Page 29 of If You Never Come Back
I wish I had more to tell you, but I don’t. He turned in his notice a few days ago and didn’t tell me where he’d be heading.
The fact that Wes iced out his best friend blew me away. But then the second text Colin completely annihilated me.
You two were great together. I honestly don’t know what got into him. I’ve never seen him like this.
I tear up for the millionth time when I remember the hopelessness that overtook me when I read it. If his own best friend has no hope, I shouldn’t either.
Wes isn’t ever coming back.
I contemplate a run to the convenience store for another bottle of tequila when there’s pounding at my front door.
“Shay! You alive?”
I recognize Remy’s panicked boom right away. I shoot up from the couch, then hunch over when a dizzy spell hits. Eating minimal food while binge-drinking hard liquor these past several days has turned me into a walking hangover. I don’t exist in any sort of worthwhile form anymore. I can’t ignore Remy, though. Judging by how he keeps pounding at the door, he’ll break it down rather than leave me in peace.
When I get my balance back, I wobble to the door and open it.
“Thank god.” He pulls me into a hug, then immediately pulls away, his brown eyes wide. Then he cups a hand over his face. “What the hell happened to you? And why the hell do you smell like a dumpster?”
I wave a hand at him, then collapse back onto the couch. His heavy footsteps trail behind me. A second later he’s standing in front of me, only the coffee table separating us.
He leers over me, pointing at the empty glass bottles. “What is that? Why the hell haven’t you answered any of my calls or texts this past week?”
“Say ‘hell’ again. That’ll make me answer faster.”
His chest rises in a single frustrated breath. “Do you have any idea how worried your mom is? She called me yesterday and the day before asking about you because you wouldn’t answer your phone. Why are you ignoring her? You know the moms and aunties in our family go berserk when they can’t get ahold of their kids for more than a day.”
I shrug, trying to play it off like I don’t have a pounding headache that’s about to split my head in two. “I’ve been busy.”
“Busy drinking yourself to death and refusing to bathe?”
He swipes up both bottles and tosses them in the trashcan just a few feet away. Then he resumes the position of standing over me, irritation plastered across his face. “Explain. Now.”
“I was feeling down. That’s all.”
Arms crossed over his broad chest, he leans over me. “I thought you were dead or kidnapped. You need to explain to me what happened that turned you into such a sad sack.”
As annoyed as I am, I can’t blame him. If he or my brother went missing for days, I’d be worried sick too. But once he figures out the reason for my self-imposed hermit status is because of a breakup, he’s going to freak. What a pitiful reason to completely let myself go.
Tears blur my vision. I blink and look up at the dark blob hovering over me that I assume is Remy. “Wes broke up with me.”
Remy plops next to me on the couch and cradles me while I sob out the entire story. I tell him how Wes meeting my parents turned into a colossal mistake when Mom decided to invite our entire extended family as a surprise. And then I give him a quick summary of Wes’s past and how it played into everything.
“Good god,” Remy mutters, hugging me tightly.
“He hasn’t even bothered to contact me since he left,” I sob. “No call, no text. Nothing.”
Remy’s giant paws grip me by the shoulders. He turns me to face him head-on. “Look, I’m mad as hell that Wes broke up with you. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit here and watch you waste away over him. You’ve had a week to be sad. Enough wallowing. Time to function like a human being again.”
My mouth trembles with the urge to sob once more. “I…I don’t know if I can.”
“Cuz,Iknow you can. And you will. You’re my feisty, confident cousin who can handle anything—annoying douchebros at my bar, a scary career change, and everything else in between. Look, breakups suck. I know that more than anyone. But you can’t let them destroy you. You have to move on.”
“But what if I don’t know how?”
Remy winks at me. “Fake it till you make it.”
I sob at chuckle at the same time. It’s the first happy-like sound I’ve made in days.
