorado with me,” she said, dropping it into the box and closing the flaps. “I don’t want that negativity following me. I guess the dumpster is as good a place as any for it.”
“No,” I said, pushing off the counter.
“No?”
“You want to burn it, we’re going to burn it.”
“But how?”
“You leave that to me.” I grabbed another load of trash.
Together, we emptied the apartment of the remaining garbage in two trips. Lila had promised to send in cleaners tomorrow, so Kira propped the small box beneath her arm as she locked the door for the last time.
We rode the elevator down in charged silence. I wanted to hold her hand, to touch her lower back, to put my arm around her and tug her against me. But since I couldn’t do any of those things without setting off a chain reaction neither of us might be strong enough to fight, I did the next best thing. I drove us to a spot just past the edge of town and pulled over on the side of a gravel road surrounded by cornfields.
“I don’t understand,” Kira said.
I reached across her lap for the glove box and retrieved a lighter. Did I mean to graze her thigh when I did? Fuck,I couldn’t pretend it was an accident. I was desperate to touch her, even if for a single seemingly innocent moment. “C’mon,” I said, pushing my door open and hopping out.
The small burn barrel I’d forgotten to remove from my truck bed was buried beneath the totes we’d stacked there, but I managed to dig it out. I intended to leave it at the Kniffen Street house to make more room for Kira’s things, but I stayed late to hang curtains at the bookstore last night and forgot until we were fifty miles down the road. Connie would insist there were no such things as coincidences.
I set the barrel up in front of the truck, firmly in gravel. It was oversized for just a letter, but it would do the trick.
