Page 95 of Northern Stars

“I am not freaking out!” she shouted. She paused, then took a breath. “Okay, I am, but that’s completely okay. I’m okay. I’m okay. I’m okay.”

“Here, let me help you.” I started to reach for one item, and she snatched it up before I could grab it.

“No!” she ordered, shaking the beef kielbasa stick my way. “Stay back.”

Something about her shaking a sausage stick at me was oddly humorous, but I didn’t laugh due to her current panic attack. “Why do I have to stay back?”

“Because when you come near me, I can’t really think straight. And in order for me to process this, I have to think straight.”

I snickered a little. “You’re being dramatic, Jerry.”

Her eyes widened and glassed over. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Don’t call me Jerry.”

“Why not?”

She swallowed hard. “Because it makes me want to cry after not hearing it for so long.”

That tugged at my heart.

Slow down, heart. You haven’t beat this much in years.

“Please don’t cry,” I urged.

She pushed out a smile. “Okay, I won’t.”

“Jerry,” I whispered. “You’re crying.”

She lightly chuckled. “Let’s not act like it’s shocking that I’m emotional.” I took a step toward her, and she halted me again. “Please, Aiden. I need a little time to process this. That’s all.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Take all the time you need.” I’d waited five years to hold her again. I could wait a little bit longer.

“All right. Well, uh, it was great seeing you. You look great like, uh…” She waved her hand, gesturing toward my body. “You look great. Okay, cool. Have a good night. Goodbye.” Her words were soaked in awkwardness as she scurried into her apartment, slamming the door shut behind her.

There I was, completely butt naked on the steps of the Joneses’ bakery, feeling like I’d been spun around in a hurricane of emotions. Yet the strongest one I was feeling after the interaction with Hailee was happiness. I didn’t know I could still feel such a thing.

“Fucking hell,” a person muttered.

I looked up to find Hailee’s father standing in front of me with his hands full of loaves of bread. “Oh shit!” I shouted, reaching across the steps and grabbing my T-shirt to cover my privates. “Hey, Karl,” I muttered, probably fifty shades of red. As if that day couldn’t get odder.

“I’ve had nightmares that started this way,” he grumbled. “It looks like you and Hailee are reconnecting. Unless you’re just waiting on her steps naked for some reason.”

“No, I mean, yeah, I mean, I, uh, I’m going to get dressed and go now.”

“Probably a solid idea. I’ll make sure to sanitize the steps once you’re gone.” Karl began walking to the back of his bakery but called out my name. “Aiden?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t break her heart, or I’ll have to rip yours out.”

“She was the one who broke my heart last time.”

“I hear you, I do, but that girl is my heartbeats. So again. Don’t break her heart, or I’ll have to rip yours out.”

Fair enough.

---