Page 41 of If Tomorrow Never Comes

Elliott shook her head, trying to make eye contact with Tiffany in the hope that she’d shut up, but by now everyone was listening, and in her inebriated state Tiffany was oblivious to Elliott’s discomfort. She dropped one hand from Elliott’s shoulder and dramatically placed it over her heart as she addressed the group. “It was the most romantic thing ever. She said his name while she slept. I finally asked her about it one day, and I swear, Elliott, I’ve never forgotten the look on your face when you told me about him. Especially the way he kissed you that night.”

Elliott wrapped her arms around her roiling stomach. She refused to look at Jamie, sitting at a table nearby. His silence was the loudest of all.

“I would give my left kidney to have someone look that way when they said my name. What was it, again? Something with aJ...”

Words.Now.

Her brain screamed profanities, but follow-through wasn’t a thing Elliott could muster, apparently. Her legs were rooted to where she stood, heart racing. She forced a swallow, and for a second, thought she might choke.

“Jeremy! It was Jeremy.” Tiffany finally met Elliott’s gaze, triumphant for a beat before taking in and misreading Elliott’s expression. Her face fell. “You really never found him again? Did you look for him?”

“I—”

Carly grabbed her hand. “Maybe we could help you find him.”

Elliott blinked, a prickling sensation building beneath her eyelids.

“Yeah, I bet between all of us we could track this guy down,” Tara chimed in. “I know a Jeremy.”

“Me too,” Stephen said easily, apparently unbothered at the thought of helping a woman he just asked out find her long-lost love. “Did he work in construction?”

She wouldn’t answer that.

“What did your guy look like?”

Her head spun so badly she wasn’t even sure who’d asked that last one. Pressing her lips together, she inhaled deeply through her nose, praying she’d stay upright. The sky swirled around her just as a familiar ringtone sounded from her purse.

“I—” She stepped back, away from everyone staring at her. Everyone except Jamie, probably, whom she refused to look at. With a shaking hand she held up the vibrating phone. “Sorry, I need to, um—”

Turning on her heel, she rushed into the restaurant and pressed the phone to her ear. “Yuka. Thank God.”

“What? What’s happening?” Her best friend’s worried voice was the best sound she’d ever heard. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just ... Give me just a second, and I’ll call you back, okay?”

Elliott hung up and slipped out the front door, texting the number Stephen had texted to her a short time ago.

Elliott:??I’m not feeling well, I’m heading home.??

Once she’d made it to her car and had driven two blocks away from the restaurant, she pulled into a vacant parking lot and called Yuka back. She put the call on speaker and set her phone on the console.

“What the hell?”

“Sorry. I was out with Stephen and—”

“Excuse me,” Yuka yelled.

Shaken, Elliott rushed to get past that. “He stopped by Starbucks right before I got off and invited me to hang out, but there were a ton of people there. That’s not the important part.”

“Undecided, but okay. Continue.”

“Remember how Tiffany knows Carly? She’d mentioned they run in the same circles sometimes. Well, Tiffany was there tonight, got drunk, and told everyone about Jamie. Infrontof Jamie.”

“Oh. Oh, shit. No. That’s not good.” Yuka paused. “But wait, didn’t you give her a fake name back then?”

“Yeah, thank God. No one other than him knew who she was talking about. But the fact that he heard all that ... Yuka, she went on and on about how in love I was with this guy. I’m mortified.”

“What did he do?”

---