“Yeah, go.” I couldn’t meet his eyes.
“I’ll go talk to Rachel, and then when you’re ready, you can come back out and finish the SRP, but take your time. I promise to make sure she’s not upset about it.”
He opened the door, and I found myself overcome with gratitude.
“Thank you,” I blurted out, and he simply nodded before slipping back into the hallway.
When I finally felt brave enough to leave the closet twenty minutes later, Jay had fulfilled his promise. Rachel was completely amicable when I returned to finish the cleaning. Whatever he’d told her, she wasn’t the least bit mad. She informed me that Dr. Jay stopped by to do another exam real quick because he had the time and just so happened to find a broken filling. She then said she was grateful that Jay took the time to do another exam, because she wouldn't have known about it without him taking a second look. She raved about how he said he’d fix it for free. Something about how he should’ve seen it at the exam she got a few weeks ago. Then she even thanked me for being so gentle with her during the cleaning.
And just like that, I could feel something knit back together inside of me.
I’d known something was broken, but I’d never been able to see it clearly or name it. It was like a vertical root fracture: hidden, silent, almost impossible to detect, but still painful and dangerous if left untreated.
And somehow, Jay had found it and fixed it.
But that was just the first of many because there were a hundred more fractures throughout my consciousness that needed mending. But whatever just happened made me believe that maybe, just maybe, it would be possible to heal the rest.
CHAPTER 20
Itried to avoid thinking about the broken filling incident the next day. The way I’d broken down in the supply closet felt like a weird dream. I hadn’t expected to fall apart so intensely, and I definitely hadn’t expected him to respond with such understanding. Honestly, I was surprised the man even still talked to me. I’d cried a few times now in front of him, and typically, men didn’t like the combination of women and tears.
To distract myself from thinking about facing him again on Thursday, I did my best to keep my mind occupied. I stayed in the house, avoiding any neighborly run-ins, closed the curtains, and pulled out my laptop to try writing my novel.
I went for a solid six hours, not sure if any of it would be salvageable, but glad that the words seemed to be flowing. I’d once heard a piece of advice that you can’t edit a blank page, so I tried not to think too hard about fixing things and focused on getting the stupid words onto the page so I could fight with them later.
My stomach growled, and I decided it was most definitely time for a snack. I hopped up from the couch and shuffled across the tile. I’d just grabbed an orange and was reaching for a bottle of soda on the top shelf of my fridge when something tickled my toes.
I squeaked and jumped back, only to see a mouse scurry across the kitchen floor and under the cabinets, avoiding all the traps I’d set as it went.
“No, no, no,” I said as panic seized my chest.
I jumped up onto the counter, trying to fight the nausea in my stomach.
“There are probably only a few of them,” I said aloud to myself. “I’m sure the house is okay.” But deep down, I could feel that something wasn’t right. How was I not catching any of them? And what if there were more than just a few?
I decided I needed to grit my teeth and investigate further. I couldn’t ignore it anymore.
So I started searching the entire house, my eyes sweeping every inch of the place. I’d cleaned the cabin like a madwoman and hadn’t spotted anything related to mice earlier. Still, I was now being extra attentive to the floors and walls, looking for any hint of evidence that I had rodent tenants.
I lifted the rugs and the couch, looked behind the TV, and behind my bed. I checked my dresser and the closet. Then, when I thought I’d surely inspected every nook and cranny of the cabin, I felt a chilling urge to look under the bed.
I dissociated as best I could, but it was like a horror movie only thirty seconds later. I spotted droppings on the carpet and bite marks on the underside of the mattress. Then I found five holes.
Five. Holes.
In the floor.
I screamed again, ran back into the living room, and jumped onto the coffee table.
Panic settled in, making me breathless, and tears pricked the corners of my eyes.
“This can’t be happening.”
I dialed my brother’s number with trembling hands.
“Hope?” Mason’s voice came through after the fourth ring.
“There are tons of mice in your cabin! At first, I thought maybe there were just a few, but I’m starting to think they’re actually living everywhere, Mason! I found a colony of holes in the floor under my bed!”
