I break the silence ready to bury the hatchet and bury myself in a Mason-hug. “Do you think you can forgive me? For putting up a wall between us. For letting my insecurities get the best of me, and for not being there for you when you needed me?” The thoughtful look on Mason’s face is replaced with a smile. “Yes. If you can forgive me for doing the same.”
“Done.” I stick my hand out to shake on it.
Mason grabs my hand and gives it one firm shake.
I was thinking about where to take our conversation next, when I let out a huge yawn.
“You can take the guest room.” Mason points to the door to the right of the kitchen.
“Are you sure? You’re already doing me a favor by letting me stay here, and I don’t want to impose.”
“I’m sure. I already set your bags in there earlier.”
“Oh, great thanks for doing that…um I guess I’ll go get ready for bed then.” I head toward the door and enter the room, calling out, “Goodnight.” Shutting the door behind me I try my best not to think about the fact that Mason is only two hundred feet away, and even that feels like too much distance.
twenty-three
. . .
Mason
I wakeup and decide to get a head start on making breakfast. Clearing the air with Violet opened my eyes to some changes I desperately needed to make. I didn’t want to be the Mason who never made an effort to check in on his friends or call his parents back. Or the Mason who took things, or people, for granted. I didn’t want to be the Mason who never took any of his relationships seriously to give himself an out. I wanted to be better. For myself, for those I loved. I couldn’t change the past, but I could try to move forward.
Violet was making changes too, it seemed. One of the hardest parts about seeing her again was realizing that the person I had once known better than I knew myself was a complete stranger to me. She’d always had difficulty letting people in, trustingthem. And I hated that she was more guarded around everyone now— the walls she had up were now covered in barbed wire. I wanted to be the guy she once trusted but without all the commitment phobias. The one person she let past all her defenses. Maybe one day she would share her lunch with me again.
Penny makes an excited noise, cueing me that Violet has entered the dining room.
“I ran into your mom recently. She says ‘Hi.’”
I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt. Another relationship I needed to fix.Add it to the list. “You went back home?”
“Yup. Just a little day trip to Castle Harbor, though both of our moms acted like it had beenyearssince I’d last seen them.”
“Dramatic as always, those two.”
“And meddlesome.” She grumbles to herself.
“Oh?”
“They staged a whole intervention. About how we weren’t talking to each other anymore. They’ll be glad to take full responsibility for our makeup.”
I’d like to say I was surprised but, “That tracks. I kinda got my own version of an intervention a few years ago.”
“Oh? Do tell.”
“I’m sure it was the same as yours. Ya know the usual, ‘You need to fix things…apologize…’ all that good stuff.”
“And?”
“What makes you think there’s an ‘and’?”
She gets up from the table and leans her hip against the counter, now only a few inches from me. Penny saunters off, probably late for some demon cat seance. “C’mon just tell me.”
My attention goes back to the eggs in my pan. “Part of the intervention may or may not have included pictures of how happy I was before our fight and how miserable and tired I looked at the time.”
Violet closes her eyes and covers her mouth, a suppressed laugh escaping. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh.” She breaks again,bursting into a fit of giggles. “Interventions are a serious matter.”
“Yes, it was very serious when they pointed out the growth of the bags under my eyes and how I wasn’t filling out my shirts like I used to. Your mother poked at my gut for emphasis Violet.”
