Page 26 of I Knew You
And he laughed. A spark lit in his eyes.
“Not a serial killer. Come on, show me what you need for a short stay.”
Chapter Five
Bram |September 29, 2024
One moment, I was driving into town alone to help my best friend’s sister unpack her U-Haul. Next, I was navigating the back roads toward my house with Julianna sitting quietly beside me.
Having her within arm’s length felt like a dream. I gripped the steering wheel tighter, knuckles white.If I reached out to touch her, would she disappear?
When Julianna opened the front door of Grams’ house, she'd taken my breath away. Shewas the same tall beauty she had been fifteen years ago, but with more maturity. I’d seen snapshots of her on social media over the years using fake profiles I created so I could search for her. I avoided social media generally because I didn’t find it a worthy use of my limited time. But for Julianna, I’d taken the time. The pictures had been gorgeous, but in person, she was a whole other level of beauty.
I noticed every slight wrinkle around her mouth and eyes, the subtle indicators of time. Even a little chaotic with her messy hair, she was the hottest woman I’d ever seen. Her attempts to shrink her presence by crossing her arms, standing close to objects, and wearing baggy clothes did not detract from her beauty.
I reached over and turned the radio down.
“So, you really don’t have someone waiting on you in Charlotte?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
She stared out at the darkness engulfing the mountains on the horizon. She looked deep in thought.
“Nobody is waiting on me,” she replied. “I have…difficulty with relationships.”
Maybe she didn’t mean those words as a passive-aggressive dig at me, but I felt it as one all the same.
“I don’t think it’s wrong for you to be wary, considering all the loss you’ve been through.”
“It’s ridiculous,” she scoffed. “People deal with so much more in their lives than I have. Who am I to operate off a little trauma?”
I shook my head. “Don’t minimize your experiences. Your parents abandoned you, then you lost the only parent you had when you were still a teen, and to top it off, you got in a car accident with?—”
“I don’t regret that,” she blurted, “I got in the truck with you willingly that night.”
My insides froze. How could she not?
“I regret that night enough for us both, then,” I said, my voice barely a whisper.
“I would rather not talk about any of that.”
The finality in her tone caused a nervous lump in my throat. Merely a few minutes into our journey, and everything was going wrong quickly. I had to change the subject. “Okay,” Isaid. “Tell me about yourself. What have you been doing these days?”
This seemed to interest her, and she sat up a little in her seat.
“I ran social media marketing for a publishing company for the past ten years. But I lost my job the week before last.”
“Fuck. I’m sorry. I can confidently say they had no idea what they were losing.”
“That’s sweet of you to say,” she replied. “But how do you know? I could have been crap at it.”
I grinned, keeping my eyes on the road ahead. “No one keeps a job for ten years if they suck, especially a high-stakes one like that. Did you like doing that type of work?”
She sighed. “Yes, I loved it, and I think I was good at it.”
“I’m sure you were. It sounds like a them-problem, not a you-problem.”
“Maybe.” She looked down at her lap. “I won’t say I’m not upset about it, but the news about my back has overshadowed the grief of it.”
“Understandable. How did you end up here?” I already knew this part of the story, but I absorbed her voice as she told me the things Whit already had.
