I don’t want her amends.
“Alcoholism is brutal,” Dr. Hammond says quietly, “and it can get better, but without a support system? She’ll be back in here within the next six months.”
Lifting my head a fraction, I give him a weary look. “If only that was the only thing we were dealing with here.”
Dr. Hammond presses his lips into a thin line, nodding his head in understanding.
“If this doesn’t kill her, the drugs will,” I mutter, scratching the back of my neck and clearing my throat. “I appreciate you telling me, and I appreciate your concern. Tell her I said that I wish her the best, but I just…can’t.”
He nods to me again, but this time, he sends me a friendly smile. “I’ll see you on Thursday, Tatum.”
“Yeah, see you,” I say. “Thank you, Dr. Hammond.”
My brain is static when I get officially discharged at the check-out desk in the hallway outside of my used-to-be hospital room. I’m going through the automated motions as the woman sitting at the computer behind the desk hands me some paperwork and my pain medicine prescription: smiling, nodding, and mutteringthank yous.
I’m on autopilot as I make my way to the elevators to go down to the main lobby, the busy noise around me sounding like a soft hum as I focus on getting out of here. My legs don’t stop moving until I’m stepping out of the front entrance into the cold rain that falls from the grey sky, the same old weather it’s always been in Seattle.
It isn’t until I’m sitting in the cab of my truck that I pull my phone back out, my features melting into a warm smile when I see Maeve’s text.
Mae
Pretty girl? Pretty girl??? Say it again.
I go into her contact from the message and press call, bringing the phone up to my ear and listening to the ringing on the other end. Any anxiety that I have melts away the moment her soft voice sounds in my ear.
“Hello?”
My girl.
“One week until I’m heading home to you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
MAEVE
Thursday, January 13th
I’ve never been one to do things on a whim, but a month ago, that all changed. Little did I know that my entire life was going to be flipped upside down when I agreed to let Tatum take me on that road trip. I had grown in so many ways and healed in others that I didn’t even know I was capable of healing, and now, I was a doing-things-on-a-whim kind of girl.
The current whim being that I just flew all the way back to Seattle before Tate drove back to Pennsylvania so I could ride with him. I’d technically only miss three days of class, since the day we get back is a holiday anyway. Three days is minimal compared to the amount that he’s missing, plus I can do stuff online if I need to.
I wanted it all to come full circle.
I was with him for the entire trip to California and Seattle, and I wanted to be there with him for the drive back home, too.
The only catch to all of this is that Tatum has no idea I’m in an Uber on my way from the airport to his Airbnb. He’s been under the impression that I’ve had classes all day and that’s why I haven’t been able to talk to him as much.
The thought makes a smile tug at the corners of my lips.
It gradually gets darker outside as I sit in the back of the Uber, my hands in my lap, anxiously fidgeting with my phone. There’s a light layer of snow that covers every surface that whizzes by, but it’ll soon be washed away by the misty rain falling from the darkening grey sky. Tate really wasn’t kidding when he said that all it does here is rain.
My phone buzzes in my lap, pulling my attention to it as I look down to see the text message from Tate popping up across the screen.
Tate
Are you still in class?
I bite down on my lip to stifle my giggle, just as the driver pulls up to the tiny house Tate’s been staying at for the past week. Thanking him, I climb from the back of the car and round the open trunk to grab my suitcase. Rain mists against my face as I walk up the sidewalk toward the house, rolling my luggage behind me.
