Page 94 of The Charmed Friends of Trove Isle
Liz felt Melody watching as she prepared her drink. “When are you leaving?”
“Tomorrow. I have a few things I need to wrap up before I go.”
Like selling Hidden Treasures.
Liz turned and slid the coffee across the counter to Melody. Then she grabbed a square of parchment paper and tongs to retrieve a cinnamon twist. She already knew what Melody wanted. Then again, she’d thought that about the sale of Hidden Treasures too. “Here you go.” She placed the wrapped twist on the counter and began to ring Melody up. When Melody handed her debit card over, Liz’s gaze dropped to her wrist. It was bare. She glanced at the other one.
“I tried to find it,” Melody said as if reading her thoughts. “After you threw it at me.”
Liz cringed slightly. Not her finest moment. “What do you mean you tried to find it? You couldn’t?”
Melody shook her head and shrugged. “I practically crawled around on my knees, in my prom dress. I don’t know what happened to it.”
Liz felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. That bracelet was special. It had survived all this time, and in some way, it had brought Liz and Melody back together. “You have to find it.”
“Even Christopher looked. We returned to the gym on Sunday and we both went through that room with a fine-tooth comb. No trace of our bracelet.”
Liz steadied herself against the counter, feeling dizzy.
“I’m sorry, Liz. I know how much it meant to you.”
“To me?” Liz blinked and looked up. “Right. It didn’t mean anything to you. You were just here for what? To ease your guilty conscience and then return to Charlotte and forget about everyone here again.”
“That’s not true.”
“The bracelet is gone. This little back and forth deal we had with sharing it is done. Just like our friendship.”
Melody’s eyes subtly widened. “So, we can’t be friends anymore just because I’m selling the store? Like I always planned to do. That makes no sense, Liz.”
Liz was typically slow to anger, but the emotion was suddenly bubbling up inside her. “You lied, Melody. You said you were going to keep the store as Hidden Treasures and I believed you. I can’t believe I honestly thought you were serious.”
“I was,” Melody insisted.
“Maybe you were lying to yourself too, then. The thing is, if you lied about this, who’s to say you aren’t lying about coming back to Trove after you leave? About maintaining our friendship.” Liz nudged the cinnamon twist in the parchment paper closer to Melody. “Have a nice life, Melody.”
“Liz? Wait,” Melody said.
Liz turned her back to her old friend. Maybe she was being irrational, but she couldn’t seem to help it. The fact that Melody was allowing the store to be sold this way was just further proof Melody couldn’t be counted on or trusted.
“Liz? I told you I would maintain our friendship this time. I meant it. We moved past all this,” Melody called after her.
Liz turned to look at her, anger and hurt swirling around in the center of her chest. “Maybe you did. I guess I didn’t.” A bell dinged from the kitchen. “The bites are ready. I need to get them out of the oven. Have a safe triphome.”
* * *
That evening, Liz rode her bike in the drizzling rain. She could drive now, but she didn’t have a car. Rose had taken their mom’s vehicle back to their parent’s house. That was fine because Liz needed the exercise to clear her head. By the time she turned into her driveway, her clothing was soaked through. She didn’t notice Matt until she pushed her bicycle toward her garage. She left it under the shelter of the open garage door and sprinted through the rain toward the cover of her front porch.
“Hey,” she finally said. “What are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you.” He was sitting on the front porch swing. “I saw your parents arrive in town earlier. I figured Rose would be back there tonight and you’d be here alone. I wanted to check on you.”
Liz stepped over to one of the rocking chairs near the swing and sat down. “That’s sweet. But I’m fine.”
“I would have given you a lift home from work if I’d had any forethought.”
“I like to ride my bike.”
“It’s raining. Next time call me, Liz.”
