Things aren’t all bad if you have cake.
I carefully removed it, feeling my throat closing up.
Fleeing the kitchen, I took refuge in the study, breathing in the smell of the leather-bound books.
“It’s better that I’m alone,” I said aloud.
But in Crumpet’s terrarium was another note.
Just because you’re alone, doesn’t mean you have to be lonely. Sing a song!
The note was decorated with sparkly butterfly stickers.
I stuck it in my pocket along with the pet rock she’d given me.
“The man of the hour,” the delivery man said when I stepped into the master bedroom to ask if they needed anything. “Sign here, please. Also, we found this under the bed when we were moving it.”
He handed me another note.
You are the light of my life.
“Someone must really love you,” the delivery man said, crumpling up the plastic protective wrap for the rug. “You have a great evening.”
After they left, I tore through the bedroom, throwing all the clothes on the floor, stripping the bed, dumping out all the dresser drawers. There were notes everywhere—in the pockets of my suits, folded up in origami cranes in the watch drawer, tucked in folded socks.
You are special.
I am not defined by my past; I am driven by my future.
I’m freeing myself from all destructive doubt and fear.
Though the past might be ugly, I am still beautiful.
On the headboard a note was tucked into the small crack where two pieces of wood joined at the corner.
I pulled at it and unfolded it.
Know you are loved.
I dropped it on the bed and looked around desperately.
They were everywhere, Lexi was everywhere. It was torture. I was going to find her notes for years. I was never going to get over her.
Later that evening,I was sitting on the terrace in front of the unlit firepit when the oversize glass door slid open.
Marius approached me, like you might a wild animal, bottle in one hand, two glasses in the other.
“Want some company?”
“I should go to work,” I said, leaning my head down to rest on my knees. “I didn’t do anything productive today.”
“Yeah, you actually had a negatively productive day,” he joked.
My lawyer sat down beside me on the wood deck.
The sound of expensive whiskey being poured into a glass broke the silence.
“You have a nice view,” he remarked as we stared out over the skyline.
