Coming Back (The Sarah Kinsely Story - Book #2) (10 page)

“What for?” Her voice cut sharply.

“Do you have a second?”

“Not really no.”

She looked back down at her paperwork and started scribbling again, with more force this time.

“I really need to talk you. It's important.”

“Is it about work?”

She didn't look up to say that.

“Well, no, not exactly.”

“Then I don't have time for it.”

I had imagined this going over much smoother in my head. Her resistance was starting to make me anxious which, in turn, started to frustrate me.

“Okay, well I guess I'll just say it anyways. You can listen or not.”

I was surprised at my own audacity.

Peyton stopped what she was doing. She kept her eyes on the paperwork at hand, but she had at least stopped writing.

“I think that there's been a misunderstanding on my part,” I said, “I screwed up, and I want to apologize. But before I do, I need to ask you a huge favor. Can you call Lizzy in here?

Peyton let out a sigh.

“Listen Sarah, I really don't have time for this high school drama. We already had a meeting with —.”

No, it's not about that at all. It's actually about the weekend that we spent together, and about Aiden, and about how I thought Lizzy was sleeping with him, and about how I tried hiding for a whole week because I couldn’t force myself to see her here.”

Peyton's eyes slowly rose to meet mine. Her mouth hung open in shock.

“You what?”

“Listen, we can do this another time, but I just think the sooner we get it over with the better. If I can talk with Lizzy and you together, at the same time, I think it would be best.”

Peyton studied me. Her eyebrow raised, then she folded her arms across her chest.

“Well, this is interesting isn’t it? Here I thought you are just a complete and total slacker, turns out you’re a little bit of a drama queen to?”

She rolled over to her phone system, picked it up, and told Lizzy to meet in her office as soon as possible. When she was finished sh just stared at me shaking her head.

I was so embarrassed. I had no idea what I was going to say to these girls. I probably could've just kept it a secret, not letting them know what I had actually thought about them, but I just couldn't take it anymore, not after seeing Aiden and his daughter at the zoo. Not after the night we spent together, I had to make everything whole again. I owed it to these girls — to be honest — for what they had done for me. I was wrong, and I had to make things right.

Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long in the silence under Payton's gaze because Lizzy came right away.

As soon as she entered the office Peyton said,

“Sit down Lizzy you are gonna want to hear this.”

Lizzy looked confused as she moved a pile of magazines off the seat and onto the floor. She sat down.

I was the only one standing. Peyton and Lizzy both looked at me, waiting for me to reveal what I had to say.

But the words wouldn't come. I just stood there.

“What's going on Peyton,” Lizzy said sounding half scared.

“Turns out Sarah has something she needs to talk to you about Lizzy”, Peyton's voice sounded sarcastic and over enunciated.

“First,” I said, “I'm so sorry for what I'm about to say, but I just couldn't go on any longer without apologizing to both of you girls.

“Apologize for what?” Lizzy asked.

“You see, that's just it, I'm apologizing for being angry about something that never actually happened.”

I then went on to recount all the weekend’s events, what I had done with Aiden the text I had received, and the entire week after, the week that I had spent conjuring up some kind of nightmarish story in which Peyton and Lizzy were the ringleaders of some cult-like hazing organization run by the Abraams and Snider underground. It was humiliating hearing it all come out of my mouth.

At first Lizzy laughed, but then as I revealed just how deep into my own mind the drama had gone, her laughter turned into a faint smile, and then into a frown. I thought that I may have seen a tear well up in her eye, but it could've just been my own blurry vision and the feeling of warm wet tears running down my own cheeks that made me think she was crying too.

“Well, Sarah, aren’t you something else?” Payton said.

She still hadn't uncrossed her arms, and now she had a smug look on her face.

“I just don't understand Sarah, I thought we had a really great time that weekend. I don't see how you could accuse me of doing something like that.” Lizzy shook her head and looked at Peyton, searching for some sort of confirmation.

Peyton looked back and shrugged her shoulders.

“Trust me, if I had thought any different I would never have let myself get so out of hand with it all. This is just a huge misunderstanding, please forgive me.”

“I don't see why we should,” Peyton said.

That stung.

“I just don't even know what to say,” Lizzy said looking suddenly exhausted.

“I'm so sorry,” I kept saying, “I just got out of a really bad situation, you have to understand I don't really trust people right now.”

“That may be the case Sarah,” Peyton said in her boss voice, “but we aren't your ex, this isn’t New York City, this isn’t your old life. We are new people, we're different, the only thing we have in common with your old life is that we just happen to be human too. You need to let go of New York, you need to let go of your old boyfriend. Until you do that, I don’t really see why we need to keep talking this over.”

I began to weep harder, not uncontrollably, but I definitely needed some tissue. Lizzy reached over Peyton's desk, grabbed the box, and handed it to me. I tried to look at her but she wouldn’t meet my gaze, she carried an air of embarrassment, like she was ashamed to have even heard the story. I felt like such an idiot standing there in that room with the two girls.

“Please, please forgive me.”

“I guess I'll just have to think about that one.”

“I knew that it wouldn't be easy to earn your forgiveness. If you'll just let me pick you up tomorrow morning, I have something that I think will change your mind. I hope it will, anyways.”

They both sat there, thinking it over.

Lizzy spoke first,

“OK, I’m in.”

“It better be good.” Peyton said uncrossing her arms and waving the both of us out of her office.

Chapter 20

I picked Angela up first (the other two girls didn't know that she was coming) but I figured she might serve as a good middleman to calm things down in case my plan backfired on me. Next, I picked up Lizzy, if for no other reason than I was to put off seeing Peyton again. Lizzy said hello to me, was expectedly shocked to see Angela, and sat in the backseat of my car without saying another word. She spent the entire drive in silence, and I didn't try to change that.

There would plenty of talking later.

Peyton's apartment was the last stop before reaching our final destination. This was the first I had seen of her famed apartment and a small part of me — the nosy part — found some pleasure in visiting her place on my terms.

We rolled up to the edge of a massive apartment complex on the outskirts of the Pearl District just blocks from Abraams and Snider. I parked on the street, got out of the car and stood before the large brass doors of her building.

It was an intimidating structure. A partially remodeled brick building that now housed large apartment units with fully glass outer walls so that you could see all the expensive things inside. I tried to pull the doors open, but they were locked.

Lizzy shouted some offhanded remark from the car about using the buzzer, so I did.

“Hello?”

“It’s Sarah, may I come in.”

“No, I’ll be down in a second.”

Drats, so much for snooping her apartment.

Peyton made her way down, and when she opened the door of her building said, “I hope this doesn't take too long.”

She brushed past me and walked straight into the middle of the street to enter my car on the opposite side.

Not a word was spoken until twenty minutes into the car ride.

“You aren’t taking us out to murder us all, are you?” Angela asked.

I hadn't even told her where we were going. I wanted it to be a surprise for them all.

“No,” I said, “I'm taking you all somewhere very special to apologize, to grovel, to try and win you all back.”

I looked in the rear-view mirror trying to scan their faces for a reaction.

There was a huff from Peyton and an eye-roll from Lizzy. Angela merely blinked.

I ignored it all and focused on the road so I wouldn't miss the turn.

We finally found the gravel road, I turned onto it and followed it for a few more minutes.

By now, Angela, Lizzy and Peyton had all started talking to each other again. Not about anything in particular, just the general catching up. They all made very sure to keep me out of the conversation and frankly I didn't mind.

I was hoping for them to forget about me so I could pull off the effect.

Without warning, I hit the brakes on the car.

Dust and rock shot out from underneath the tires. Lizzy smacked her head on the back of Angela's chair, and Peyton let out a curse and tried to smacked me on the back of the head.

“What the hell are you doing?” Peyton said

Lizzy rubbed her head, “Ouch that hurt.”

“Just wait here,” I said as I got out of the car and walked to the other side of the road to open the rusty fence.

We drove through the open fence, up the road until we reached a hilltop. It was the same hilltop that Aidan had brought me to just weeks ago. It was a beautiful spot, and I knew the girls would love what I had in store for them.

As we pulled up to the gravel parking lot I saw that we weren't alone.

I breathed out a deep sigh of relief.

He had beat me here, so I wouldn't have to stand around awkwardly as we waited.

The girls had gone silent again. They were busy looking out the window, I even heard Lizzy let out a minor gasp as she saw Aiden step out of his car, his daughter in tow.

I parked my car next to his and we all got out. Little Lizzy, Aiden's daughter, ran to give me a hug, I squeezed her tight and told her that she looked beautiful.

Aiden handed me the plates, utensils and the cups, and continued handing out other supplies to the girls.

He didn't say anything. He must've wanted to make sure that I was still in control of this little meeting, and I appreciated him for that.

I turned to the girls and said, “I want to make this up to you girls, I really mean that. Aiden and little Lizzy have been good enough to help me do that. If you would please follow me this way I'd like to show you where we are having lunch.”

We all made our way down to the gazebo that overlooked the rolling hills of the hidden Oregon vineyards. We popped the bottle of champagne, Aiden pulled out smoked ham and tomato sandwiches with pepper jack cheese on a deep Italian rustic bread, and went back to his car. A few moments later he returned with the Panini press and started grilling up our sandwiches.

He had also brought an assortment of hors d'oeuvres and other small finger foods that we snacked on while we waited for our sandwiches to get warm.

Little Lizzy sat by my side as I tried my best to form a reasonable apology to the girls.

The speech I had prepared in my mind was lost almost as soon as I had stepped in my car early that morning.

I would have to freestyle it.

I raised my glass and stood before the girls. I looked down at little Lizzy, down into her deep blue eyes for courage. She smiled up at me and it helped. Aiden kept his head down cooking the sandwiches, preparing the food, and just letting me have my space.

I appreciated it.

I took a deep breath and said,

“Peyton, Lizzy, and Angela, from the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry for having ever mistrusted you girls. I should've known that you girls aren't anything if not kind, giving, and the best group of friends that someone could ever hope to know. I truly am sorry for any pain that I may have caused you.”

I looked down at little Lizzy again and gave her a nod. She reached into her backpack and pulled out the first note.

I continued,

“Little Lizzy and I have made you all something. She did the pictures, and I wrote little notes inside. You don't have to read them now, I almost would prefer that you'd wait to read them later, but they are your notes and you can do what you will with them.”

I handed the first one to Peyton and said,

“I'm so sorry that I ditched you for that whole week when you could've really used my help at work. You are my boss, and if you'll let me I would like you to be my friend.”

Peyton let out a sigh, shrugged her shoulders, cracked a smile and stood up and gave me a tight squeeze.