Page 96 of Afternoon Delight
“I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at the situation. I’m mad that you’re leaving in three days. Not because I want you to stay here and fix my life. I’m not your son, Meg. You don’t have to solve my problems for me. I’m an adult. I’ll figure it out.”
He wasn’t yelling, or even being mean, but his words landed like lawn darts in my chest.
“I just worry you don’t have enough emotional support,” I said defensively.
“You know you’re not my only friend, right?”
“Wow.” I glared at him.
“I’m not trying to be an asshole.”
“Apparently you don’t have to try.”
“I’m saying you should go do the thing you keep telling me you need to do. Go fix your life. Quit worrying about mine.”
“It feels like you’re throwing rocks to make me go. I don’t want to end on bad terms, Zak.”
“We’re not ending, Meg. I’m going to text you stupid shit until you block me. When you come back in September, I’m going to help you move your mom and hopefully fuck your brains out at least once. I love you. I wasn’t going to say it because it sounds like I’m only saying it to keep you here, but I do. Now you know. So go figure out what that does for you. I’ll be here when you get back.”
He bent over the sanding block, putting his weight into it while I sat there with my lip quivering.
I loved him, too. And if I said it, if I made it real, then I really would stay.
“Zak?” Dale called out. “Did you sell the model train set?”
“Last week, yeah,” Zak called back.
“Did you get a good price?”
“Sure did.”
“That’s good. I’m going to put the clocks on this table.”
“Let me know if you want help.”
He looked at me and probably saw that my eyes were too bright. Maybe his were, too. I couldn’t see very well anymore.
“Can you just go for now?” he asked, his voice thick.
I swallowed the ache in my throat and nodded, slipping off the stool and out the back way. I knocked on Georgia’s shop door until she let me in. Then I cried on her shoulder.
I didn’t see Zak again until I was leaving. Roddie and I stopped by the shop to say goodbye. It was short. It was painful.
Zak promised to text, but I wasn’t convinced he would.
Chapter 53
Meg
Georgia is having a May Day sale. Your mom is setting up the window.
Please let me show her this.
#MayDay
Zak added the photo of me tangled in the swing.
I looked ridiculous, but I was laughing, which made me chuckle all over at the memory. The sheer glow of attraction and joy on my face made me wistful, too. I missed him in a way that was nearly unbearable.
