Max
Hamptons– October
Twice I’d been the one who’d been left behind. I thought thathad been hard, but leaving Isaac at Lisbon airport was like my heart was ripped apart, sewn back together, only to be torn again in an endless cycle of pain.
I’d been back in New York for four weeks, and each day felt heavier than the one before.
I’d done my usual: back-to-back shifts at the hospital and spending time with Joel and David. I’d also been visiting Diogo, making sure he was okay until his uncle moved to New York to live with him, which had happened a few days ago.
The only place I had not been to was Liberty Center. Dorian had called several times saying the young guys and girls had asked about me. I calculated it would have been nearly six weeks since my last visit to the Center, but I just couldn’t do it.
I knew it would be too painful because everything there would remind me of the time I’d spent with Isaac.
After a week of non-stop calls from well-intentioned friends, I escaped to Jojo’s house in the Hamptons for the weekend. I was intending to eat my bodyweight in cookie dough and do nothing more than cozying up by the fire or walking on the beach.
My plans were unceremoniously crashed by Joel and David, who decided they needed to spend this weekend with me because they were due to fly back to Portugal in two weeks.
They’d arrived a couple of hours after me, and in the same evening, Dorian and Jean-Paul, who were flying to France in a week to spend the next two months with Jean-Paul’s mom in Paris, also turned up. Apparently, Halloween was a thing this year, and I couldn’t miss it.
I was angry with all of them for crashing my pity party. I wasn’t in the mood to socialize, especially not around two loved-up couples. Joel and David couldn’t keep their hands off each other, and even Dorian and Jean-Paul, who’d been together for years, had kicked the PDA up a notch. They’d been acting very secretive over this trip to France. They visited Jean-Paul’s mom at least twice a year but never for this long. Normally I’d poke and prod until I got the truth out of them, but I didn’t have the energy right now.
Our usual arrangement was that I kept an eye on the center while they were away, but this time, I hadn’t been asked.
After a morning of grocery shopping, brunching, and generallypretending to be happy, I’d finally found solace in the sunroom. The happy couples had disappeared, either for a walk on the beach or up to their room, so I had retreated to my favorite place in the house.
I loved the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that covered the round shape of the room. The only part connecting to the house was the door,so it felt like I was sitting right on the beach but with the benefit of keeping out of the chilly fall breeze.
The view wasn’t much different from what I’d observed weeks ago when I’d been here last. I wondered if it was always like this, families or couples walking on the beach, people walking dogs, kids playing on the sand.
Jojo would know the answer since she’d lived in the house for over fifty years.
The photo of a much-younger Jojo with her husband and son, Joel’s dad, grabbed my attention. I picked it up, looking at the details. They were on the beach with the house in the background, looking sohappy. I missed her. She always had good advice regardless ofwhether someone requested it.
I placed the frame back on the side table and looked again at the choppy waters in front of me.
What is your plan, Max?I thought to myself. I needed something to keep me busy in the coming months. Maybe I could ask Dorian if there was anything I could do at the center. Since they’d be away over Christmas, I was sure I could at least help with the usual activities.
Or maybe I could do something that would occupy me for much longer than the next few months.
With all my friends away, I would have plenty of time, and I definitely didn’t want to focus on the lack of people around me.
Before Sílvia had died, I’d talked to her about training to be a pediatric nurse. She’d encouraged me to go for it, saying the ER would become too tiresome at some point and that I had a talent working with the younger patients. It had been a while since I’d thought about going back to school.
I made a mental note to check out colleges and funding when I got home tomorrow evening.
My heart skipped a beat when I saw a slim, curly-haired guy in the distance, but as soon as I caught my breath I remembered the guy from last time. Maybe he was a local or someone who had friends nearby, or maybe he justenjoyed visiting.
I laughed. If I was going to come here more often to relax while Joel was in Portugal, I was going to have to get used to seeing the guy around. I figured the only way to stop confusing him with Isaac would be to introduce myself. Maybe if I saw him close-up, my brain would realize he was nothing like Isaac and stop skipping a beat every time he walked on the beach.
I got up and left toward the beach through the external door and the set of steps that led right onto the sand.
The wind was much cooler than I was expecting, and I felt the chill all the way down to my bones. I sped up toward the guy, tucking my face in the collar of my shirt to keep the wind from hitting as hard.
While I was walking toward not-Isaac, I wasn’t looking up, so with my increased speed to keep warm, I nearly bumped into him.
“Shit, I’m so—”I froze. Not-Isaac was not not-Isaac. Not-Isaac was, “Isaac!”
I shook my head and closed my eyes. Maybe the shift in temperature from the warmth of the sunroom to the cold outdoors had me seeing things.
