“Not yet. To be honest, I never thought she would actually wait until she finished to call me.”
“And just to double-check, the manuscript you gave her was what you wrote in the journal but typed out, right? Everything that happened with you and Ryan, college to present day?”
“Not present, present day. It ended with when I was leaving Italy.”
“When you thought you guys would be getting back together?”
I give the rice another stir and hit the spoon on the side of the small metal pot a touch harder than necessary. “Yes,” I answer.
“That stinks.”
“That it does.”
“And you still won’t even consider sending the journal back to him?”
“That’s a hard no. That journal will either be donated to science upon my death or will stay locked in my desk for all eternity.” Just then, my phone vibrates, alerting me to a text message. “One second.” I lower the phone and look at the screen. It’s from Cristina. I hit the view button and read the message twice before bringing the phone back to my ear.
“Who was it from?” Maggie asks.
“Cristina. It said, ‘I sent you a present. You can return it if you don’t like it, but I think it will fit you great.’”
“That sounds nice. Is she there? Did she drop something off?”
“I don’t know.” I turn off the stove and walk over to my door to look through the peephole. “She isn’t outside.” I then open the door to check if she left something in the hall. “Nothing’s here.”
I’m about to turn back into the apartment when I hear a strange noise coming from the stairwell beside the elevator. It sounds like a disgruntled combination of stomping, running and grunts.
“What are you doing?” Maggie asks. I don’t answer as I listen to the sound more closely. It gets louder and louder, seeming to reach some kind of a crescendo. I move the phone a few inches away from my ear and grip the doorknob as I slowly back into the apartment.
“What the...”
“Kara? Are you okay?” Maggie is trying to get my attention but her voice seems so far away.
I remain glued in place as Duke erupts from the stairwell, throwing himself down into the hallway not ten feet away from me. Ryan appears next and time stands still. He and I look at each other for a long time.
I snap out of my stupor when I hear Maggie’s screeching voice. “Kara! What’s going on? Should I call the cops?”
I move the phone back to my ear. “Ryan is here.”
She pauses. “Wow. Yeah, okay, call me later!” She hangs up before I can respond. Still in the doorway, I place my phone onto the table above my bike as Ryan walks forward at a leisurely pace.
“Welcome back, Sullivan.”
Countless responses rush through my mind. And somehow, from all the things I can possibly say, I clear my throat and ask, “Why didn’t you use the elevator?”
He continues moving towards me. I inhale and exhale an uneven breath.
“Duke and I dodged the doorman and the stairwell was closer than the elevator. I carried him most of the way, but he did the last two floors by himself.”
I nod, still in shock and unable to get over it. “What are you doing here?” I eventually manage.
He reaches into the travel bag that’s slung over his shoulder and pulls out the draft copy of my novel. “I got an overnight FedEx from Cristina yesterday.”
Crap.
“I called you,” I blurt out. “I called you when I got home and a woman answered.”
“What? When?”
