Page 50 of The Lies Always Told

“No, no. Stop for a second.” I pull over on the side of the road. What is going on? She takes a deep breath and turns her body to face me. The wind blows, taking her dark chocolate hair with it, carrying her soft vanilla scent, wrapping me up in her, in Nellie.

“It’s a big deal to me, and not in a bad way.” She shows me a soft smile and takes my hand, placing it under hers on her lap. “Sometimes, my thoughts are all over the place, and I need to focus on something small to ground myself. Picking atmy skin is not the healthiest, but it helps. People are always asking me why I do it or flat out tell me to stop…but nobody has ever thought to find another way to give me the same input. This, this ring, it does that. You,youdid that…and I’m just—” she lets out another breath, searching my eyes “—thankful. Thank you. This means the world to me.”

She climbs over the middle and gives me a hug. Not a kiss, nothing sexual, just a hug. It takes me by surprise. I tense at first, but as her body melts onto mine, I wrap my hands around her and hold her tightly. I bury my nose in her hair, vanilla and cinnamon. Sweet and spicy. Just like her.

“Well now the thing I got you is going to seem silly in comparison.” Nellie turns and grabs something from the back seat after she lets go of my neck.

“You got me something?”

“Mm-hmm. Nothing as thoughtful as this, though, so don’t get too excited.” She settles back in her seat and hands me a brown bag, sealed shut with dot-printed tape. I open it and find more bags inside, all tied with ribbons. I look at her, confused, and she smiles the soft and beautiful smile I love. So simple, but so her. “Go on, look at them.”

They look like make up bags but bigger, soft to the touch and in different colors. I pull one up, and when I turn it around, I see it has letters.Medicine Bag, it reads with mini cartoon pills. “You said you have bags everywhere with your medicine, like the one in your night stand and the one here. I figured you’d like them a little bit more fun, like you. It’s not jewelry, and they’re kinda cheap, so just ignore them,” she says, but I don’t reply. I just keep looking at the rest of them. Another one says medicine bag, but this one with medical doodles.All My Medical Crapthe black mesh bag reads right. The next one saysThese are my legal drugs,and I chuckle.

“I can use them if you don’t want them. Not a problem,” Nellie whispers.

“Nellie…”

“No, for real, it’s not a big deal. I’m sure you can buy fancier shit and not these homemade stuff.”

“This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. I don’t care about money, you know that. But this… You took time to find these for me. That…thatI care about,” I add, holding her hand and squeezing it gently.

“I kind of made them,” she says shrugging.

“You what?”

“Yeah, Cara has a Cricut, and I was bored and thinking about you…so yeah.”

“Think about me much?”

“Oh, stop. We both know that you do too.”

I lift my hand to caress her chin. I drag my thumb over her soft skin and smile at her. “Oh, I’m not hiding it, Trouble. I think about you every moment I’m awake, and in my dreams, you’re always there too.”

I look at her attentively, intensely holding her gaze and not dropping it. I want her to see the sincerity behind my eyes. I want her to see I mean it. “Do you know the one thing we never get back, Nellie?” She shakes her head but doesn’t say anything, letting me continue, “Time. You can buy your way through almost anything, but no matter what you do, you can’t go back in time, and you can’t buy more of it. You spent time getting these bags and then making them for me. That’s nothing small. These, I will treasure all my life. Thank you.”

I tilt my face forward, dragging my hand down her neck and pulling her to me so I can kiss her forehead. “Thank you.”

If she only knew how time spent doing anything is valuable to me—even more if she’s choosing to spend it with me, let alone doing something for me. There’s nothing I value more than time, and this gift is not only thoughtful, but she used that one thing I can’t buy more of.The one thing I’m afraid of running out of.And she thought it wasn’t a big deal. How do Ikeep this girl? How do I keep her without overwhelming her with my health issues? With my health questions?

As if she can spot my thoughts getting out of control, she comes closer and kisses me. It’s gentle at first, but then hard, intertwining her fingers behind my neck and holding me in place. I groan. “We’re on the side of the road. You’re going to get us in trouble.”

She chuckles against my lips. “Okay, sorry. Let’s go.” She settles back on her seat and buckles up, signaling me to keep going after she turns the music back up. Her head lays back on the seat as her fingers twirl the ring she just placed on her thumb. With a smile I continue down the road.

“I love this song too,” she says when the music changes to another Frank Sinatra song, the unmistakable opening vibrating through the speakers, the rhythm hits hard, and man, this song never gets old. She smiles as she starts to hum along, and before I know it, she’s singing. Her hands fly up in the air, a big smile on her face as she follows along. I would take her to the end of the world if it meant I got to see her like this: carefree, wild, andmine.

“You know what I’ve been thinking the entire way here? For someone who has such varied taste in music, I would have expected you to have a different way to play it.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, cocking my eyebrow but not being able to take her seriously with her eyes closed and her hair wild.

“A cassette?” she posits, her voice lilting with amusement.

I let out a short laugh. “You mean an eight-track tape?”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” She waves a hand dismissively. “You know what I mean.” She shifts in her seat, eyes still closed, her head leaning back against the headrest as the wind whips through her hair.

“Think about it. It’s actually the perfect way to listen to music. No skipping songs, no endless scrolling through playlists, no notifications interrupting the moment. Just a tape,locked in, playing straight through. Imagine a musical journey the way it was meant to be experienced.” I smirk, glancing over at her.

“So you wantlesscontrol over the music?”

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