Page 91 of Lake
I finally gave up and collapsed back against the cabinets when I could no longer move my arms and my fingers were completely black.
This wasn’t helping me but I didn’t know what else to do. It was late, I knew I should try to sleep but I had a feeling it wasn’t going to happen. I took a shower, hoping to wash the dirt and grime and day away.
As soon as I turned the water off, I heard my phone ringing in the other room. I rushed to wrap the towel around me and wring my hair out at the same time.
“Why now?” I said out loud as I stared at the video icon from Lake. “Why can’t you just talk on the phone like a normal person? Or text. Yes, that would be better sometimes.”
“What was that?” he asked and I hadn’t realized that I’d swiped to connect.
“Uhhhh…”
“Were you talking to yourself?”
“No,” I said defensively and he gave me a look like he didn’t believe me even for a second. “Fine, yes. Why do you have to do the video thing? Especially right now. And you weren’t supposed to call me.”
Yes, I scolded him. I should have done it the first time he called, but I was a mess then and wasn’t even really thinking as I talked to him.
I should have let it go but I couldn’t handle this now. I couldn’t have him calling when I may have really needed to hear his voice. When I needed to feel like I had someone that was there. That cared.
It would have been so much easier if he’d just let me go.
Maybe.
Okay, I knew that was kind of a lie.
“Because… I missed your beautiful face…”
Okay, awww.
“And I told you I’d call you,” he said with a tiny upturn of his lips. “But if now is a bad time… wait, are you… uh, um.” And that was the moment it set in that I was freshly out of the shower. Oh, and he was blushing.
“I swear to God if you say something about phone sex right now I will hang up on you.” I was maybe only half-joking.
“What?!” His eyes widened with shock. “I wasn’t even thinking that. Well, I wasn’t until you said something about it. I would never ask something like that. Unless… you wanted to…”
“Lake,” I said with a hint of a warning in my tone though I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading on my face. “I’m fine. You don’t need to worry. There is a lot that happened today and I think I’m still trying to catch up to it all.”
“Wanna talk about it?” he asked and the lust was cleared from his eyes. I could see that he really meant that he would be there for me if I needed him right now.
“Okay, fine.”
I tossed the phone on the bed knowing he would have a great view of my dusty ceiling fan while I got dressed without perverted eyes. I yelled across the room as I began to fill him in on everything. Once I was decent, I came back to the phone, giving him my face as settled back against my headboard.
“I have no clue what to do now,” I said sounding completely defeated.
“When is your lease up?”
“Uh,” I paused to think. “Three months.”
“Okay, that’s good. This is a simple enough fix.”
“You say that like my life didn’t just get turned upside down. The rug is gone, Lake. Pulled out so fast that my feet are still kicking mid-air trying to land onsomething.”
“Take the three months. Figure out something that would make you happy. Do that. Try a bunch of different things, if you aren’t sure. And maybe…”
“Maybe what, Lake?”
“Maybe when your lease is up, if you haven’t found your footing again, you could try someplace new. Just a thought.”
