Elodie returns and still appraises me strangely as she sitsLola in the highchair, and she slides herself into the booth and hands Lola a book from her bag.
The waitress in an apron appears, sets down a piece of chocolate cake and two iced teas, and leaves.
Elodie swings her gaze to me and seems unimpressed. “Please tell me that you are not trying to feed my two-year-old chocolate cake two hours before her bedtime.”
“I mean, why not?”
She rubs her temples. “Oh my God, you are doomed if you ever have kids.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen if you don’t tell me how Savannah is doing.”
I swear I see sympathy shadowing her face. “I shouldn’t be here. But I am here to listen because nobody wants to see two people apart if they fit.”
“Obviously, you think something.”
She puffs out a breath and slides the plate of cake to Lola. “Go ahead, kid. This evening has already gone downhill.” I’m waiting for a morsel of insight. “Julian, she’s miserable. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this way. That’s probably why… and you can’t repeat this. But maybe… she can’t see every detail of this situation.”
“I’ve guessed that. What should I do? You know her best.”
Taking a fork, she takes a giant bite of the cake for herself, probably to delay continuing this conversation.“Maybe time. Maybe it isn’t meant to be. I don’t have an answer. I’ve never seen her with someone, and it’s intense.”
“Why is it intense?”
She gives me a you-already-know look. “From day one of her becoming your assistant, you have both been heavily in one another’s orbits. When you two went a step further, it’s like lust took over, and you two went full swing. Itwasn’t slow, but it seems to be the only way you two would be. I can’t imagine another way.So yeah, I can’t help you much.”
Everything she says is on point, but I don’t know how to be anything but determined, and not quietly either.
“Fine. Tell me where she is. I need to see her.”
She plays with a fork and watches Lola smoosh cake between her fingers.
“Did you mean what you said about the child thing, that it can’t happen without her? Does that mean you see something long into the future with her?”
I think for a moment, because only now do I realize what I said. Second nature, perhaps, and everything I never imagined, either.“I-I… Maybe so.This isn’t a fling.”
She smacks her lips together and debates with herself for a few seconds.“So, a longstanding kind of relationship?”
“Yes.” It bursts out of my mouth without hesitation and catches even me off guard.
“Well, if you’re so confident that you and she are meant to be and you know her so well, the answer to where she is should be pretty obvious, no?”
Multiple thoughts travel in my brain waves. My mind finds the page in my head, causing me to close my eyes and curse to myself. I was hoping she had locked herself in her apartment to decompress, but if I had stepped back from my panic, then I always knew. “She went back to Everhope.”
Elodie nods. “Escaping you, the city, waiting in a coffee shop on Main Street and driving herself crazy staring at the Riverbell.”
“I’ll go to her.”
“I’m not sure it’s the best idea.”
I shake my head. “I don’t particularly care. I’ll try anything at this point.”
“Figured you would say that… Be careful. Savannah is delicate right now, and she deserves happiness.”
“You think I don’t know that? But I swear I’ll make her happy if she lets me.” I stand and tuck my hand into my pocket, pull out my wallet, take out some twenties, and toss them on the table. “I have to go. There’s somewhere I need to be.”
She rests her elbow on the table and rubs her forehead as Lola looks at her chocolate-covered hands. “This could go so wrong,” she groans to herself.
“I’ll take the chance.” I grab my suit jacket. “I ordered nuggets, I’m not a complete idiot,” I add before I leave.
