“Will you speak to your therapist?” I asked.
“Have a zoom session tomorrow. You don’t need to worry. I know I’m a bit spacey at the minute, but I’m working through stuff.”
The last time she worked through stuff alone, she ended up moving across the globe… which she was going to do again soon. Their plan had been to stay for the trial and sentencing. One last thing to wait around for and they would be off, leaving with Miles to return to their life in the sun.
Fuck.
I’d started to make plans, but we were together most of the time. I still needed to look into how to make myself desirable to Australia. You couldn’t just decide to move there. Oakley was there because she had family and Sarah’s job transferred.
What did I have to offer?
“Want to get out of here? I’m sure there’s a shit furniture shop you can drag me around,” I said, knowing a bit of interior designing would take her mind off of whatever was going on in there.
“That sounds good, butyouhave to choose stuff. You can’t just agree with me.”
As long as she didn’t want a pink sofa or a sparkly worktop, I didn’t really care how it was decorated.
“You’ve got good taste.”
“You’re the one living there,” she replied, standing.
I took her hand as we walked to the exit. “Right. Living there alone. Doesn’t sound much fun anymore.”
This was a risky move on my part. We’d not spoken about her plans after the trial, though I knew them. I wanted to ask her to stay, but I had to pick the right moment.
If she could picture herself here, she might stay with me.
“Oakley?” I prompted pushing the door open.
“Cole, look, I’m not–”
“Oakley!” We both turned around at the sound of her name.
“Oh my God, Marcus!”
Her old gym coach jogged towards us, blocking the sun from getting in his eyes. I’d seen him quite a few years when I’d picked her up.
He gave her a hug and laughed, “I haven’t seen you in years. I mean, of course, you’ve been in Oz. How are you?”
She smiled up at him. “I’m doing all right. You?”
“Solid. Listen, you should drop by the gym sometime.”
“Yeah? I’d love to. Oh, sorry, Cole. You remember Marcus, right?”
I shook his hand. “Yeah, man. Good to see you.”
“You, too. Drop me a text when you want to come by, Oakley. I’m there every Monday to Saturday. You know the drill.”
“I will do.”
They exchanged numbers, and I swear, I saw a glimmer of excitement in her eyes. She loved gymnastics… and maybe taking her to her old gym could help her see that there was a life here. There were still good things here.
He kissed her cheek and shook my hand again before jogging towards the carpark. The man never walked anywhere.
“He looked good,” she said, still beaming.
Marcus had the same close shave he’d always had, it didn’t look like he’d aged at all. He was strong as hell and had helped Oakley a lot growing up, though he’d had no idea of what had been going on.
