Page 57 of A Series of Rooms
The stainless steel counter rattled as he slammed down an industrial-sized tub of Hidden Valley, popping off the lid. His phone buzzed in the front pocket of his apron, but he didn’t bother reaching for it. It was probably his mom calling to check up on him, as she was doing with increasing frequency as he slipped deeper into his depression. He couldn’t handle lying to her right now.
As he poured a dollop of dressing into the side cup, he made a mental note to shoot her a text on his break.
“Kim,” he made his way to the corner of the kitchen where she was helping one of the new hires roll silverware. “Table thirty wants a free meal. Says the food is cold.”
She turned to glance out the square panel of glass on the kitchen door without pausing in her work. “It’s a salad,” she deadpanned.
“I’m aware.”
Letting out a sigh so put-upon that it could only have come from someone with years of customer service experience, she placed down the roll of silverware in her hand and turned to him. “Take your fifteen, kid.”
“I already did.”
“Take another one.” She raised an eyebrow when he started to object. “We’re dead out there, and you look likeyou’re halfway there yourself. Go. I’ll close out your table and grab your tip.”
Between his aching back and Kim’s unmoving stare, there wasn’t much room to argue.
“Don’t worry,” Liam said, already untying his apron. “There won’t be one.”
The air outside was too cold to be hanging around in short sleeves, but he needed a quiet space more than he needed warmth right now.
Liam sank down onto the overturned bucket the smokers used on their breaks. His lumbar throbbed as he relaxed his muscles for the first time in hours. He let his head thud back against the dirty brick wall, eyes slipping shut.
This was why he had objected to taking a second break. The exhaustion collided with him the moment he was finally able to rest, bearing down on his shoulders all at once. He probably could have fallen asleep just like that, sitting on a bucket behind the diner in the freezing cold. He might have, if not for his phone buzzing in his pocket again.
Peeling his eyes open took more effort than it should have, but the notification on his phone was unexpected enough to nudge him back to awareness.
One missed call, followed by a voicemail, both from the Marriott in Chicago.
He did a mental recount of all the hotels he and Jonah had stayed at over the past couple of months, but it was a pointless exercise. They had been confined to a strict budget,and the Marriott was firmly outside of it. Liam tapped a cold thumb on the screen, opening the voicemail.
The moment he pressed the phone to his ear, his body went numb.
“Hi, Liam. It’s me. Jonah.”
His voice was the only thing in the world. The scene around him fell away, leaving Liam anchored to the earth only by the tinny words coming through the phone.
“I know you’re probably working or...I don’t know. I’m sorry. I don’t have much time. I just... It’s Friday,”he said.“And I wish it was you waiting for me upstairs.”
Liam was going to shatter apart.
“Listen, I...I don’t know when—if—I’ll have another chance to say what I want to say to you, so I just... I saw the phone and I needed to call you and say I’m sorry that things ended the way they did. I never wanted you to get anywhere near all of that. Any of it. I hate that you did. I hate that I was selfish enough to let you.”
A pause.
“I only have another minute, but I need to tell you that I meant what I said the first night we met: that I don’t understand how you could possibly have a hard time making friends, because you are the best one I’ve ever had. And even if that last night I spent with you, at the park, and in your car, and in your room, I... shit. Sorry. I’m sorry.” There was a pause and a rustle of movement. “I don’t want you to ever think I regret a second of it. Because I don’t.
“I told you, once, that I didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye, like I did the first night. So I’m keeping that promise now.”
“No,” Liam whispered.
“I have to go now. Okay? But not before I had the chance to thank you. For everything, Liam. Goodbye.”
CHAPTER 26
Jonah
The basement was worse in the wintertime.
