The Big One (Second Chance Romantic Comedy)

by Katherine Hastings

  “Ellie?” I knocked on the door loudly, pressing my ear up against it. “Ellie? Are you in there?”

  Maybe she was in the bathroom. I waited a few minutes and tried again. Only silence answered my knocks and calls. Panic gripped me, but I thought perhaps she was waiting on the street again and I’d missed her. Not caring that I was running now, I raced down the hallway and hopped back on the elevator. When I reached the lobby, I searched for her and then stepped out onto the streets, my eyes darting around for any signs of her.

  Nothing. Where is she?

  I tried her cell phone, but it went straight to voicemail. I’d tried her several times earlier today just to say hi, and figured she was sleeping and had her phone off. Now I worried something terrible had happened to her and fear ripped through me while I ran to the front desk.

  “Excuse me,” I impatiently asked the lady on the phone. She lifted a finger and continued her conversation. “Ma’am. Excuse me, please!”

  “What?” her voice dripped with her annoyance while she placed her hand over the receiver.

  “Ellie Anderson. Room 402. Have you seen her? Dark blonde hair, about this tall?” I lifted my hand to my chest.

  “She checked out,” she said, returning to her call.

  “What?” I shouted, unable to keep my shock in check. “What do you mean checked out? When?”

  Rolling her eyes, she reached for a piece of paper with my name scribbled across it in Ellie’s handwriting. “Are you Liam?”

  “Yes,” I said, breathing a sigh. She left me a note. Maybe she checked out because she was planning on staying with me tonight... and from now on.

  “Here.” She tossed it at me and went back to her call, gossiping with what I could only assume was a friend.

  I pulled open the folded piece of paper and read the few lines scribbled in blue ink.

  Fuck you, Liam. I hope you and your WIFE have a nice fucking life. I’m going home. Don’t contact me again.

  Ellie

  As the room spun around me and nausea roiled my stomach, I released my grip on the flowers, dropping them at my feet. The colorful petals exploded into pieces around me. Grabbing the desk, I struggled for balance, struggled to breathe and to process this shocking turn of events. She fucking left me. She was gone. My Ellie. I had messed everything up and I had no idea how to make it right again. I saw her tear drop stains on the note and pain wrapped its hand around my heart and squeezed. Tight.

  Fuck!

  Wasting no time, I jumped in my car and raced to the airport. Maybe I could catch her. Maybe she was still here, and I could explain things and beg her forgiveness. Maybe... just maybe. I slammed my car in park and jumped out, racing through the parking lot to the busy terminal. When I saw the flashing board with flights, I stopped and searched for all the planes heading the U.S. Was I too late? Was she gone? I saw no flights listed, but maybe she was on a connecting flight.

  I ran to the nearest terminal with the shortest line and panted when I slammed up against it, startling the woman into taking a step back.

  “America. Is there a flight to America still?”

  Cautious eyes searched me before she stepped forward to the computer. “There is a flight connecting through Glasgow that leaves in thirty minutes.”

  “I need to get on that flight.” I ripped out my credit card and slammed it on the desk.

  “Passport, Sir?”

  Fuck!

  “I don’t have it. I wasn’t planning on this.”

  “I’m sorry, sir. But you’ll need a passport to go international.”

  Sweat beaded on my brow and I wiped it off. Concern tightened her face, and I realized my erratic behavior had startled her and she looked ready to call the police, certain I was a terrorist. “The girl I love is getting on that plane and I need to stop her. Please. Is there any way I can get to that terminal? I love her. I can’t let her go.” I thought about paging her, but she would know it was me. With the well-placed anger in the note she’d written, I knew she would only race onto that plane faster. I needed to stop her, and the only way to do that was to find her.

  She raked me with an inquisitive gaze. “You could always buy a local ticket to get into the terminal and then find her that way. But you need to go through security.” Her look told me she meant if I was a terrorist, they would stop me, and if I wasn’t, I would have no problem getting through.

  “Yes! Do that! Here, charge whatever you need and book me wherever I can go to get in that terminal with her.”

  “You’d better not be lying,” she said, leveling me with a stare.

  “I promise. I swear on my mother’s life I’m not up to anything nefarious. I love her and I just need to tell her... to explain everything. I fucked up, Lola.” I said, reading the name off her tag. “I fucked up bad.”

  Pressing her lips together, she eyeballed me one last time. “I believe you. Fine, I’ll put you through. You’re going to Florence.” She swiped my credit card and typed in the name on my license. I shifted nervously while I waited until she printed out the ticket and handed it back with my card and ID. When I went to pull it from her grip, she tightened it, holding the ticket and locking me in her lethal stare.

  “Don’t make me regret this. And don’t fuck up again. Go get the girl.”

  “Thank you. Thank you, Lola.” I hopped up on the counter and kissed her on the cheek. “I’m naming our first child after you!” I called back and heard her laugh while I tore through the airport.

  Security took what seemed like an eternity, and I kept checking the clock on the wall that was tormenting me. Five minutes. She would be leaving in five minutes. I pulled off my shoes and tossed them and my wallet through the scanner and struggled to hold still while they scanned me and sent me through. Grabbing my belongings, I ran barefoot to her gate, sliding to a stop when I saw it empty and the door closed.

  “No!” I shouted, running to the window to see the plane pulling away and turning down the runway. “Ellie.” I placed my hand on the window and watched the plane disappear. Ellie was on the plane, and she had my heart with her. Knowing I couldn’t fly off after her on the next flight and leave my mom, I slid down the wall and crumpled onto the floor. Leaving her ten years ago had been agonizing but having her leave now and knowing she hated me ripped me wide open and left every nerve in my body raw and exposed. Worse yet, I’d done it to myself. The anguish I felt was excruciating, but it was my own fault. I would never forgive myself for keeping things from her. She’d been adamant. No lies. We were so close to having it all, and I ruined it, just like I’d ruined my soccer career. But losing Ellie this way made the loss of soccer seem like nothing. Losing Ellie was more than I could bear.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Ellie

  I stumbled down the hallway to the baggage claim in a daze. Twenty-four sleepless hours on planes sobbing uncontrollably had taken its toll. I’d left my pride in Naples along with my heart and about an hour into the first flight I’d given up the battle of the tears and just let them come. The poor passengers stuck in my row on both flights must have been begging for a refund after listening to me sniffling and wailing each time the thoughts of Liam and his wife washed over me... which happened with every agonizing inhale.

  “Ellie!” I heard Nita call, and I lifted my puffy eyes from the floor to see her and Louie waving by the baggage claim. Just the sight of them caused my lip to quiver and the tears to stream once again. How I had any liquid left in my body after a full day of sobbing baffled me.

  “Oh, Ellie!” Louie raced to me and pulled me into a tight embrace. I was too tired, and too defeated, to lift my arms and hug him back. Like a limp noodle, I stood slumped into his chest. I felt Nita’s arms wrap around me from behind and they pushed me into an Ellie sandwich and for just a moment, I felt better. It didn’t last, however, and the sobs started up again while they wrapped themselves around me.

  “What an asshole! #fuckliam! Just fuck him!” Louie squeezed me and Nita tighter.r />
  “I’m so sorry, Ellie,” Nita said. “I can’t even imagine. He’s lucky he’s on the other side of that ocean or I’d shove this stiletto so far up his ass.”

  “He’s married,” I whispered. With all the pain lingering in my shattered heart, I uttered the two words that had exploded my bliss into torture. They had been about the only two words I’d been able to say in twenty-four hours. Over and over they just slipped out. Each time with a different inflection. Sometime a statement. Sometimes in anger. Sometimes a question. But always the same two words. “He’s married.” I blew out a sigh and let my tears flow.

  “We brought wine.” Louie released his grip and pulled a hidden bottle of red from underneath his shirt. He twisted off the cap and tipped it toward my mouth. I took a swig and let the warmth flood down my throat, remembering the last time I drank wine was with Liam. The sobs started again.

  “Oh no! Wine was supposed to help! Here... ice cream!” Nita shook the dripping container of Ben and Jerry’s in front of my face. “It’s like ninety degrees out there so it’s a little melty now.” She popped the lid and it was completely liquefied. “Okay, a lotta melty now. But still good! You can drink it! It’s Chubby Hubby.”

  My sister immediately realized her mistake in ice cream selection, because her eyes widened into moons. “Oh, Ellie. I’m a moron. I’m so sorry. I should have gone for the Chocolate Therapy.”

  I shook my head, allowing another wave of sobs to overtake me. “You guys are the best. Thank you. I just need to get my bag and get out of here and forget I ever met that fucking liar.”

  “Fuck Liam!” Louie tossed an arm around my shoulder.

  “I see your bag. I’ll grab it.” Nita hopped off with her little container of ice cream and pulled my bag off the carousel, running back to join us as we headed outside. The sliding doors opened and the humidity from the Chicago heat slapped me in the face. Sweat beaded on my brow almost instantly and I hoped that maybe it would take with it the last of the liquid that insisted on pouring out of my eyes.

  “I’m parked over here.” Louie dragged me through the parking lot and the lines of never-ending cars. It took a moment, but when we reached the car, I scrunched up my face and looked at him.

  “Wait a minute. You don’t have a car. You don’t even drive, do you? We’re cab people,” I said, looking at the little white Prius he was unlocking.

  “I know! I rented one!” He beamed while he tossed my bag in the trunk. I noticed two other bags shoved in there as well.

  “What’s up with the bags and the rented car?” I asked while he slammed the trunk shut.

  “It’s a surprise! A fuck Liam surprise! Get in!”

  “I’m so tired, you guys.” I climbed into the back, hoping they were taking me straight home. Louie fumbled with the keys and I arched a brow. “Are you sure you know how to drive? Should I be worried?”

  “Of course, I can drive!” He wiggled the keys again and finally got it started. “See!”

  “Starting a car and driving a car are two different things.”

  “He’s good, Ellie. We made it here alive.” She reached back and rubbed my leg before buckling up her seatbelt. I glanced at Louie and knew I should do the same.

  “Hold on, we need road trip music,” Louie said, linking up to the Bluetooth.

  “Road trip? Where are we going?” I asked. “You guys, I just want to go home.”

  “No, you don’t. It’s ninety degrees out and the city is packed. You have no job, we took a few days off, and we’re getting out of here and going to the beach! The three of us, three days of fun in the sun to get you feeling right as rain again.”

  “The beach?” Flashes of Liam kissing me in the water, of saying I love you while the waves lapped at our feet, flashed through my mind and brought with them a gut-wrenching sob.

  “Oh God, Ellie!” Nita turned back in her seat and grabbed my hand while I ugly cried in the back seat. “You’re going to be okay! I promise. We’ve got you! Here, drink the ice cream.”

  I took the little pint from her and the condensation ran down my arms while I tipped it back to my lips and let the once-frozen ice cream pour into my mouth.

  “Maybe you should pour the wine in there and just kill two birds with one stone! Like a wine ice cream float!” Nita said, pushing the bottle into my free hand. For a moment I contemplated it while I wiped a drip of ice cream from my chin.

  “You will feel so much better when we get to my family’s cabin in Door County!” Louie turned back in his seat, and his eyes bubbled with excitement. “No one is there all week, so we have three days of just the three of us, lots of ice cream, and all the alcohol you need to drown out ‘he who shall not be named’. I know we agreed no more break-up binge drinking like we’re twenty-one-year-olds for a while, but these are special circumstances. Our livers can take it.”

  Nita gave him a sharp nod of solidarity.

  “Door County?” I sat forward, and the ice cream sloshed in the tub. “Are you kidding me? Why would I want to go to Door County to forget Liam? Hello! That’s where we met! Everywhere I look, I’ll see his lying face.”

  I remembered seeing him in Wilson’s for the first time and the sobs started again.

  “You’re going up there to say goodbye to that asshole and move on with your life. We’re facing your fears head on. We’re gonna burn away every trace of him and then you’re gonna come back feeling like a new person! Trust me... this is going to help close the door for good.”

  The thought of facing the scene of the crime almost made me jump out of the car, but I was too defeated to move. Instead, I poured some wine into the ice cream and slurped down a healthy gulp.

  “We’ve got you, Ellie! And so does Beyoncé!” He pressed play as he backed the car out. “Single Ladies” blasted out of the speakers and they bumped their heads to the beat. I laughed for a second and then remembered I was now also a single lady, and my pitiful laugh transformed into another ugly sob that ripped out of me while we peeled out of the parking lot.

  ****

  “When we get back to my cabin tonight, we should watch ‘Dirty Dancing’, don’t you think?” Louie asked while he sipped on a martini.

  “Stop calling it a cabin.” I bit an olive off my skewer. “It’s not a cabin. It’s a mansion on the water. A cabin is like a little brown building with a hole in the woods for a toilet. Your ‘cabin’ is bigger than any house I’ve ever been in and is right on the water in Ephraim. It’s worth more than my life.”

  “Seriously, Louie. That’s not a cabin. You never told us you were rich. You were holding out. And to think I’ve been rolling your bar tabs more times than I can count.” Nita raised a brow and sipped on her own martini.

  “I’m not rich... but my family is. I’m just a server scraping by.” He batted his lashes and pushed out his lower lip.

  “You’re loaded,” Nita responded.

  “I try not to use their money, but I suppose yeah... I’m loaded.” He grinned and shrugged.

  “Drinks are on you all weekend. You owe me.” Nita grazed him with a playful glare.

  “I paid for our wine tour and trolley rides yesterday!”

  “You’re loaded, Louie. Loaded,” she said.

  He leaned forward on the worn wooden bar and nodded. “Fine. Drinks are on me all weekend. Or I guess I should say they’re on my dad.” He grinned wide.

  “Did you hear that, Eddie?” Nita called to the bartender at the Sister Bay Bowl. “He’s paying!”

  Eddie looked up from the conversation he was having at the end of the bar and grinned. “Well, you know what that means?”

  “Jägermeister!” Nita and I shouted in unison.

  “You’re learning!” His deep, infectious laugh carried through the busy bar, drowning out every sound around us. There was something about that laugh that soothed even my own battered soul. When we’d come to the Sister Bay Bowl a few hours earlier for dinner, I’d heard that familiar laugh and it stopped me in my tracks. It
was the same unique one as the bartender who served me drinks across the street at Husby’s each night I’d snuck in that summer I spent here. When I had peered behind the bar tonight, I saw the same familiar face, goatee, and long hair tied back in a ponytail.

  Ten years may have passed, and he had switched bars, but he was exactly the same. When he saw me, I was shocked to hear him shout my name and run around to pull me in for a big bear hug. We’d been drinking buddies that summer, but it had been so many years I never expected he’d remember me. It was only minutes later he was pouring us a Jägermeister while I was pouring my heart out to him, telling him about my recent woes. There wasn’t a better shoulder to cry on than the big man with the big heart who poured the coldest Jägermeister around.

  He lifted the bottle from the ice bin in front of us and hoisted it high, showcasing the ice clinging to the bottom. “Now that’s gonna be a good one! You in, Louie?”

  “I know we agreed to binge-drink like we did in our wild youths this weekend, but Jägermeister again?” He glowered.

  “Louie. It’s a break-up emergency,” Nita said. “We can be twenty-one for a few more days and help Ellie recover from her heartbreak. And Eddie insists on Jägermeister.”

  Pursing his lips, he looked at Eddie who only waggled his brows in encouragement. “Well, what the hell. After all, I’m paying for it!”

  Eddie slid four shot glasses in front of us and filled them with the brown liquid, lifting one himself. “Is the Jägermeister erasing the douchebag yet?” he asked me.

  “Getting closer,” I lied and lifted my own glass. This was our second night in Door County and Liam’s face still flashed through my mind on repeat, each time causing the same tightness around my heart and a pain that seared through my gut. At least I could be in public now without sobbing, so there was that.

  “We’ll get there, Ellie! Bottoms up!” We clinked glasses, and I downed my second Jägermeister of the evening. Along with the cocktails I’d had, my buzz deepened, and I hoped that maybe this time it would let me take a little vacation from the constant torment of my broken heart.