Page 28 of Not Another Yesterday
She nods. “Yeah. Do you feel lighter?”
I shrug. “In some ways, yeah. I don’t have to lie so much anymore. Don’t have to come up with excuses or stories…” The shit that weighs me down now is the fear of… myself.
I don’t need to look at Miranda to know her gaze is locked on me. I feel her eyes boring into my head. “And your mom? What happened to her?”
“After she made me sit through ten hours of testimony, she changed her plea to guilty and made her case to the judge,” I say in an unaffected manner.
I note the dip of her eyebrows out of my periphery. “I didn’t know that was an option.”
“Well, it is. She ended up getting three years.”
Miranda recoils as if I just zapped her with electricity. “What? Three years? After… after putting you into a god damn coma?”
I just nod.
“Jesus, that’s… completely fucked up,” Miranda huffs. “She tortures you for seventeen straight years and only gets three years?” She crosses her arms in front of her chest and gets back to analyzing my profile. “Are you angry about it?”
“I don’t think so,” I say with a tiny shrug and a quick shake of my head.
“You don’tthinkso?”
“No. I guess I don’t think about her enough to be angry. I honestly don’t want to spend my energy on that,” I say, my jaw tight.
Miranda falls silent, studying me for a long moment. “Are you still with your feline?”
Guilt flickers in my chest for leaving so abruptly. I need to call Cat ASAP. Still, my lips curve into a smile. I can never control my body when Cat comes up, when I hear her voice or lay eyes on her. I have an instinctive and immediate physical reaction. Fuck, I’ve been with her for just over a year and a half now and I’m as crazy about her as ever. “Still with her.”
“That’s… good,” Miranda says, then falls silent again. She turns her head to watch the dark nothingness fly by.
We don’t speak again until I pull up to the small diner about ten minutes later. The parking lot only has one car, and for a moment I wonder if the place is closed. But then I spot a handful of people inside, and the sign on the door clearly indicating that they’re open. Good thing, too, because I can actually hear the hollow growl of Miranda’s stomach.
I hold the door open for her and she slips in past me. The smell of warm food is in the air, immediately assaulting my senses, and I realize how damn hungry I am. I haven’t really eaten today other than that sandwich early this morning.
“For two?” a waiter who looks to be about my age asks, then leads us to a small booth. Miranda shucks off my jacket, placing it beside her as she slides into the booth. She grabs one of the menus tucked behind the salt and pepper shakers and eagerly flips it open.
I pull my phone out of my pocket. “Randi, I’ll be right back.”
“You calling your feline?” she asks with a tired smile.
“Yeah. I’ll just be a minute.”
I step outside into the nearly empty parking lot and am met with a cold breeze that skillfully finds its way underneath my gray long-sleeve, causing goosebumps to erupt on my arms. I dial Cat’s number, then leave her a quick voice message when she doesn’t answer the phone. New York is an hour ahead of Tennessee, so Cat is probably asleep. Or maybe she’s still out with Vada, Tori, and Summer, and just didn’t hear her phone ring. Regardless, I tell her that I made it to Tennessee okay, that I will call her tomorrow, and most importantly that I love her.
Back inside the diner, I take a seat opposite Miranda just as the young waiter stops at our table. I raise my eyebrows when Miranda orders enough food to feed a small army.
“When was the last time you ate?” I ask her after ordering a turkey burger and fries.
“I don’t know. Two days ago?”
I frown at her. “Okay, Randi, time to spill it! What happened?” I lean forward onto my forearms, holding eye contact. I’ve had enough of the small talk.
She sighs deeply. “God, Rony,” she begins, her voice already cracking. “It’s so bad.” Her eyes water and spill over, tears silently rolling down her cheeks.
“Just tell me, Randi,” I say softly.
She takes a shaky breath, then another. “When I left Montana, I basically just went back to what I was doing before I went home last December.”
A small, involuntary groan rumbles in my chest with the thought that Randi did what I begged her not to do only months ago. She put herself at unnecessary risk for…Nope, not a thought I’m going to finish.
