“Liam said he would be here in five minutes,” I said by way of hello.
“Good.”
If I could read people, I could swear he was anxious, at the very least.
“Is there anything else you’d like for me to arrange?” I asked.
“No,” he curtly replied, and the entire house slipped into silence.
When Liam arrived, and had put his suitcase in the trunk of the car, we drove out onto the road and headed to the airport.
And as much as I tried to refrain from looking at him, I stole forbidden glances at him, though I might not have successfully been covert with them.
It worried me that his beautiful eyes were as cold as ice and as distant as the sky from the earth. But I couldn’t bring myself to ask him what was wrong.
I swallowed up my plethora of questions as I watched him move farther and farther away from me. It was as though we were being separated again.
“Shall we leave?” Liam’s impatient voice jolted me out of my thoughts.
Without looking back, I entered the car, and he drove away.
*****
There wasn’t a lot of communication between us the entire day. I had no idea how much it affected my mood until my mother called late in the afternoon while I was having my lunch break, and asked why I sounded so low.
“Is this about Christian?” She ultimately asked.
“No,” I lied.
“What is it then?” She persisted.
My mind was so blank that I couldn’t conjure up a lie that Christian would not appear in, so I chose to keep quiet.
“Is this about your father?” She solemnly queried. I felt a pang of fresh sorrow hit through my body. I recalled the depth of pain I had felt upon the news of his death, and I thought I was going to relive it.
“I know you miss him, and living in Laketown must be hard on you,” she said, and I could hear the concern in her voice.
I have been trying to not think about it. In my head, my father was dead, and there was nothing I could do but accept it. The emotion started a thought in my mind. My father was buried here, in Laketown, so I could definitely visit his grave.
“I’m fine,” I replied. “Work was just stressful today.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Tell me how the bakery is fairing these days that your favorite attraction isn’t there to help you bring in customers.”
My mother laughed, loud and happy. And launched into tales about her customers. It made me smile, and I considered it a perfect way to spend my lunch break.
When I was about to leave work late in the afternoon, I saw a woman lashing out at Mason in front of the building.
She looked furious, and in the car behind them, a young girl of about eight was peering innocently out of the window.
Apparently, he had felt eyes were on him, and as soon our eyes locked, I fled from the scene.
Throughout my ride home, I kept thinking about him and the woman who looked like she could raise hell from the slightest provocation.
As I joined the pieces together, I recalled I might have seen the woman before.
Yes! She was the next-door neighbor who had just moved in the previous day.
But then, how was she related to Mason? I was greatly puzzled, and it seemed like if I was able to decipher the situation, I would be able to demystify Mason as a person.
I couldn’t possibly ignore the creeps I got whenever he glared at me.
Obviously, I was not his person, but I didn’t know the reason. Yet, he was not friendlier with the other female staff members.
********
On the day Christian was to return to town, I saw the woman again when I stepped out to tend to the cactus plants on my porch.
This time, she was not yelling at anybody; she only saw off the man she was living with.
Then, the young girl from the other day proceeded out of the house, staring blankly at them.
She looked so morose and aloof that you could take her for one of Michelangelo’s statues, save for the fact that she was well-dressed.
When the man had driven out of the house, the woman turned to the girl.
“You can go to your father’s today.” She said and walked in.
