“So?”
“It’s a small town. There are only about six thousand of us which makes us big enough to be the county seat, but we’re small enough to know what’s what. The Cartwright’s are good people. When Lauren died, it impacted everyone.”
“I see.”
“So, why are you here with your big-city duds on?
“I’m Lexie’s boyfriend.”
The man scoffs. “If that’s true, you’d have known about Lauren.”
“Not necessarily. Lexie is very private.”
He scoffs again and takes a swig of beer. “You’re not good enough for her.”
“I know.” But, I’m here for her none-the-less. On that note, I step away from the bar in search of my girl. Weaving in and out of people, I look at every table and booth. There are a number of women here who seem to have taken an interest in me, so I use that to my advantage. “I’m looking for Lexie.”
Each time I ask, I’m told things like, ‘Oh, I just saw her at the bar.’ Another woman tells me she went out back. I search the bar and out back but still no Lexie. When I ask a third woman if she’s seen her, she tells me Lexie was taking this night hard, so she was hiding in the storage room. Now, that I can believe.
I locate the storage closet and wait a moment. I don’t want to catch her off guard, but I don’t think that can be avoided. Without knocking, I turn the knob and enter the dark room. When I hear sniffling, I know she’s nearby. “Lex?”
The sniffle turns to a gasp. “Gabriel?”
“Yeah.”
“What are you doing here? This is a pr-private party.”
“I needed to see you.” I follow the sound of her voice until I’ve narrowed down her coordinates to the back corner of the room. I really should have turned on a light, but this is probably better.
“You see me all the time. You could have waited.”
“No. I couldn’t wait.”
“Why not?” she sounds so sad, so small.
“Because I came to make sure you were okay. I came to check on you. I came to kiss you and hold you. I came to tell you how wrong I was.”
“When? When were you wrong?”
“Every time I disappointed you. I was wrong. I was wrong about your animals.”
She lets out a sob. “Yeah, you were. Cy’s wing was caught in the hinge. You’d squawk too if your arm were caught in a damn door.”
“I’m sorry about that, baby.”
When Cammy told me how she rescued each one of those creatures from sure death, I listened. Cyclopes or Cy for short was first owned by a sadistic bastard. He scarred and disfigured the bird even cutting out one of his eyes out for fun. Thankfully, one of the man’s children took the bird to an animal shelter to keep him from being killed by their father.
When no one wanted to adopt the bird, he was slated to be euthanized until Lexie spotted him on a visit to the shelter. She took him home immediately. The turtle, Shelly, has only three legs. As for the guinea pigs, she found them in their cage in a dumpster behind her building. Someone just threw away the entire cage with animals inside. They were malnourished and dehydrated when she found them, and she nursed them back to health. After hearing the sad tales of those animals, I understood Lexie a little better.
Lexie, the woman who has every co-worker’s favorite candy in her candy dish––even mine. Lexie, the woman who knows every single co-worker’s birthdays and gives them cards on their special day––even mine. When she gave me a card, I thanked her and tossed it in my desk drawer without opening it. I’ve read it since. It was sweet and thoughtful just like the woman who gave it to me.
I need to keep going. I’ve got so many more things to apologize for. “I was wrong when I said you were simple.”
“Uh, huh. That too. I graduated summa cum laude from the University of Iowa.”
“Good to know.”
“I was wrong about Katya. I fired her.”
