Page 37 of Love at a 7-Eleven

"Yes. She asked if I needed rescuing because it was weird that I lied. She told me to say peanuts if I need her to swoop in and save me, but I told her I was fine."

"You didn't say peanuts?"

I smiled. "No."

"Did you wake her up?"

"I don't think so."

I reached out to touch the back of his hand with my fingers. We were at the bar with our food, and he was smiling at me. I tried to take a picture of the scene to store it in my most loved memories. Caleb was ill and weary, and he was still the most handsome, appealing man I had ever seen. His brother collected a lot of tribal-inspired artwork and seeing Caleb sitting in that house with a tight t-shirt and his tattoos made it feel like I was in a scene from a movie. It was perfect. He was perfect. I loved every single thing about him.

Chapter 14

Caleb

Three days later

It was already the day before Lila had to go back home to Chicago. She would fly out the following morning, and to Caleb, it felt like a bad dream. It had all happened too quickly. He had seen her every day for at least half of his waking hours, and the time with her had passed in such a blur that his days felt extremely lopsided.

Bailey had come over during the mornings. They worked editing a video on day one, but then by day two, he broke the news to her again and work went out the window. They argued, and she cried for hours and then he stared at the wall for an hour before going to see Lila that afternoon.

He told Lila there had been some closure, but he didn't give her the gory details. Bailey had thrown and broken a couple of things, and he left that out, along with descriptions of things she had said.

On the third day, Bailey came over again. This time it was to 'apologize' to him. During the first two hours, she stated the case for changing his mind and she begged him to reconsider and see that they were meant for each other. Caleb held onto his patience because he had built a relationship with Bailey and he respected her and wanted her to remain in his life if possible.

As of now, he wasn't so sure if that was possible. Today was day three, and Caleb wasn't certain that Bailey would ever be able to fully accept that he was going to commit himself to Lila and start to build a relationship with her. She said she understood that, but then she would say something to question it. Caleb was impatient with the situation.

Day three had ended better than the previous two days. During the last hour, Bailey seemed to be in a good mood. Caleb was relieved and he left there feeling like he couldn’t get to Lila soon enough.

He was weary of considering Bailey and her fragile state. He wanted to be selfish. He wanted to spend all of his time with Lila while she was in Los Angeles. He couldn’t believe it was already the end of her trip. He left for Drake's to meet her, and Bailey, who was still taking off at her other job, stayed at his house to get some more work done.

He didn't tell Bailey where he was going when he left. He wasn't trying to keep it from her, but he simply didn't want to tell her, and he was happy she had been able to control herself enough to not ask. It was normal for her to be at his house sometimes when he wasn't there, and he went with it today even though it was something he would need to change. Today wasn't the day for that battle. There were so many things that needed to change, and Caleb had no idea how to start chipping away at them. He wanted to find love without it being messy and dramatic, and he felt jaded about Bailey and how difficult she was making this.

And then, right then, in the quiet place when his spirit was seeking answers, he remembered Paul and the way he didn't eat for those three days.

He realized that the circumstance was what it was. All he could do was control his response to it. Caleb felt a change in his perspective at that very moment. The circumstance was the same, but he had control of his outlook on it. He smiled, focusing on good things and knowing things would work out in the long run even if they seemed messy at the moment.

He was ready to get to Lila, so he went straight to Drake's when he left his place. He called his brother as he headed that way. Drake was in Chicago.

"Hey, what's up, brother?" Drake said, answering Caleb's call.

"Are you busy?"

"No, you caught me at a good time. I’m at the shop, but I'm waiting on a customer. I'm about to go next door to grab a smoothie. Does anyone want anything?" Drake called to the people around him and Caleb waited for him to finish a brief conversation. "Okay, I'm sorry, I'm good now," Drake said once he was finished.

"How's Chicago?" Caleb asked, imagining where his brother might be at the moment.

"Great. I love it here. How's home?"

"Good. Fine. I've been going through it with Bailey, but it's going to be fine. I'll work it out."

"What's going on with Bailey? You mean besides that she passed out?"

Caleb sighed. "Yeah, well I think her memory came back, and yet she made me go through the agony of telling her again while she acted like she had no idea. I don't know that for sure, but it seemed that way when I was telling her. This was two days ago, and she's been clingy and shocked, and unstable is the best way I know to describe how she's acting. It's a trip because she's been so steady and dependable until now. I've been trying to give her the benefit of the doubt and trying to assume it's as a result of her injury that she's reacting like this, but it's been a hard few days."

"Why do you care so much how Bailey's reacting to it?" Drake asked.

Caleb let out a little laugh. "Honestly, I was just sort of wondering that. I was thinking about it right before I called you. I felt all frustrated about her, and then I realized… why? All I can do is move forward and put an end to things as best I can."

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