Page 28 of One Sweet Day is Never Enough

Eight

Seth headed back to the farmhouse in the dark. Stacey picked up on the third ring. Her text had asked if he was able to talk just then.

“Hey, how’s it going?” he said casually.

“Great! I’m just having a few drinks, not that you’d care.” She sounded like she’d already had one too many.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He switched the phone to the other ear but decided not to wait for an answer. She was probably still upset with him about asking her to visit Wisconsin before she made a decision about moving there. “I thought you were just getting off work?”

“No, they let a few of us out early today. It was slow for a Saturday and they overstaffed.”

Sounded like the new management might be doing things differently. Overstaffing had never really been an issue when he was there. They were always too busy.

“Oh, so where are you?”

“At a bar downtown. I’m with Josh and Ty. A few of their friends met us here.”

Josh and Tyler were younger guys who worked in the tasting room at Henderson. They were known for their after-hour partying. Great. So she probablywasdrunk.

“So what have you been doing? Did the festival go this late?” She sounded suspicious.

“Nah. Just been hanging out, relaxing. It ended around seven. Everyone loaded up and left a little bit ago.” It wasn’tuntrue.

She was quiet but he could hear talking and laughing in the background.

“Gonna be a late night?” he asked.

“Yeah, probably. Why didn’t you call me earlier?”

“I’m sorry. I was just chillin’ out. It was a long day. And don’t you have to work tomorrow? It sounds like you’ve had a few.”

“You’re a little far away to be advising me on how late to stay out, don’t you think?”

Oh no—here we go. Seth stopped walking so he wouldn’t reach the house and wake up his parents.

He heard another voice in the background over the phone and Stacey laughed loudly at whatever was said. “I’ll be right there, you guys. Wait for me!” She certainly had a pleasant voice forthem.

“Stace—you there?” This was borderline ridiculous.

“I’m here. We’re going to play some darts. I wanted Ty to count me in.”

“So do you still want to talk tonight? Maybe I should let you go.”

She huffed. “I don’t know, Seth. There’s not much to say. If you only want me tovisityou, that kind of says it all. I might as well go have fun with some guys that want me around.”

So she was definitely still mad.

Maybe he should come right out with it. “Look, I’m just having my doubts about the whole thing, okay? I don’t want you throwing your money away on an apartment here if you don’t like it—is that so bad? I’m trying to save you some money.”

“Gee, thanks.” Her voice had an edge to it. “Is that all you’re trying to do?” She was doing her best to make this difficult.

“What’sthatsupposed to mean?” He knew what she meant—he just wasn’t ready to talk about it right now, like this, but she was making him angry.

“That’s supposed to mean you’re trying to get rid of me. Don’t try to deny it.” She paused for a moment, and he heard the swishing sound of liquid from a bottle. He heard her swallow. She was acting as though it wasn’t a big deal, but he knew it was just an act.

The truth was, hehadbeen in denial about it lately, hoping she’d just change her mind, hoping the whole thing would justnothappen. Confronting Stacey with his change of heart had been keeping him up at night. He didn’t want her to come here anymore, but he’d failed to tell her. He’d failed to do anything. His indecision had brought things to a standstill. Why hadn’t he just told her not to come at all? What was his problem?

Maybe this was his chance to be honest with himself and get the whole conversation over with. Except that she was drinking—which meant this wasn’t the right time to have the discussion. It would be one hundred times worse if he broke up with her now. She’d throw a huge fit and end up screaming at him.

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