Page 57 of Plunge

“Ugh,” she groans. “Hunter drove Fletcher to the airport, and then decided he needed to investigate some sort of mustard greens in Philadephia since he was there anyway. He’s always doing that. He owes me big time.”

“Airport?” As I march Louie a little more slowly, I remember the last time Fletcher fled Oak Creek when he was upset. He didn’t come back for ten years.

Abigail looks confused. “Yeah. He had a work thing in…Belgium? Somewhere far away. I thought he would have told you.”

Bahrain. He must have gone to Bahrain. I feel a lump forming in my throat as I shake my head. Did he really leave town? Jesus, I mean I know I left town, but I came back a few hours later. I didn’t fly to the Middle East. What on earth had happened to cause such a huge misunderstanding? “Did he say anything about when he’d be back?”

Abigail yawns. “I didn’t think you’d care this much,” she says.

I swallow and get very annoyed with myself when a tear spills down one cheek. I’m just so frustrated that I can’t reach him and talk about this.

“Oh, shit,” Abigail says, frowning. “What can I do? Thistle. Oh god, don’t cry.”

I shake my head, but the tears keep flowing. It’s all just too much for me right now. Abigail looks at me like I’ve got two heads, which I sort of do as I cradle her baby against my chest.

She stands and puts her hands on her hips. “Have you been hooking up with him?” I don’t say anything and she begins pacing. “Oh my god, you totally have. Yes. You were looking at each other at dinner at the Crawfords’ the other day. Hang on.”

She rummages around for her phone before I can say anything and I don’t feel like I can shout because I’ll risk waking the baby. I hear her connect with someone on the other line and she says, “Yeah, you need to come over. I don’t care if you’re puking. Grab Indigo and maybe Opal. We’ve got a situation.”

Abigail tosses her phone on the couch and walks into the kitchen. Rummaging in the fridge, she emerges with a bottle of white wine. “This is all I’ve got,” she says, reaching for Louie. “You drink it and let’s talk.”

A few minutes later, Diana and Indigo and Opal pour into Abigail’s house. Opal says, “I was heading over anyway for a checkup for you. What’s going on?”

Uncertain myself, I pour myself a plastic cup of wine, take a deep breath, and tell them everything. How Fletcher didn’t just leave after my date with Antonio. How we slept together in Philadelphia, started hanging out here in Oak Creek, and spent the night together while everyone else was at the Sweetheart Dance.

Diana squints at me like she can tell that I’m leaving something out. “And there’s something else,” I mutter, trying to hide my face behind the wine glass. “We got married in Philadelphia to help him with his visa issues. It’s a long story and it’s just on paper and we’re getting divorced in a few months, but—“

Diana starts cackling, and Opal and Abigail just sit with their mouths hanging open. Indigo tilts her head to the side, staring at me. She says, “I did not expect that, Thistle. I’m going to be real honest here.”

“You married my brother totally alone in secret? This is fantastic,” Diana hollers. And then she runs into the kitchen and throws up in the sink. I take advantage of the chaos to finish off my wine.

Indigo helps Diana clean up and Abigail starts pacing with the baby, jiggling him so he stays asleep. “But why did he run off in such a huff? He was in a whole mood when he insisted Hunter drive him to the airport.”

Opal pipes in that Archer likely passed out wrong information because he was delirious and exaggerating about me leaving him high and dry. And it all comes together for me. “So…he feels like I abandoned him again. And he thought everyone in town knew about it but him. Again. And he panicked.”

“That sounds right,” Indigo says, still tapping her chin. “So you had sex with him, like multiple times the past few months? I really had no idea.”

Diana, sipping ginger ale, says, “I can’t decide if he slinked off to the Middle East because he’s an idiot or an asshole. He’s acting like a big, dumb baby.”

I nod. Fletcher is acting like a wounded animal, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s been wounded. He saw this as a pattern, where he starts opening himself up emotionally and I slam doors and hurt him.

“I feel like I need to go to him,” I say. “I don’t think anything else will help him see that things have changed. That I’ve changed.”

“Is that the only thing?” Abigail smiles at the fridge, where a few pictures of Fletcher and Louie are held on with homemade magnets.

“Well I care about him,” I say. “He’s funny and he challenges me. The past few months have been a shit show for both of us, and it’s been really nice to reconnect with him. I hate that he’s feeling lied to…”

“You really want to dive into a relationship with someone who impulsively flies around the world based on the input of my dumb brother?” Diana isn’t one to soften her words, or evidently give her siblings much grace.

I think about what Fletcher’s impulses have meant for me lately. He did me a huge favor in getting my car back. He got me smiling on a walk-run and helped me open up about my job struggles. He makes me come until I see stars.

“Yes,” I tell Diana and the room at large. “I want to go to that impulsive, passionate guy who starts his own business doing what he loves and marches his nephew up and down the steps and takes over Opal’s lease even if the house smells like skunk. Now who’s gonna drive me to the airport?”

---