Aftershock: A Charity McAdams Novella (6 page)

“I know.” I nod but I feel tears starting to build. I blink quickly, wishing them away. “I don’t know why I’m so upset.”

He takes my face in his hands and runs his thumbs along my cheeks. “It’s really going to be ok, I promise.”

He kisses me slowly and I try to memorize the moment. I know the next week is not going to be easy and I will need this reminder of why I am turning my entire world upside down.

“I love you, Cherry,” he says when he pulls out of the kiss.

“I love you too.”

He gives me another kiss before turning and getting out of the car. I get out too and go around to the passenger side while he pulls his bag out of the back seat. He pulls me into his arms and we stay like that for a long time, neither one of us wanting to break apart. There is chaos swirling around us with people coming and going, horns honking, and people yelling but we seem frozen in time.

“You’re going to miss your flight,” I finally mumble into his shoulder.

He releases me and gives me a final kiss on my forehead. “I’ll call you when I land,” he assures me as he heads towards the glass doors.

I wave and watch him walk away until I can’t see him in the crowd.

I make the long drive home, completely exhausted. Brandon and I hadn’t gone to bed until well past midnight and even once we were settled in, I couldn’t sleep. My mind refused to quiet down and I spent most of the night running through my mental checklists of things I need to do in the next week before the move.

Even though there are a hundred things to do, all I can think of is crawling back into bed and taking a nap. I rarely allow myself to nap, but I think in this case, I’ll make an exception.

I round the corner and see someone sitting on my front steps. I squint a little, trying to make out who it is. When I realize who it is, I gasp loudly and hit the brakes.

James is sitting on my front porch.  

Chapter Eleven

James looks up when I slam on the breaks and I’m paralyzed. I realize that I look like a crazy person, parked in the middle of the street for no reason. I slowly let off the break and roll forward and turn into the driveway. I stall for a minute, fishing around in my purse for some invisible item, trying to pull my head together.

I take a deep breath and pop open the door. “James, what are you doing here?”

He stands. “I want to talk to you.”

Did I miss something? Do I have a giant sign that tells all my ex-boyfriends that I’m available to chat whenever they feel like it?

In all fairness, it worked out pretty well with Brandon, but seriously? This is getting ridiculous.

“I don’t really have time today, I have a lot to do,” I say.

Like napping…

“Please Charity, hear me out.”

I exhale sharply. “Ok.”

I’d feel guilty sending him away when he drove all the way here to see me.

“Your mother called me,” he says. “She’s worried about you.”

“She what?!” I yell as I slam the car door shut behind me. I stomp up the stairs.

“Calm down, I’m sure she didn’t mean any harm,” he says.

“Like hell she didn’t!” I hiss. “This is her version of an intervention. Why she would send you is beyond me, but that’s not the point!”

“She didn’t
send me
here, Charity. Listen, I don’t know what’s going on with you two but I’m not her messenger boy if that’s what you’re thinking,” he says, his voice getting testy.

“Then what? Why are you here?”

“I want to talk to you, not on her behalf, on my own.”

“About me moving to California? No offense, but I hardly see how that’s any of your business at this point,” I say.

“Wait, what?” He looks confused. “You’re moving?”

I’m speechless. What is going on here?

“Where are you moving?” He asks.

“Hold on, let’s rewind. What
exactly
did my mom tell you?”

“She said you were having a hard time with our breakup and that you wanted to talk, now that you’ve had some time. I would have called but thought this would be better in person. Although, now, I’m beginning to feel like I have no idea what I’m talking about…” his voice trails off. His eyes are searching mine, his expression still confused.

I bury my face in my hands and let out a frustrated growl. “Look, I’m sorry, I have no idea why she called you and dragged you into all this. She doesn’t approve of my choices lately.”

“Where are you going?” He repeats.

“California, L.A. to be more specific. Brandon and I are back together now and I’m moving there to be with him next week.”

A light of realization goes across James’ face. It’s a mix of surprise and devastation. It’s very clear that he pictured this entire conversation going differently.

“Wow, I feel like an idiot,” he says. “Are you engaged?”

“No, we’ve only been back together for six weeks,” I answer, surprised at his question.

“I guess I just don’t get it,” he says.

“Get what?”

“How any of this happened. I’ve tried sorting it out, to figure out the timeline, but I don’t understand. Last thing I know, you practically bolt out of a restaurant at the mere suspicion of a proposal, but now you’re willing to move a thousand miles away to be with someone who’s only been back in the picture for six weeks?”

I sigh. I don’t know how to explain it to him without hurting his feelings and I feel like I’ve already done enough damage.

“I’m sorry James, really, I am. I just feel differently about Brandon than I did for you. You deserve someone who is dying to spend their life with you. Someone who goes to bed at night, dreaming of the day you will propose. That girl is out there, it just wasn’t me.”

“And you deserve someone who doesn’t break promises and who would never abandon you,” he fires back.

“James, I understand this is difficult and if I could go back and change how I handled things, I would. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

He shakes his head as if in disbelief. “Are you happy?”

“Yes, I really am. I know it might seem too fast or crazy but it’s not.”

He stares at me for a long moment and the sadness in his eyes is breaking my heart. “Then, all I can really do is wish you the best. Take care of yourself Charity.”

“Thank you,” I reply. “You too.”

He nods and starts to leave but turns back to give me a hug and a kiss on the cheek before leaving. “Goodbye, Charity.”

***

“Seriously?! She is unbelievable,” Ashley says when I finish telling her about my conversation with James.

As predicted, the next day Ashley called, wanting to go shopping with me to get some new “California approved” outfits so we took the afternoon to go shopping in the city.

“I know, I don’t know if I should call her or just not even dignify it with a response,” I say.

“I’d drop it, you know it’s not going to do any good to question her about it, unless you want to sit through another round of the “but James is so perfect” lecture,” she says with a laugh.

“I just wish she hadn’t dragged James into her cyclone of drama. He didn’t deserve that. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him I’m moving to California,” I say, cringing as I recall his pained expression. “It was pretty crushing.”

“What about this?” Ashley interrupts, holding up some kind of jumper/romper thing in a splotchy floral print.

I wrinkle my nose at her. “Really, Ash? It’s like you’ve never even met me…”

“Fine,” she huffs, stuffing it back onto the rack. “You know what your problem is Charity?”

“Enlighten me,” I say, sarcastically.

“You leave no room to experiment. To see where the winds will take you!”

“Well the winds of fashion will never take me there, so let’s just move on,” I retort, rolling my eyes.

She laughs. “Fine, fine, no rompers.”

We work side by side through the racks. Alternating as one holds up an outfit and the other gives a nod of approval or varying faces of disgust. Somehow, along the way it dissolves into a competition to see who can find the most atrocious article of clothing and we are both cracking up laughing by the time Ashley marches me off to the fitting rooms. She sets up camp on one of the couches outside and waits, insisting that I come out in between each outfit change to get her final verdict.

Alone in the dressing room I stare at my smiling face in the mirror and it hits me just how much I am going to miss Ashley when I move. The day is rapidly approaching and I’ve spent the past week so tangled up in the details and logistics I haven’t had time to let it really sink in how everything is going to change.

My smile fades as I think about it and a flash of self-doubt crosses my mind. I try to shake it off as I wiggle into the first outfit and plaster my smile back on as I go out to show Ashley the first look.

“Charity, that is stunning!” She says, admiring the strappy black dress I’m wearing. “A definite contender for your go-to LBD, every girl needs one.”

“LBD?”

She rolls her eyes. “Little black dress.”

I spin and look at the back in the three way mirror. “Remind me to hit up the shape wear department before we go,” I mutter. There’s nothing quite like a dressing room mirror and florescent lights to bring all your insecurities raging to the surface.

“Oh my word, don’t be crazy!” She says. “You look amazing!”

I smooth my hands along the front of the dress. “So I take it this one’s a keeper?”

She nods. “Yup! Next please!”

I pop back into the dressing room just in time to hear my phone vibrate from my purse. I pull it out and smile when Brandon’s name and picture flash onto the screen.

“Hey!” I answer.

“Hey beautiful, whatcha doing?”

“I’m at the mall with Ash,” I answer. I prop the phone on my shoulder and start unzipping the dress.

“Finding anything good?”

“Well so far, I have a new pair of jeans, a new purse, and I think we just decided on a LBD,” I say, trying to wow him with my new fashion vocab.

“Any chance I can get a sneak peek pic?” He asks and I can just picture his mischievous grin. “You always look smoking hot in black…”

“How do you know what an LBD is?” I ask, ignoring his picture request.

“Doesn’t everyone know that?” he says with a laugh.

Apparently not everyone.

“Now about that picture…”

“No, no, you’ll have to wait and see it in person,” I tease. “It’ll be more fun that way, I promise.”

“Fair enough. You get whatever you want and I’ll wait patiently for you to get here and model it all for me,” he says suggestively, sending a little shiver down my spine as my mind wanders through his scenario, one that ends up tangled together on the floor of a walk in closet…

“Cherry? You still there?” he asks, interrupting my vivid daydream.

I blink away the mental picture and focus on his words again. “Yeah, I’m here. You’ll have to wait and see how much of this makes it down there with me. I don’t want to get too carried away. My credit cards have very little breathing room as is,” I say, setting the dress aside after glancing at the price tag.

“Ashley didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“About our little surprise,” he says. “She called it the ultimate Pretty Woman moment.”

“You want me to be a hooker?” I joke.

He laughs. “No, I just mean you don’t have to pick up the tab. Go crazy baby, it’s on me.”

“What? That’s ridiculous!”

“No it’s not, we’re together now. I want to take care of you. Besides, I’m the reason you have to buy a whole new wardrobe. It really is the least I can do to help make the move as easy as possible for you.”

I shake my head in disbelief but I’m smiling like an idiot. “I don’t know what to say, thank you doesn’t seem like enough.”

“It is, and you’re welcome,” he says and I can hear the smile in his voice.

“I miss you,” I say, suddenly, wishing he was here so I could kiss him.

“I miss you too, baby. You’ll be here before you know it,” he answers. “Now, go shop till you drop, tell Ashley thank you for me and make sure she picks out something for herself too.”

“That could be dangerous,” I laugh. “But I will. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

I hesitate for a moment before hanging up, not wanting to let him go but also fighting the urge to be one of those “you hang up” “no, you hang up” kind of couples. I click off the phone and shove it back into my purse. I quickly slip on the next dress and go out to find Ashley.

She’s not sitting on the couch anymore. I glance around and spot her sorting through a nearby table of sweaters. She looks up when I approach her. “That looks great too!”

“When were you going to tell me that Brandon is paying for everything?”

“Oh, right about the time you started fussing over how much things cost,” she answers with a laugh. “Did he call you?”

I nod and laugh. “He’s crazy.”

“You have no idea,” she says.

I cock my head. “What do you mean?”

She leans in close to me and whispers, “He gave me a ten thousand dollar gift card. You know, one of those pre-loaded credit card things.”

I gasp and feel my eyes pop open. “Ten thousand dollars?!”

“Uh huh,” she confirms.

“Wow,” I breathe, absolutely stunned.

“You’re in the major leagues now, my dear,” she says with a giggle.

“He does realize I could
never
spend that much money on clothes, right?”

“Oh, never say never!” She winks and starts to drag me back to the dressing rooms.

Chapter Twelve

Everything is a flurry for the next few days and it feels so busy and chaotic that I don’t have time to breathe or think. Before it all has a chance to catch up to me I find myself standing with Ashley in line to check my bags at the airport.

I look around at all the other people waiting to leave and a strange mix of anxiety and excitement washes over me, but when my eye catches Ashley a stab of sadness hits me too.

She’s doing her best to be happy and supportive but I can see the sadness behind her smile. I stayed at her house last night because I had to officially vacate my townhouse and turn over the keys. We tried to stay awake and watch a movie together but I fell asleep pretty early, the exhaustion of the busyness overtaking me.