Until Then

by McLaughlin, Heidi

  After Theo finished his fourth glass, she asked for the check from the bartender. Theo started to balk, but she put her hand up. “We have plans, Theo.” Renee signed the bill, adding the charge to their room, and grabbed ahold of his arm. He was drunk, and she was pissed.

  In the elevator, he leaned against her and professed his love for her very sloppily in her ear. Theo wasn’t known for holding his booze well, and wine was one of the worst. Renee knew once they entered their hotel room, he would pass out. The elevator dinged, and the doors opened. There was a couple waiting to enter, and they gave a wide berth for Renee to help Theo navigate his exit. She smiled softly at them, only to have them scowl at her.

  “Judgmental assholes,” she muttered when her back faced them.

  “Who?” Theo asked with a slight slur.

  “The people waiting to get on the elevator. They’re judging you because you’re drunk, but honestly, so am I.” They stopped in front of their door, and Renee fished the key card out of her purse.

  “I’m not drunk, baby.” Theo pawed at her, grazing her breasts with his hand. “I’m going to make love to you,” he said rather loudly. She shushed him as she slid the plastic card into the metal key holder and pushed down on the handle to open the door. She held it open with her foot and slowly guided Theo in.

  “Theo Wright, is that you?”

  Renee turned toward the voice and saw the same couple who gave her and Theo a dirty look approaching them. Theo stumbled slightly, righted himself, and every ounce of color in his face drained. He tried to clear his throat, but it sounded more like someone was strangling him.

  “Karen, Chad, wh . . . wha . . . what are you doing here?” he stammered.

  It was Karen who spoke while eyeing Renee. “We’re on vacation, and who might you be?” The question was directed solely at Renee.

  She opened her mouth to speak, but Theo cut her off. “Hotel staff,” he said. “She was just helping me to my room.”

  Renee’s eyes went wide as his words settled in. He was looking at the ground, and this Karen person was glaring at her. Karen tilted her head to peek into their room. “Where’s Angela?”

  Renee’s heart hit the floor. Her mouth ran dry, and tears threatened to expose themselves. “Who?” she asked any one of the three of them, although Chad had yet to say a single thing. Theo finally lifted his head and looked at Renee. His eyes spoke volumes to her. The tears she had been holding back flowed like a waterfall. She let the door go, and it slammed shut on Karen and Chad.

  “Renee,” he said her name softly, but she wasn’t listening. She walked into the room, looked around at the beautiful scenery outside their large picture window. The desk clerk had been right; you could see people skiing down the mountain from their room.

  On the table near the window sat a bottle of champagne, and next to it a dozen roses. For months, she’d questioned things around her. The hushed phone calls, missing important events, the excuses. Each time he chalked it up to work. Without a word to Theo, she grabbed the bottle of champagne and flung it toward the wall. The shattering was unsatisfying, and she sought out more things to destroy. The chair was next. She picked it up and heaved it at Theo. Even in his drunken stupor he was able to dodge the flying wood. The chair crashed into the wall and stayed fully intact when it landed on the floor. The only visible damage was the deep gash missing from the wallpaper.

  Weak hands clamped down on her arms, and she moved out of Theo’s grip. “Don’t fucking touch me.”

  “I need you to listen.”

  She turned and saw the man she had fallen in love with standing there looking defeated, and she didn’t care. Not about him or what he had to say. Yet, he spoke anyway.

  “This isn’t what you think.”

  “No? So, you’re not married? Engaged to someone else? Have a girlfriend? What the fuck is it, Theo?”

  He sighed and studied something on the floor. She stepped closer and bent slightly so he had no choice but to look at her. “What is it, Theo? Let me guess—you’re going to leave her but haven’t had the chance?”

  He said nothing.

  “Answer me!” she screamed, and he flinched. “Give me your sorry excuse so I can leave.”

  “Where will you go?”

  “That’s none of your business,” she told him. “Are you married? And what I mean is, do you live with your wife, Theo? Are you fucking married?”

  He nodded.

  “Un-fucking-believable. You had no fucking right to put me in this situation.”

  He reached for her, but she pulled her arm away. “Don’t touch me.”

  “Baby, listen.”

  “I’m not your baby, your sweetie, your love, or your fucking darling. To you, I’m nothing. I don’t ever want to see or hear from you again.”

  “You don’t mean that, Renee.”

  “Oh, I do, Theo. You’re a piece of shit. You cheated on your wife and did so without even telling me about it. You didn’t give me an option as to whether I wanted to be in a relationship with a cheater. News flash, I don’t! I would never do something like that to another woman. I don’t care how much I liked someone.”

  She went to get her bag and pulled the handle so she could drag it behind her and grabbed her purse from the edge of the bed where she’d dropped it.

  “Renee—”

  “Don’t talk to me. Don’t call me. Don’t even come to see me. You and I—we are done.” With those last words, she left the hotel room. She sensed Theo would come after her, so she followed the sign for the stairs. She picked up her suitcase and carried it, making it down a few flights until her emotions overtook her. In the corner, surrounded by gray cinderblocks, she pulled her phone out and sent a text to Graham: I’m in Whistler at the Grandview Hotel. Can you come to get me?

  Graham Cracker: Everything okay?

  No, please hurry.

  Graham Cracker: I’m on my way.

  Rennie pocketed her phone and slid down the wall, pulling her knees to her chest and letting out the most agonized wail she had ever experienced.

  EIGHTEEN

  Graham was in the back room doing inventory when his phone dinged. Seeing Rennie’s name pop up made him smile, but the words to follow changed his demeanor instantly. She needed help. Worse, she had gone to Canada for vacation, and now she needed him. He didn’t want to think of everything that could’ve been wrong; all he thought about was how quickly he could get there, even though a million questions swirled in his mind as he entered the bar, told Krista he needed to leave, and asked if she could close for him tonight and open in the morning.

  “Of course—is everything okay?” Krista was aware of the issues surrounding Grady, and since her employment with the Whale Spout had begun, Graham had considered her a friend.

  “I’m not sure,” he told her. “I’ll let you know if I won’t be back tomorrow. Otherwise, I’ll be in by the time your shift ends.”

  “Okay,” she agreed without hesitation before heading back to the customers and her daily to-do list.

  Graham left Cape Harbor right away, only stopping to fill his gas tank and grab a coffee. Something terrible must’ve happened to Rennie for her to call and ask him to come get her. It would take a lot for her to bail on a vacation she had really been looking forward to and which had barely just begun.

  When he reached the border, he showed the Canadian agent his enhanced driver’s license, thankful to at least have this documentation to cross international lines. He had let his passport expire years ago, after never having used it. He didn’t see a reason to have one.

  “Where are you heading?” the agent asked.

  “To Whistler. I have a friend there who needs a ride back to the States.”

  “When are you coming back?”

  Graham thought for a moment. He wasn’t sure but imagined their return would be right away. “After I pick her up,” he said. “Although, if it gets too late, we might stop at a hotel along the route back.”

  “Wil
l you be spending any money while you’re in Canada?”

  “Yes, on gas and food.” Shopping, although beneficial with the exchange rate, was not on his list of activities.

  The agent handed Graham his license back and told him to drive slowly, letting him know that due to the recent weather pattern, snowcaps were falling off cliffs and could hit the roadways. Graham thanked him, rolled up his window, and drove away slowly. He adjusted his digital speedometer to read kilometers, turned the dial on his radio up, and set his cruise control. Getting a speeding ticket in Canada was not something he was willing to do, no matter what.

  When he was about an hour out, he stopped to use the restroom, unable to hold it any longer. He also bought a couple of pops, bags of chips, and candy bars. He passed by the small travel-size bottles of wine and thought Rennie might need one but decided to wait until he had her safely in his car. Before he got back on the road, he sent her a text letting her know how far away he was, and she replied, letting him know she’d be outside waiting for him. He thought about asking her what was going on but refrained. She’d tell him on their way back or sometime later, if she wasn’t quite ready. He wasn’t going to press her. Graham knew Rennie well enough to know she’d talk when she was ready.

  It was dark by the time Graham pulled into Whistler. His GPS directed him to the Grandview Hotel, and when he pulled into their circular drive, the valet came to his door to greet him. Graham rolled down his window and spoke. “I’m here to pick up a friend.” The passenger-side door opened before the valet could acknowledge Graham. He smiled at the man. “And now she’s in my car. Thank you.” He rolled up his window and turned his head toward Rennie. “Hey.”

  “Just drive, okay?” She pushed her suitcase over her shoulder and onto the back seat before reaching for her seat belt.

  “Okay.” He did as she asked, driving out of Whistler and leaving the ski resort behind them. Rennie sat there with her head leaning against the window and with her eyes closed. Every so often, she would whimper, and he would place his hand on her arm or squeeze her hand. She never shied away or woke up.

  When he pulled into a gas station to fill up, Rennie startled awake. She looked around, almost as if she were dazed and wondering how she got from the hotel to Graham’s car. Her hair was a mess, her eyes were red and puffy, and he could tell she had been crying. He squeezed her hand once more before he got up to pump the gas. She followed shortly after, telling him she was going to look for a bathroom. He kept his gaze on her as she entered the store, watched as she asked the clerk a question, and followed her until she disappeared. Once the tank was full, he replaced the nozzle, waited for his receipt, and went into the store. Rennie was still in the bathroom. He thought about knocking but wanted to give her the time she needed to cope with whatever she was going through. When she came out of the restroom, she found him in an aisle.

  “Are you hungry?”

  She shook her head.

  “You should eat something, Ren.”

  She reached for a doughnut and then put it back. She glanced up at Graham with tears in her eyes, and he nodded. “Okay. Let’s go home.” He wished Brooklyn were with them, because he wanted to go hunt Theo down and ask him what the hell happened to Rennie. Whatever he had done, it was bad, because he had never seen his friend like this.

  He opened the passenger-side door for her and waited until she was in before closing it. He then opened the door to the back seat and rummaged through the bag of goodies he had bought earlier and placed them on the console. Graham closed the door and went around to the other side. He leaned in, opened the pop, the candy, and a bag of chips and set it out for Rennie. “When you’re hungry,” he told her and then did the same for himself.

  Traffic was light heading toward the border. At times, Graham found himself counting the oncoming cars to keep his mind occupied. He talked to Rennie, which was more like talking to himself, because she wasn’t answering him. She also wasn’t providing any sort of commentary to keep the conversation flowing.

  “Do you remember our sophomore year when we had that really minor earthquake? I don’t think it even registered on the Richter scale.” He laughed. “You were on campus, hanging out, and we were getting ready to go to some frat party or something. Was it the toga party?” He looked at Rennie for confirmation, but she was gazing out the window. He continued, “Or maybe that party was later. Anyway, so you and I are walking, and we’re goofing around. We had pregamed, and we’re feeling a bit tipsy, but then I started leaning toward the right, and you the left. People were falling, and a few people were screaming, which I didn’t get. I had no clue what was going on, and you were on the ground, laughing.

  “When someone hollered out we had an earthquake, I was like ‘That was it?’ because I barely felt anything, and I remember when I told my mom I wanted to go to California for school, she freaked because of all the earthquakes, and I had to remind her they were more south. Of course, you called your mom and told her all about it; she called the Hewetts, and Brooklyn’s mom told my mom, who thought the ocean had swallowed the campus. She told me to come home right away because San Jose was dangerous.”

  He glanced at Rennie again, but she hadn’t moved. Graham’s head was on a partial swivel, going from watching his friend to the road and back again. He thought about pulling over or finding a hotel, any place where he could hold her until she was ready to tell him what happened back in Whistler. As he drove, signs for the border came into view, and he pressed the gas pedal a smidge more to increase his speed.

  “I’m going to need your passport,” he told her.

  Rennie rummaged through her purse, pulled out her passport, and handed it to Graham without a word. She continued to stare out the window with the angriest look he had ever seen on her face. For as long as he’d known her, she’d always been the type to brush her emotions under the rug, and if someone upset her, she sought revenge, which was why she made a damn fine lawyer.

  Graham inched his car forward, waiting his turn at the border. For some reason, he was nervous, afraid they weren’t going to be allowed back into the United States. He knew it was silly to think such a thing, but the thought tickled the back of his mind. When the signal light turned green, he slowly let off the gas and pulled up to the border agent.

  “Passports or enhanced IDs,” the man said gruffly. Graham handed them over. “Where do you live?”

  “I live in Cape Harbor, and she lives in Seattle.”

  The agent bent forward to look farther into the car. “Roll down your back windows.” Graham did as he was told. “How long were you in Canada?”

  “Only a few hours.”

  “What was your business there? Anything to declare?”

  “I went and picked up my friend, and no.”

  The agent waited for Rennie to say something.

  Without looking at the agent, Rennie said, “I drove with a friend to the ski lodge in Whistler. I couldn’t stay, so Graham picked me up.”

  Graham grew irritated with Rennie. She had to know she looked suspicious when she didn’t make eye contact with the guard. Graham waited, his fingers gripping the steering wheel while the agent typed on his computer. The temptation was there to ask what the screen read, in the hope of making light of the fact his passenger acted fishy and slightly rude.

  After what seemed like an hour, the border agent handed Graham his ID and Rennie’s passport back and told them to have a nice night. As soon as he was away from the station, he floored it. They technically had an hour until they were home, but forty-five minutes or less if Graham had anything to say about it.

  He thought about bringing up some old memories, like the time they went to prom their junior year and Rennie was so nervous she stabbed him with the pin for his boutonniere. She jabbed the needle so hard into his tuxedo jacket it went right through and poked him in the chest. His mom had to work to get the tiny bit of blood out of the white shirt, and Rennie felt so bad that she told Graham he could stab her back so
they’d be even. He never took her up on her offer but would have liked to right about now.

  They pulled into the marina parking lot. Graham parked and shut his car off. The only sound around them was the strong wind coming off the ocean and waves crashing against the rocks. Overhead, a lamp softly illuminated the space inside the car. He took off his seat belt and angled his body toward Rennie, only to find her asleep. He sighed, got out of the car, and made his way to the passenger side. He opened the door slowly and made sure he caught her before she fell out. Graham reached in and pushed the red button on her seat belt, untangled her, and somehow found a way to scoop her up into his arms. She whimpered.

  “I’ve got you,” he said as he kicked the car door shut.

  Carrying a full-size human down a single-person ramp was not easy, but he managed to do it, and when he approached his door, he did so without a clue of how to get her inside without waking her up. On the off chance he forgot to lock his door, which he did often, he used the small outside table his mother insisted he put out for decoration to prop his leg up to support Rennie’s body weight so he could safely wiggle his arm out from under her legs. He sighed again, this time in relief, when his door opened. He repositioned again and was able to carry her inside.

  The stairs to his bedroom were daunting, and as much as he wanted to carry her up there, it would be impossible. He’d surely whack her head or legs, waking her up, and walking up sideways was unmanageable. The couch was the only answer, at least until she woke up, and then she could move up to his room.

  “We’re at my house, Ren,” he told her as he laid her on the couch. “When you wake up, if you want to go to Brooklyn’s, I’ll take you.” He said the words as though she could hear him. Graham covered her with an afghan his grandmother had made many years ago and kneeled next to her, brushing her hair away from her eyes. “I don’t know what he did, but I’m here when you need me.”

  With those words, he went outside and back to the car to get her things. When he walked back into his houseboat, she was on her side, her back facing him. He was tired, but his concern for his friend outweighed his need for sleep. Instead of going upstairs to sleep, he brought his weighted blanket and comforter down from his room. He added the comforter to Rennie, knowing the afghan wouldn’t be enough, and he settled into the chair for what was going to undoubtedly be the most uncomfortable night of sleep he had ever had.