Page 16 of See You Sometime
He scrolled through her timeline and found a post from last Wednesday, where it looked like she was living in Sarasota again.
He checked out her profile pic, a selfie that was tagged as having been taken at sunset over on Venice Beach on Saturday evening.
Her long, curly red hair blew loose around her face. He couldn’t see her eyes because of her sunglasses, but her smile still touched something deep inside him the way it had back in high school.
She was still pretty. Instead of her looks fading, she’d matured, turned into a natural beauty who fortunately seemed not to have turned to Botox or lip injections.
They’d had good times. Innocent times compared to some kids, when he looked back in retrospect.
They’d beensooofreaking young back then.
About the age our kids maybe would have been if we’d stayed together and got married.
He hadn’t held the breakup against her, either. He’d quickly moved on to someone else, and they had enough friends in common it was easier to stay friends than trying to split up the group. Especially since they gamed together.
Then college hit and, for a while, everyone sort of scattered, most of the group coming back as they entered the real world and became “adults.”
Last he’d heard, she’d gotten married and moved to Pennsylvania after college. The pictures he’d seen her post from time to time looked like she was happy, had a handsome guy.
Meanwhile, he’d met Linda and married her…
Back to square one.
He’d learned over the years that “what might have been” lines of thinking only led to heartache and wasted energy.
Better to focus on the here and now.
Except he didn’t miss that Skye no longer had any pictures of her husband on her profile.
At all.
I’d love to see her sometime.
Perhaps that stove was best left untouched, though.
He’d ask Rusty and the gang about her on Tuesday. Maybe he could subtly work in a comment or two.
Very subtly. Rolling a natural twenty for gather information kind of subtle. Otherwise, Rusty, Grant, and the others would be playfully busting his balls about it, and he didn’t need that kind of embarrassment in his life.
He’d already had enough of that with Linda and the divorce.
At one point, he actually visited Skye’s profile again and his thumb hovered over the button to send her a message. Just one line.
Would love to see you sometime.
Yet…he chickened out. If she was involved with someone, that’d sting like fuck, and he was no masochist. A sadist, maybe, considering how he enjoyed torturing his friends during D&D, but definitelynota masochist.
The server was finally brought back online that afternoon, but that meant he’d be working until late in the night to finish the project and print the plans. He ran out at six to grab a sub for dinner. By the time he finally returned home a little after midnight, he was mentally wrung out and felt exhausted, drained.
But the plans were printed and sitting on the drafting table in his office, ready to go.
Tomorrow night, at least, he could unwind, relax during gaming. His weekly escape valve, even if Rusty did sometimes have a sadistic knack for jamming a spork in Axel’s chill.
* * * *
Tuesday, Axel left work realizing his plan to go home to eat before heading to Grant and Darryl’s wouldn’t work.
He had meant to go grocery shopping Monday after work, but hadn’t made it.
