Page 36 of Shameless
Reaching for my phone, I sucked in a small breath when I saw I had a missed call from Blake. “Holy shit,” I exhaled. “He called.”
I quickly went to my voicemail, bummed I’d missed his call, and pressed play. He’d left a message around two in the morning while I was sound asleep and my phone was on silent.
“Hey, sweeeeet thing,” he slurred into the phone. “Talked to Stacey when I got … when I got hooome. You won’t believe what she … said. Well, you don’t know her but, but, that’s probably a good thing. Maaaaybeee you will get to know her ‘cause of what she tooold me. Call me back. Byyyyye.”
The voicemail ended, and I played it again, trying to understand all his garbled words. From what I gathered, whatever bomb his ex had dropped was enough for him to get wasted. My curiosity piqued, I glanced at the time to see if it was too early to call him. Realizing it was almost noon in Houston, I texted in case he was still sleeping off his drunken state.
Hey! Got your message. Call me when you can
I lay back in bed, holding my phone, and waited for his call. After a while, I got up, made a cup of coffee, and turned on the TV to catch up on the shows I’d missed while I was away. Halfway through an episode of a murder mystery series I loved to watch, my phone rang. My heart rate increased as excitement ran through me at the thought of speaking to Blake again, except when I saw who was calling, I realized it wasn’t Blake, but Aunt Deb. I was still happy to hear from her.
Growing up, I had spent most of my summers at her apple farm. At first, it had been a way for me to be out of my parents’ hair for a few weeks, but then it evolved into me staying the entire summer because I had felt as though I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted. I wasn’t going to parties and getting drunk under her roof, but I didn’t have a curfew and I could have my friends stay over to hang out at the lake on her property and just have fun. It was cool to be out from under the watchful eye of my parents, and it allowed me and Aunt Deb to grow closer. Despite being from different generations, she was my best friend.
“Hey, Aunt Deb. How are you?” I greeted.
“I’m good, honey, but I’m not calling to talk about me. How was your trip? Tell me everything.”
“I had so much fun,” I gushed. “But guess who I ran into.”
“Could it be Blake Montgomery?”
I blinked. “How’d you know?”
“Spoke to his mom the other day. She called to tell me he didn’t get married but still went to Cabo. Knew you went there as well and since you asked, I figured you ran into him.”
Did a lot more than run into him, but I wasn’t going to tell her that even though we were close. She didn’t need the details of my sex life.
“Yeah. We were staying at the same resort.”
“How was he? Heartbroken?”
“He was the first day, for sure. But he hung with me and the girls most of the time and seemed to have a good time.”
“Did he say what happened?”
“Just that she left him right before the wedding was supposed to start.”
“So, he didn’t know why?”
“No.” I shook my head. Given his voicemail, it seemed he had since learned why, but since I wasn’t privy to any of the details, I didn’t bother to tell her he’d called me while I was sleeping.
“Well, that boy was a smooth talker back in the day. I’m sure it won’t take him long to find someone else.”
“Yeah,” I sighed, thinking about him coming to visit and what might happen between the two of us. Maybe only friends with benefits, or maybe more. I was newly divorced. Did I want more?
“Enough about him. Tell me more about Mexico.”
“We mostly hung out at the pool and ate and drank,” I told her. I went on to fill her in on the trips and the laughs, but left out the one-on-one time I spent with Blake. After I was done, I asked, “But enough about me. How are you?”
“Oh, honey. You know me. Just piddling around the grounds with Roger and staying busy.” During my second year at Columbia, Aunt Deb met Roger and two years later, they married.
“And you’re feeling okay?” I pressed.
She sighed. “Yes, the medications are helping. You know that.”
“I know, but you know I worry about you.”
“And I worry about you. Have you heard from Trey?” Aunt Deb asked, clearly trying to change the subject to anything but her.
