Page 14 of Safe With Me

3

LILA

“So, how is it there?”my best friend Ally asked, a skeptical tug on her features as she squinted at me over FaceTime. The low light of sunset spilling over the tree outside the window gave me a homesick pang in the pit of my stomach. I was missing summer in South Philly, and the sour frown pulling at Ally’s lips didn’t help.

Trees were in abundance in Kelly Lakes, but there was something about watching nature bloom and flourish among the concrete that made it even more special.

“It’s good. Quiet. Hard to sleep without all the cars and sirens going by.”

“Yeah, that would probably keep me up too.” Ally nodded, scanning my face in a way that had me on the defensive.

“But it’s not bad. My landlords are super sweet, the neighbors I’ve met so far are friendly, and my boss is great. I have a lot of work to do to clean up what his old manager left behind, but once I’m done, it should be just maintenance.”

I’d both looked forward to and dreaded speaking to Ally today. She’d had a front-row seat to the shitshow of the past few months, even getting in Ted’s face to tell him to leave me the hell alone the night he’d slashed my tire.

But while she was supportive of my decision to move to Kelly Lakes, I could tell she wasn’t happy about it. And the last thing I needed was more doubt.

“I’m trying really hard not to beg you to come back. You know that, right?” Her chest rose as she took in a long breath through her nostrils. I didn’t know whether to laugh or tear up.

“I’m not that far. Well, I’m a few hours away, but drivable. When you get some time off, you can come for a visit.”

“You’re really never going to come back? Even to visit?”

“I am. Eventually. Right now…” I trailed off, still unable to fathom how I’d gotten to this point. Not just arriving in my new hometown, but how quickly I’d felt forced out of my old one.

The night I’d decided to break up with Ted, even though I’d known it was the right thing to do, I hadn’t wanted to hurt him. I’d expected one last outburst before he stormed off, never imagining he’d simply refuse to let me go.

Each time I’d ignored his attempts to “talk” and get back together, he’d grown angrier and more unpredictable.

Who knew what he would do next?

I’d left because I hadn’t wanted to find out.

“I hate that asshole for pushing you out of your own home—and your fuckhead brother for not sticking up for you.”

“Hard same to all of that. I know it seems like I took the easy way out?—”

“I never said that. Moving to a tiny little town and starting from zero is most definitely not the easy way out. I absolutely get why you left. I just hate that you had to do it.”

A sad silence washed over us. The mountain of work for me at Russo’s Contracting was a glorious and welcome distraction, keeping me busy all day and too tired at night to contemplate if this was the worst choice of my life or if Ted would somehow find me here.

“I just don’t like thinking of you up there forever. I’m selfish. For almost all our lives, you’ve been no more than twenty minutes from me.”

Her eyes drifted away from the screen, and I felt her frustrated exhale.

“For almost all our lives, I’ve been no more than twenty minutes away from everyone. It’s an adjustment for me too.”

I clenched my eyes shut for a moment, already regretting the question I was about to ask.

“Have you seen him lately?”

She shut her eyes before meeting my gaze with a grimace.

“I wasn’t going to bring it up, but yes. I was in Reading Terminal getting breakfast yesterday, and he cornered me next to the Amish donuts. He asked me where you were and when you were coming back. Said that he only wanted totalkandwhy were you making this so damn difficult?”

My stomach clenched before it dropped. I’d left, and as I’d feared, he still hadn’t let up.

I’d made it clear multiple times that we were over and I wanted nothing to do with him, but he wouldn’t stop with the gifts or the furious voice messages when I refused to acknowledge any of them, eventually just showing up wherever I happened to be.

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