Page 42 of Only Forever

Jason didn’t seem satisfied with my suggestion. “How do I know you’re actually going to eat breakfast and not skip it?”

I laughed at his disgruntled expression. “Jason, I’m not a kid. I know when I need to eat.”

Jason didn’t seem convinced, but he agreed to come over for lunch, with promises of Chinese food. After he left, the house seemed too quiet. Feelings of unease crept up on me. Jason had been a welcome distraction from the threatening notes I had received, but now I had nothing to do but think about them. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out who they could be from. Absolutely no one knew about what actually happened. There had been no witnesses and I hadn’t told anyone. The thing that scared me the most was how did they know I had put up a doorbell camera? They had to be watching me.

I told myself obsessing about it wouldn’t help. I tried to stop thinking about it and got ready for bed. I was about to turn the lights off to sleep when my phone rang. I expected it to be Jason checking up on me, but I was surprised when I saw it was Chloe.

“Hi, Chloe,” I said enthusiastically when I picked up the call.

“Hey, Daphne. I’m sorry I’m calling so late.”

I frowned at the tone of her voice. If Chloe was anything, she was always cheery and energetic. But she sounded down.

“It’s okay,” I replied. It was past midnight but it would never be too late to take Chloe’s call, especially when she sounded down. “Is everything okay?”

Chloe sighed before answering. “Things between me and Gareth aren’t great at the moment. Is it okay if I come up to visit you this weekend? I need some time away.”

“Of course,” I answered immediately. “What’s going on between you two?”

“I don’t have the energy to get into it now,” Chloe said, sounding tired and defeated. “I’ll fill you in when I get there.”

The rest of the conversation was details about when she would be coming up. The weekend was a few days away, and I suggested she come as soon as possible and not wait for the weekend, but she had things at work that she couldn’t miss.

When we hung up the call, I felt a sadness settle in me. Chloe hadn’t sounded like herself, and I was worried. She was a stubborn optimist, always seeing the good in everything. I had never heard her sound so discouraged and sad. I hoped whatever the issue was between her and Gareth, it wasn’t anything serious like cheating.

I thought I would have a hard time falling asleep, between worrying about the letters, wondering what the future would hold for me and Jason, and troubled about Chloe’s uncharacteristic melancholy on the phone. But the fear from earlier had drained me, and I ended up falling asleep quickly.

The next morning, the first thing I thought about when I woke up was Jason. Whatever else was wrong in my life, he was the one good thing that made me happy. Normally, I would have skipped breakfast, but I thought about Jason’s disapprovingfrown if he knew. I smiled at the thought and made myself a bowl of cereal.

I spent the morning working, surprised at how productive I was. Every once in a while, thoughts crept in about the letters I had received, but I pushed it out of my mind. There was nothing I could do about it, so there was no sense in worrying. All it would do is dampen my happiness about Jason.

True to his word, Jason showed up around noon bearing bags of Chinese food. While we ate, Jason gave me the update on how renovations to his parents’ house were going.

“It sounds like you’re almost done with the improvements,” I commented, helping myself to more chicken lo mein. “Will you be putting the house up on the market soon?”

Jason shrugged. “I’m not sure. I know my parents want to sell the house, but I don’t know if I want to let go of it yet.”

“You must be attached to it since you grew up there.” I was nervous that Jason would have no reason to stay in town if he sold the house. As long as the house still stayed in his family’s possession, he had a tie to Hyattsville.

Jason nodded and then grinned at me. “We had a lot of good memories there. Remember when we flooded the bathroom when we were in second grade because we wanted to see how many things we could flush?”

I laughed at the memory. “I think it was your Spiderman action figure that caused it. I remember we panicked when the water in the toilet kept rising and we just closed the bathroom door and ran outside. Next thing you know, water is seeping out from underneath the door, and your mom is freaking out.”

We reminisced about more memories of when we were young while we finished lunch, and then moved into the living room after cleaning up. Jason put his arm around my shoulders and I leaned in, feeling full and comfortable.

“Chloe called me last night after you left,” I said, leaning my head against my shoulder. “She’s coming up this weekend to visit.”

“It’ll be nice to see her,” Jason said. “The last time I saw her was in high school.”

“It sounds like she and her husband are having some problems. She didn’t sound like herself when she called last night.” I frowned, thinking of her tone over the phone. “She and her husband have been married for two years, and from what Chloe has told me, they sounded happy.”

“I’m sure everything is fine,” Jason said reassuringly. “How often does she come up to visit?”

“Not that often,” I said, not telling him that I often discouraged her from visiting when she suggested it. I loved Chloe, but it was hard having her always try to coax me out of my house or convince me to see a therapist. I couldn’t just enjoy her company without having to worry what she had up her sleeve to try to “help” me. But when I had heard her distress on the phone last night, I had no hesitation in having her come up. The least I could for her is be there for her. For the past few years, it had felt like she was the only one who would have noticed and cared if I vanished from the world.

Jason’s implicit agreement not to bring up any of my issues was one of the reasons I could feel comfortable around him. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and just enjoying each other’s company. I knitted while Jason read a book he had brought, soft music drifting in the background. We would talk every now and then if a thought struck one of us, and then we went back into companionable silence. It had been a long time since I had felt so comfortable in my own skin, and I let myself enjoy it with no thoughts of what might happen in the future. I even forget about the threatening letters I had received.

“Should we head out to the backyard?” Jason suggested. “It’s a beautiful day.”

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