Page 70 of The Spider & the Storm

After I left work on Friday evening, I headed to the grocery store to grab what I needed to make one of Jersey’s favorite dishes—lemon chicken and rice.

With a smile on my face, I shopped and gave myself permission to buy the name-brand stuff, even if it did make me wince at the cost at checkout. Then, I drove home, grinning like a lovesick fool as I tapped my fingers against the steering wheel and ironically hummed along to The Cure’s “Friday I’m in Love” playing on the car speakers.

Since inviting her over, I’d managed to crawl away from my pit of anxiety and held tight to something daringly close to excitement. I wanted so, so, so badly for Jersey to love Luke and Melanie. I imagined future double dates and movie nights, and maybe, if we could climb out of our collective financial hole, we could even take a trip together at some point. Not anywhere crazy. Boston perhaps or maybe Salem. I’d always wanted to go, and I’d bet anything that Jersey would be into it too. Maybe Luke and Melanie would be down for it also. Maybe …

I narrowed my eyes as I slowly pulled into the driveway, feeling like I was suddenly moving in slow motion as recollection cleared my mind of the dense cloud it’d been living in.

Luke.

I gasped, staring wide-eyed at the garage door. “Fuck,” was the only word I could utter as my hands gripped the wheel tighter.

I had forgotten Luke.

Shit, shit, shit.

I was supposed to pick him up after work. He was supposed to go grocery shopping with me. We were supposed to come home together to make dinner for Melanie. She was working late, and we were supposed to do all this shit together so she didn't have to worry about it, and—

Dammit!

I had forgotten him, and all because my mind had been too fixated on Jersey and forever and the chicken I was surely going to blow her mind with at Saturday’s dinner.

Fuck, how did I forget Luke?!

I sucked in a deep breath and exhaled, trying to push myself closer to a level of calm.

Okay, I coached myself as I shot off a quick text to my brother, letting him know I was on my way.It’s only been an hour. He’s probably chatting with a couple of guys from the meeting. No big deal. It’s fine. It’s not a problem. It’sfine.

But as I drove, the heavy weight in my gut told me itwasn’tfine. And when I reached the church, only to find the door leading to the basement locked, I was even more aware of just how not fine the situation was.

“Fuck,” I whispered, my voice taking on a higher pitch as I fumbled with my phone and dialed Luke’s number.

Ring.

Ring.

Ring.

Ring.

“Hey, it’s Luke. Obviously, I can’t answer the phone, so leave …”

“Dammit!” I dropped my phone to the center console and pushed my hand over my forehead and into my hair, pulled into a short, low ponytail at the base of my neck.

I swept my gaze across the parking lot and around the sidewalk. He might've taken a walk. Maybe he'd taken to pacing, allowing his anger toward me to grow, knowing damn well I'd forgotten all about him, like a dad who'd forgotten his kid at school.

But he wasn’t anywhere to be found in the nearby vicinity.

“Fuck!” I smacked my hand against the steering wheel.

Okay. Think.I gritted my teeth at the silent command as The Cure began to sing “Cut Here.”What’s around here? Where would Luke go?

There was Jersey’s coffee shop, but unlike me, Luke was more of a tea guy.

There was a discount card shop, an abandoned shell of a building that had once been a 7-Eleven, and a thrift store that seemed to specialize in ugly clothing nobody but the confident eccentric and the blind would wear.

And then there was the bar. Not Tony’s, but a bar nonetheless.

A harrowing feeling of dread corroded the lining of my gut as I stared across the street at that bar with its tinted windows and blinking neon advertisements.

---