Chapter 16
659 Words
Sara Michaels
I drove slow. Too slow for my liking. The streets were empty and the city lights smeared across my windshield like wet paint. My hands stayed tight on the wheel, knuckles white. Kingsley’s jacket was still wrapped around me warmly, heavy, smelling like him. I didn’t take it off. Didn’t want to. It felt like the only thing holding me together right now.
My lips still tingled.
His taste still lingered...coffee, mint, something deeper I couldn’t name. Every time I swallowed I tasted him again. My heart hadn’t stopped racing since we pulled apart in that parking lot. It kept slamming against my ribs like it wanted out.
I shouldn’t have kissed him.
I shouldn’t have wanted to kiss him again the second we stopped.
But I did and that scared me more than anything.
I reached for my phone in the cup holder. Thumb hovered over Lucy’s name.
I needed to talk to someone. Anyone.
Lucy would understand. She always did. She’d laugh, call me crazy, tell me to breathe, tell me Tom didn’t deserve my tears.
I pressed call. It rang several times, but it all went straight to voicemail.
I stared at the screen.
Maybe she was busy. Maybe she was sleeping. Maybe her phone was dead.
I tried again. Same thing.
A small knot twisted in my stomach.
I set the phone down and kept driving.
The road curved past a quiet intersection. The a black SUV idled at the light ahead. I slowed behind it.
Then I saw Lucy... Or thought I did.
A woman stepping out of a café doorway with her styled black hair, familiar cat walk, thick coat pulled tight. She laughed at something someone said, head thrown back.
"Emily?" I breathed.
And the person she was laughing with…
"Lucy?" My breath caught.
They walked toward the SUV together. Emily’s hand brushed Lucy’s arm casually and so familiar like they had done it a thousand times. Lucy smiled up at her like they’d known each other forever.
My foot eased off the gas.
"No. It couldn’t be."
I squinted through the windshield. Streetlight caught Lucy’s profile, they had the same jawline, same way she tucked her hair behind her ear when she was nervous.
It was her. My best friend.
Laughing with the woman who was wreckingy home.
The light changed and the SUV pulled away.
I sat frozen.
My hands shook on the wheel.
No. I was seeing things. I had to be. Lucy hated Emily. She’d said it a hundred times—called her fake, called her a leech, said she’d never trust anyone who hurt me.
It wasn’t her.
It couldn’t be.
I pressed the gas really hard. The car lurched forward.
My phone buzzed on the seat.
I glanced down.
"Ruby Lane." I breathed, my heart leapt in my chest.
I answered on speaker.
“Hey, girl,” Ruby’s voice came through...warm, bright, like always. “Where are you? I’m in town for two days only. Can we meet? Like… now? I miss your face.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat.
“Yeah,” I said. Voice steadier than I felt. “Yeah, I can meet. Where?”
“That little café on 7th? The one with the fairy lights. Twenty minutes?”
“Twenty minutes,” I echoed.
She laughed. “Don’t be late. I’ve got wine and gossip and I’m not drinking alone.”
I forced a smile she couldn’t see. “I’m coming.”
I ended the call and kept my gaze at the road.
My heart was still pounding.... from Kingsley, from the kiss, from what I thought I saw.
I told myself it was nothing. A trick of the light.
A pure coincidence.
But deep down… something cold settled in my chest.
Something that whispered:
*You’re losing more than you think.*
I drove toward the café. Lights blurred past.
Tears blurred them more. I wiped them away angrily.
- Writer
