Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 57897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
It was hard to decide what was the right thing to do right then. I settled on calling out to her.
“Beth Ann?”
There was a pause, and then I heard a heavy sigh.
“Hold on just a minute,” she said.
At least she spoke. I was going to take that as progress. I turned and looked around while I waited. It looked like she’d done a little over the weekend to go through some of the chaos surrounding the trailer, but she would be limited in what she was able to do on her own. Behind me, the door opened again, and I turned around.
Beth Ann had pulled on a pair of sweatpants over her shorts and a long-sleeve pink shirt over her tank top.
She still didn’t look thrilled to see me standing there. She didn’t invite me in. Instead, she stood in the doorway with the door pressed against her side like she was creating a barrier. It almost looked like she was preparing herself to be able to shut the door again on a whim if she wanted to.
“Hi,” I said with a smile.
“Hello,” she said flatly. That wasn’t a great start.
“I called you a few times and left you some messages.”
Beth Ann gave a single nod, her facial expression not budging. “I know. What are you doing here?”
That wasn’t making it much better.
“I’m here for a couple of reasons,” I said. “Today is my first day at work, and my cousin sent me over on official business. But before we get into that, I’d really like to know why you didn’t return any of my calls.”
“I’d rather just talk about the official business.”
I shook my head. “I need to know what’s going on. Why didn’t you answer? Or at least call or text back?”
“I didn’t have anything to say to you.” Her eyes rolled a bit like she wasn’t sure that was really what she wanted to say. “Or at least, I didn’t know what to say to you yet.”
“What do you mean?”
This time, her face did change. She gave me a look that was somewhere between disgust and hurt, and I was even more confused.
“Because of why I left,” she said.
“That’s just the thing,” I said. “I don’t know why you left. You didn’t leave me a note, and since you didn’t answer your phone, I haven’t been able to talk to you about it. What happened?”
She gave me that look again. “You really don’t know?”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t.”
“You mean to tell me you still haven’t found it?” she asked.
This conversation was just getting worse by the second. I felt disoriented and like I’d missed a step somewhere and was now just tumbling my way down.
“Found what? Beth Ann, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said.
She narrowed her eyes at me, tilting her head slightly to the side like she was trying to gauge whether I was telling the truth.
“There was a thong under your bed,” she said.
I stared at her, the words not fully processing. I couldn’t have possibly just heard what I thought I did.
“There was what?” I asked, not sure I’d heard her correctly.
“A thong,” she said. “A bright green lacy thong sitting on the floor under your bed. The woman missing it might appreciate it back. That is, if you even remember who it belongs to.”
I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. My mouth fell open, but no sound came out for a beat. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“I do,” I said and watched her face tighten, her eyes rolling even harder as she started to step back and close the door. I took a step closer to stop her. “I do because that belongs to my ex. I’m so sorry you found it. I didn’t realize it had fallen out of the suitcase.”
“The suitcase?” she asked, her voice going up a bit higher. “I thought you didn’t have anything to do with your ex. She came and stayed here with you?”
“No.” I shook my head. This conversation really was going to hell. “When I moved out of my old place, I grabbed all the luggage. I didn’t realize one of the suitcases was hers. I found it the other day and saw it was packed with her clothes. It had a note in it. Apparently, she’d been planning on leaving me for a while. She’d packed up so she would be ready to just walk out whenever she felt like it. I took it by mistake and then shoved it under my bed because I didn’t know what the hell else to do with it at that moment. Finding it had been a shock. The thong must have fallen out of it.”
Beth Ann’s lips parted slightly, and her eyes softened. She seemed to think for a second, and then her body posture loosened, and she took a step back, gesturing toward the inside of the trailer.