Just a Little Sequel

by Tracie Puckett

  “Is someone paying you by the word today?” Bruno asked. “Take a breath, Julie. Start over. Slow down.”

  I closed my eyes and dropped my forehead flat against the table.

  “I’m going to break his heart, Bruno,” muffled as my words were, I knew he’d heard every one. “If I leave, Charlie’s never going to forgive me.”

  I felt the weight of another body slide into the booth next to me, and Bruno’s strong arm fell across my shoulders. “Have you tried talking to him? Your uncle’s not an unreasonable man. You talk, he’ll listen.”

  “Ha, maybe that’s true for everyone else, but Charlie’s never been so reasonable when it comes to talking about stuff like that,” I finally lifted my head. I turned to look at Bruno’s dark eyes and then felt my own welling with tears. “I didn’t think he had any reservations about my future with Luke. I mean, he knows how much I love him, and he knows that we’re eventually going to move forward. He gave Luke his blessing last year. Bruno, he’s had plenty of time to brace himself for this.”

  “You can never truly brace yourself for some things,” Bruno said. “He’s gotten so used to having both you and Matt around.”

  “But we can’t stay there forever,” I said. “Doesn’t he understand that? Who knows what Matt’s up to? I don’t. He could up and leave again any day. But it can’t fall on my shoulders to make sure that Charlie doesn’t end up alone. It can’t, right? How would that be fair?”

  “Sometimes it’s not fair, Julie,” he shook his head, “but Charlie’s a strong man. If you really want to leave, you need to be honest with him. Tell him you’re ready to break out on your own, and he’ll respect you for your honesty.”

  I doubted that.

  Bruno didn’t know how short my leash was with Charlie.

  We sat silently for a few long minutes. I didn’t know what was going through Bruno’s mind, but I imagined he was trying to figure out why I hadn’t yet jumped off a bridge. Too many frustrations, too many unknowns, too much stress…

  Sometimes I wondered if it was just easier to bolt and leave Oakland. I had enough problems of my own. I didn’t need everybody else’s. I’d been so occupied with thoughts of my friends and family that I hadn’t even taken a spare moment to think about everything that had happened with Luke… So, when things got really, really hard, all I could think about was just running away. Spending a lifetime alone had to be easier than spending a lifetime surrounded by constant frustration, right?

  “Hey Bruno,” I turned to look at him, “can I ask you something personal?”

  “Always.”

  “Why didn’t you ever get married? Have children? Do the family thing?”

  Okay. So I didn’t know for sure whether any of that was true. I’d never asked about his history. Maybe he was married at one point. Maybe he had a million grown children somewhere out there. But he’d never mentioned anything, so I’d always assumed he’d been a lifelong bachelor.

  I couldn’t help but wonder, was it easier being alone? Bruno would have the answer.

  “I never thought I’d be any good at it,” he answered honestly. “I never chased that life, Miss Julie. I cared too much about my job that I wasn’t willing to share my time with anyone else. It was easier to accept that I wasn’t built for relationships and parenthood. Some people are never meant to settle down and live that life. I never cared much for distractions.”

  And even though he’d said it, I had trouble believing most of it. Bruno was kind, comforting, and wise. He would’ve made a wonderful husband, and I know he would’ve made an even better father. Maybe he truly believed he wasn’t cut out for that lifestyle, but I knew otherwise.

  “Do you ever get lonely?”

  “No,” he said, and for some reason, I believed that. “I’m never alone long enough to be lonely.”

  I looked down at his newspaper and then back up to him.

  “Oh,” I nodded once. Wow. I was such a jerk. I’d just busted in there and unloaded all my problems on him, right in the middle of his breakfast, without any thought or concern for his private time. “I’m sorry, I just—”

  “And I never said it was a bad thing,” he tightened his grip on my shoulders. “Living alone and spending your life alone are two different things, sweetheart. No matter how hard it gets, never underestimate the power of your relationships. We all need someone. Some of us need a whole handful of someones.”

  I rested my head on his shoulder and took a deep breath.

  “You would’ve made a great dad, Bruno,” I whispered, and for some reason, my eyes welled with tears again, “better than great.”

  He pressed a kiss to my hair, holding me a little tighter than he ever had. “And you are going to make a wonderful wife for Luke,” he said quietly. “You’ve got so much going for you, sweetheart, and you don’t want to run from it. You’re not meant to be alone. Your friends and family, we need you around here. You’re what’s holding everyone together.”

  Six

  I left the diner after ten minutes of crying in Bruno’s arms. I wasn’t really sure why I couldn’t stop the tears. My hormones had gotten the best of me.

  If I hadn’t been adamant about keeping my relationship with Luke purely emotional for the last year, I would’ve sworn that I was the pregnant, hormonal one. Abstaining from sex had never been something I’d ever given a lot of thought. I didn’t even know I was traditional in that sense, not until Derek sat me down in the spring and told me he was going to be a father. Nothing like your best friend’s unplanned pregnancy to scare you into abstinence, am I right?

  Still, with the way my emotions were fluctuating lately, I could’ve given any pregnant woman a run for her money in the crazy department.

  I thanked Bruno for lending an ear and a shoulder, and I left the diner. It’s not that I didn’t want to spend another second with him, it’s just that I knew that I’d keep crying if I didn’t get up and leave. So I gave myself a minute to dry my eyes, compose myself, and then I gave Bruno some lame excuse about wanting to call Derek and check in on all things baby.

  I went ahead and made that call the moment I left the diner. Not only was I curious as to why this whole process was taking so long, I just wanted to make sure my friend was hanging in there. The call went straight to voicemail.

  I knew Luke was probably still at Rebecca’s with Molly, but there was always a chance that I could catch him going in or out at home. So I wandered down the street a little farther until I reached the apartment building at 148 Main, only to realize (halfway up the stairs to his door) that he didn’t even live there anymore. I went ahead and finished the climb to the second floor and stopped right in front of the apartment marked B2. My eyes traced the simple features of the doorway, and I remembered all the times I’d passed through there.

  The first time had been an educational experience; I’d learned so much about Luke the first time I walked into his apartment. I’d finally reached a better understanding as to who he was and why he did some of the crazy things he did. And though I didn’t have a lot of time to poke around and get familiar with his place on that first day, I remember how much I’d really liked being there.

  And then there was the night that Luke had brought me home from Grace and Lonnie’s house, back when I was still having those awful nightmares. I smiled as I reminisced about our late night conversations, our game of truth or dare, and all the hours I’d spent cuddled up next to Luke’s warm body. The few nights that I’d stayed cooped up in Luke’s apartment had been the most comforting memories in my life. Being there with him, I’d finally learned to let go, to trust him, to give him my heart—no strings attached.

  I found my palm resting on the door as I reminisced about the times we’d shared inside his apartment, and my heart broke as I came to the realization that I’d never set foot behind that door again.

  Sure, maybe it was just a few walls, a floor, and a ceiling, but Luke’s apartment represented something bigger in my life. It was a place
that I felt loved, protected, safe. It was the place where all of the bad finally flourished into goodness.

  The fact that Luke had been kind and considerate enough to go out and find us a new place, a home we could share together, a place where we could continue making those memories… well, it was the most incredible thing anyone had ever done for me.

  I hadn’t had much time to really think about Luke’s gesture as everything else around me kept snowballing. It had seemed too grand the night before, too forward. It was strange and hard to grasp; why would Luke do something like that? But the longer I stood there in front of his apartment, the sooner I realized that maybe Luke didn’t see his apartment the same way I did. Maybe he saw it as the place where he’d spent far too much time alone, the place he’d spent far too many hours running from who he really was and what he really wanted.

  Maybe Luke, unlike Bruno, wasn’t cutout to be alone. If that was the case, it finally made sense what Bruno had said back at the diner: we need you around here. You’re what’s holding everyone together. Maybe Luke needed me as much as I needed him. Maybe that’s what he’d been trying to tell me with his gesture.

  He needed me.

  “Goodbye,” I whispered, stroking the door one last time. My phone chimed just as my fingers slipped away from the wood.

  One New Message

  Luke

  Maybe he’d sensed I’d been thinking about him?

  I opened the message to read:

  Baby time! We’ll swing by to pick you up in five.

  Without much time to get back to the house, I ran down the stairs without a second look at B2, flew out the door, and back onto the street of the historic district. I jogged past the diner, the flower shop, and all of the other vintage stores that I’d come to recognize in my time in Oakland. Not focused on anything but getting back to the house, I forgot to stop at an intersection and ran right out in the middle of the street. A black car came screeching to a halt just inches from my legs, and I stood paralyzed in the middle of the road. I looked up to meet the driver’s stunned expression, only to realize right away that it was Luke behind the wheel.

  He stared at me with a look that was somewhere between annoyed and relieved, and then he nodded at the empty passenger’s seat next to him. My heart pounding uncontrollably against my chest—I’d almost become road kill!—I found the energy to move from the middle of the intersection and finally jump into the car.

  As I buckled my seatbelt, I waited for Luke to reprimand me for failing to check the intersection before crossing. He never said a word. He just looked in my direction for a few long seconds, waited for me to settle in, and then he passed through the light.

  Molly was in the backseat, half-asleep and dozing off, and she hadn’t even seemed to notice that I’d gotten in the car.

  “Grace is in the delivery room with Rebecca,” Luke gripped the wheel as he drove closer to the hospital. “She said something about centimeters and dilating…” Luke’s face twisted in the most disgusted way. I assumed he was picturing just how gross the ‘miracle’ of childbirth really was. Remembering how disgusted he was when I cleaned the pumpkin the day before, I could only imagine how hysterical it would be to see him inside a delivery room.

  Five minutes later, we were at the hospital, all three of us rushing toward the maternity ward. The elevator doors opened to the same familiar waiting room, and Lonnie stood up as Molly ran toward him, her sloppy pigtails flopping all the way.

  As I watched her settle in on her grandpa’s lap, her pigtails a little lopsided on each side of her head, I vividly pictured Luke in the early morning hours trying to style his niece’s hair. I could see him fighting with the brush, the curls, and the elastic bands, and something about that image made it almost impossible to restrain a laugh. I’m sure the thought made me grin, because Luke leaned over and whispered, “You okay?”

  “Fine,” I managed a smile. I turned to Lonnie and only dropped my lips to inquire about Derek’s whereabouts before he pointed down the hall.

  “She won’t let him in,” he shrugged. “He’s just pacing a rut in the floor outside her door. He’s been at it for hours. I doubt the boy slept a wink last night.”

  I nodded once and headed down the hall, leaving the Reibeck men to tend to Molly.

  I found Derek at the end of the hall, doing just what Lonnie had assured me he’d be doing. He didn’t notice me as I walked up.

  “Hey you,” I said, and my voice made him jump. His hair was standing on end, his glasses were a smidge crooked, and his clothes were wrinkled and unkempt. I’d never seen Derek look so distressed, even at his absolute worse. An involuntary shiver got the best of me when I realized just how much he looked like his father standing there. “How are you doing?”

  “I should be in there,” he said, projecting his voice toward the door. He wanted to communicate his frustration with Rebecca, and obviously he didn’t care that she was in the middle of childbirth.

  “Yes, you should,” I opened my arms to offer a hug. He put both hands up to refuse the hug in a way that read much like seriously, Julie, do I look like I want your sympathy? I didn’t take the rejection to heart; Derek was in a difficult place, and I had to understand that. “Any word on her progress?”

  “Judging by the dozen or so screams coming from the room, my guess is any minute,” he said, and then he started pacing again. As if on cue, a loud wail came from the room, and I could hear the subtle cheer of “push” coming from both Grace and the doctor.

  “I can’t believe I’m missing this,” he ran his fingers back through his hair. “Julie,” he turned back to me and stopped, “go in there. Find out if everything’s okay.”

  “In there?” I asked. My mind suddenly conjured up all the images I’m certain Luke had been imagining back in the car as he talked about centimeters and dilating. “I think I’ll just stay out here and wait.”

  “Please,” he begged, “just check.”

  “I probably shouldn’t—”

  “Julie,” he said, swallowing hard, “please. For me?”

  And then I saw it, a tiny flash of helplessness in his eyes, and I felt my heart sink. Who was I to tell him no? He’d put a bullet into his own father just to save my life, and I couldn’t do this one thing for him?

  “Okay,” I said. I held my breath, grasped the handle, and pushed through the door, just in time to hear Rebecca’s pain-filled scream rip through the air.

  “The baby’s crowning,” the doctor said, and I kept my eyes fixed firmly on the floor. There was no way I was going to look up and risk seeing anything that was happening in that room. “Come on, Rebecca, push.”

  I couldn’t do it; the longer I stood in the corner, plastered against the wall, the sicker I felt. I was disoriented, nauseous. I thought I could seriously vomit at any given second. My presence went completely unnoticed—or so I thought, I mean, I didn’t look up once to see if anyone had seen me. I reached back for the door and slipped out once again.

  “Well?” Derek asked, and I turned right into his chest. He backed away immediately and leaned down to meet my stare. “What’s going on?”

  “Any second,” I rubbed my eyes. I hadn’t even seen anything, and I still felt the need to flush my eyeballs.

  Derek let out another anxious breath and started pacing the floor again.

  “Hey,” I reached forward to take his arm. He stopped walking and looked down at me. “This is happening, okay? Any second, you’re going to be a father. And as soon as she’s had the baby, and the doctors have had time to examine it, they’re going to let you in. You’re going to get to see your baby, hold him or her, and admire everything about your little one. In the meantime, breathe. These are your last few minutes of independence, Derek. Embrace them. Because the moment that baby is born, your life is going to change forever. The second that baby cries—”

  And then we both heard it. The screeching, struggling scream of a newborn baby flooded the room behind us and echoed into the hall
way, and we both turned to stare at the door.

  “Oh my God,” I whispered, turning to my best friend. Derek’s eyes were just as tear-filled as mine, and his cheeks were moist from the tears that had already fallen down his face. He looked down at me, no longer looking half as disheveled as he had ten minutes earlier, and a simple smile stretched across his lips. “Congratulations!”

  I opened my arms again, and this time he didn’t refuse my embrace. He held his arms around me, holding me tightly. After a long, hard hug, he swept me off my feet, twirled me into a circle, and a child-like laugh escaped from deep in his throat as he planted me back on my feet. Still standing chest to chest, Derek leaned down and pressed a long kiss to my forehead.

  And that was that. He brushed by me and disappeared through the door. I sprinted back down the hallway and reentered the waiting room. Lonnie and Luke both perked up as I stopped right inside the door, and I managed the faintest smile.

  “We have a baby!”

  Father and son both jumped to their feet and hugged one another, and it was the most special moment I’d ever seen them share.

  Luke turned back. “Boy or girl?”

  “Yeah,” Molly said, as if it was the most important question she’d ever ask. “Is it a boy or girl? Please tell me I have a sister!”

  “I don’t know,” I shrugged. “We just heard the cry, Derek went in, and I came back to tell you.”

  Luke didn’t seem to care that I hadn’t come back with better news. He just kept smiling—almost laughing, really—and he ran both of his hands down his face. He didn’t know how to contain his excitement, and I didn’t know how to interpret his behavior. I’d never seen Luke so... giddy?