Page 46 of Beautiful Broken Love

Every person crossing the street was a hindrance.

I pulled to the side of the road, bleary eyed and full of rage, and without thinking, I yelled and punched the steering wheel so many times my knuckles split.

TWENTY-FOUR

DAVINA

It was right after leaving the nail salon when I spotted an email from Deke that I knew would cause a rift in our friendship.

Can we text instead?

He’d included his number in the email too.

I blew a breath, dropping my phone into the cup holder and driving home. I wasn’t sure why his simple question made my heart stutter. I tried not to think too much about it. Tish would be coming over again, and this time she was bringing sushi. I figured I’d discuss the Deke matter with her later.

I decided to drive the long way home—the one that took me past the graveyard where Lewis was buried.

It’d been almost three months since my last visit. Each time I went back made me feel lonelier and made the reality harder to bear. A part of me didn’t think he was there. His soul was with God now, and that body in the grave was just a deteriorating vessel. Still, it was nice knowing his physical presence wassomewhereI could find.

Tish was already parked in my driveway when I pulled up, and it was no surprise that she was in the house when I walked in. She and Octavia were the only two people with keys to my place.

Tish had already prepared a tray of various types of sushi along with a mini saucer of soy sauce and a glass bowl of edamame. She carried the tray to the coffee table in the living room as I placed my purse and keys down.

“You’re just in time for some good ole sushi!”

On this night, the premiere of some reality show involving a bunch of rich, dramatic housewives was streaming, and Tish loved that kind of stuff. Whatever it was, I wasn’t very tuned in. I was too busy reading the email from Deke again as I popped edamame beans into my mouth.

Why did he want to textnow? Texting him would have been taking a step up ... and it was a step I didn’t want to risk. And not only that, but he didn’t respond to my last email, like I thought he would.

I mean, sure, the wholeentertaining other girlsbit was a little over the top, but I thought it’d be funny or that he’d get a kick out of it. And, okay, maybe a part of me wanted to know if hewasentertaining other women and, if he was, why he was wasting time emailing me. Not that it mattered much, but still. Emails were just that: emails. I could get back to them whenever I had time, but texting was more prompt. More intimate. Texting required a sort of personal dedication.

“... and then she had the nerve to let the door close in my face. Uh, hello?” Tish snapped her fingers in my face, and I blinked up at her. “Where is your head at?” she asked with a soft laugh.

“Sorry. Yeah, it’s here. What happened again?”

“What are you thinking about?” she asked, biting into a piece of tempura sushi.

I watched as she chewed, then followed it with a gulp of strawberry Fanta. I rested my upper back against the nearest sofa and set my phone down.

“It’s just Deke.”

Tish’s eyes expanded as she took another bite.“Deke?”she garbled around a mouthful.

“Yeah. We’ve been emailing each other here and there. And I told you about the other night at the party, remember? How I needed some air and a little time to myself because I was thinking about Lewis?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, what Ididn’ttell you was that Deke found me.”

She tilted her head, swallowing the bite of sushi. “Hefoundyou? What do you mean?”

“I was sitting by myself near the fountain. I guess he noticed I was upset and he came looking for me.”

This time her mouth twitched, and she tried bottling her amusement. “Ohh,” she sang.

I fought a smile. “Tish, no. It’s not like that.”

“A famous athlete who could’ve been using his free time to do literallyanythingelse decides to go after a crying woman and check on her? Yeah, okay.” She scoffed. “Tell me how it’snotlike that?”

---