Page 9 of Before Forever

I could tell from her clothes that she came from a big city. The matching blouse and dress pants didn’t look like anything anyone wore around here. The wrinkles in the fabric gave away that they weren’t made for this kind of humidity.

“I am so, so sorry. I can’t believe I….”

“I think you got the ‘sorry’ part covered already,” I quipped.

“Here, let me get you more napkins,” she spun around in an attempt to waste another twenty or so napkins from the dispenser; I gently placed my hand on her shoulder to stop her.

“Hey, I got this covered. I think you’ve done enough,” I teased with a smile. I looked over to Charles and tipped my chin, motioning for him to help me out. He tossed over a towel which was much more effective than the thin paper strip napkins.

She stood there, clueless and embarrassed, staring on as I finished wiping up what I could. I looked her up and down again, this time noting her expensive-looking purse and shoes. As I did, I could have sworn she was checking me out. Her eyes were darting up and down my body. It was only fair since I had already done a few once-overs on her.

“I, uh, take it you’re from out of town?” I commented.

“Obviously,” she said with a breathy laugh. As soon as the words slipped out, she pressed a finger to the tip of her nose and closed her eyes. “Sorry. I don’t know why I just said that.”

I couldn’t resist leaning in closer to whisper as a joke, “Maybe because itispretty obvious.”

“I know, it is.” She flopped her hands out, smacking them against the sides of her legs. “I didn’t have a lot of lakeside country attire in my wardrobe. Or else maybe I could have fit in a little better.”

Listening to how she spoke and watching the way she moved, I didn’t have the heart to tell her I didn’t think the clothes would have helped. She had that uptight, always in a fuss over something kind of vibe to her. Things around here were slow and easy, and that went deeper than just how we dressed.

“I’m so sorry about running into you and spilling my coffee all over you.” She reached to dig through her purse and pulled out her wallet. “I’ll pay to replace your shirt. It’s the least I could do. How much was it?”

My brow furrowed. It seemed kind of rude to ask how much someone’s shirt was. Or maybe that was a bragging right to people where she came from? But I didn’t have much to brag about. My shirt came in a pack of five for a whopping fifteen dollars. It seemed ridiculous to take three dollars from her when she had already expressed enough embarrassment equivalent to five times as much.

“It’s really no trouble,” I laughed. “I was just going to get concrete and wood dust all over it anyway. I’ve got plenty at home where this one came from.”

“Oh,” her face softened, her eyes darting to the muscles of my arms poking out from under the sleeves. “You work in some kind of construction?”

“And carpentry,” I nodded. “A little bit of everything. I fight the occasional fire, too. Listen, I should have been looking where I was going. Why don’t you let me buy you another coffee.”

She stammered, slowly gathering up the rest of her things from the table and shoving them back into her big baggy leather purse. “No, please…don’t worry about it,” she blushed, tucking her chin down towards her chest. “I’m sorry again for this whole thing. I, uh, well…I should get going. Sorry.”

She was an odd, nervous little thing as she fumbled over her words then bolted out of the store. Charles was still grinning as I made my way up to the counter.

“What’s her story?” I asked.

“She’s just in from out of town. I think she said her name was Melody,” he said with a shrug. “She sure is pretty.”

He had a taunting gleam in his eye, which I greeted with a firm, blank expression. I knew what he was thinking. It’s what everyone around here was thinking these days. Any time a presumably single woman was within a mile radius of me, they started getting all sorts of crazy ideas about there being some kind of spark, us hitting it off, me marrying her, and carrying on like…like nothing ever happened. Like Rebecca never existed.

He wasn’t so wrong this time. I did have a strange fleeting feeling about the woman. There was something about her. But that didn’t mean a thing to me. Sometimes, there was something about how the wind blew or how the clouds hung in the sky. That doesn’t mean the whole world stops or goes up in arms over it.

“The usual, please,” I told him, which he knew meant black coffee to-go, with just a splash of cream.

I was eager to escape the rough start of the morning, sleepless night, strange woman, spilled coffee. But as Charles got to work on filling my cup, I couldn’t resist turning towards the window and staring off in the direction this Melody woman ran.

I caught a glimpse of her scurrying across the street, rushing off in the direction of Mullins Cove just as quickly as she seemed to rush in.

6

MELODY

I bolted across the street, eager to get away from that man as fast as I could before I made an even bigger fool out of myself than I already had. That was about the only thing I could imagine that would send me running back towards the same house I had been trying to escape an hour ago.

I slowed my pace after passing the railroad tracks, once the line of boutiques nestled into those historic buildings had vanished behind me on the horizon. Now only the mountains were in view in the distance. The lake was to my right, and I could hear birds cawing and making a fuss over something; some food dropped on the ground from what I could tell. A little further on the walk, I startled at the sound of something suddenly rustling in the bushes, which turned out to be nothing more than a rabbit who looked more terrified than me.

All of it was still a million times more calm and peaceful than the bustle of the big city, even though it was all so unfamiliar and foreign. When was the last time I had been out in nature like this, taking a walk down a long road on a nice day?

---