“I’ve never been with Emma. She was Sara’s best friend and up to a few months ago, I thought she was mine.”
“Until you realized she’s in love with you.”
I’m shocked by her perception. “How did you—”
“It was all over her face. The sting of unrequited love.”
“So, you’re not mad?”
“No. The bigger issue is that she was able to get here.”
My stomach drops, and I suddenly feel ill. I know what she means; I choose to play stupid.
“So?”
“If she can get in, then I can get out.”
“No.”
Celeste turns to me with tears in her eyes. “Beau, we knew this would happen. Eventually, the hurricane would pass and allow me to leave. Apparently, that’s today.”
“No,” I repeat. “You don’t have to leave today. There’s still so much to discuss.”
I finally meet a woman who engages my mind and body, now she wants to leave. Surprisingly, the thought of going on without her fills me with low-level despair. My emotions are too strong. I collapse on the bed. To my relief, Celeste cuddles up next to me.
“Tell me about Sara.”
I wrap my arm around her and release a shaky breath.
“She was full of life. Sara loved challenges and took on as many as her body would allow. She didn’t grow up rich, so she had a passion for rooting for the underdog. We went to law school together. I chose to specialize in criminal law and she chose family law. She wanted to advocate for the innocent who felt they didn’t have a voice. She did it pro bono because she knew the people who would need her the most couldn’t afford a lawyer.”
I suck back some tears and continue. “Three years ago, she came home so excited that she’d won a huge case. She was able to save a woman and her children from a rich asshole who mistreated them. Not only did she get the woman a divorce and custody, she was able to get her a sizable settlement to fund her and her kids starting over. Sara was flying high. We celebrated hard: dinner, dancing, and a lot of drinks. We returned here…”
I pause for a moment as the pain of the memory sideswipes me. I try again.
“We came back here, and she thought it would be fun to play around in the water. We were drunk, our inhibitions were down, and our egos were high. We figured we could handle a late-night swim in low moonlight since we grew up here.”
The familiar ache returns to my heart, and the tears flow unencumbered.
“Sara…she…went out too far and got caught in the blackness of the ocean. I could hear her yelling my name but because of the echo from the water and the empty night, I couldn’t tell where she was. I yelled for her and swam in a tight circle—nothing. I ran to the shore, turned on the lights to our vehicles and grabbed a waterproof flashlight. Eventually, her yelling stopped. I looked until I was exhausted, and my voice was hoarse…”
The sobs that had eluded me all these years shake my body. Something inside my chest that held in my emotions broke, crushing the dam holding my feelings. Celeste held me to her chest and let my tears soak her body. She gripped my head with one hand and rubbed my back with the other.
“Maybe, if I would have asked for help sooner…”
“Don’t second guess yourself, Beau.”
“She needed me to save her, and I couldn’t. I wasn’t enough.”
Celeste allowed me to cry for a few more minutes before she spoke again.
“Look at me, Beau.” My eyes were cloudy with tears, but I did what she asked.
She wipes my tears away and kisses my eyelids.
“Listen to me. There was nothing you could have done.”
“You don’t know; you weren’t there.”
