by B Ivy Woods
“After all these years, you still can’t tell me.”
“It’s not like that.”
Rae slammed the glass of red wine down on the table a little harder than necessary. The wine swirled around, thankfully not flowing over the edge of the wineglass. The commotion was enough to force Flint’s attention on her, but not enough to get him to talk.
“This is a waste of time if you won’t say anything.”
That comment didn’t nudge things along either as Flint diverted his eyes as Rae stared him down. Enough was enough. She grabbed her purse, pulled out a twenty, and placed it on the table. She stood up and gathered her things.
“I stopped talking to you because I was trying to protect you.”
Those words weren’t what Rae was expecting to flow from Flint’s lips.
“What do you mean trying to protect me?” She sat back down and put the money back in her purse.
“So do you remember when we first started dating? You received text messages from an unknown number.” Rae nodded as Flint continued, “I didn’t tell you this, but I started getting messages too. Around the same time you did.”
Silence stretched between the two once more. Flint’s hand rubbed the back of his neck. His knee was still bouncing up and down. In the time they dated, she had never seen him so nervous.
Rae gestured for him to go on, and she waited for him to reply.
“If I didn’t cut off communication with you, whoever was sending the messages threatened to hurt you.”
“Wait. What?!” Rae knew that the bafflement she felt had to be all over her face. She leaned forward. “And from what were you protecting me? Why are you speaking in riddles?”
Flint sighed and raked his hand through his hair. He opened and closed his mouth twice, struggling to find the right words to say. Although Rae wanted to act as if she wasn’t bothered, she was.
“I’m screwing this up.”
Rae swallowed the sarcastic retort on her lips. “What were you protecting me from, Flint? Is this your way of trying to get back into my life by making up lies?”
“No!” Flint’s shout caused a few people dining nearby to turn around and look toward their table. She hadn’t expected that reaction at all. It showed how much he had changed over the years because the Flint she knew years ago would have remained calm and collected.
“Rae, what we had was special. I never regretted a single moment we were together. I cared about you then, and I still care about you now. A lot. This is my way of trying to come clean and start over. That is if you want to.”
Rae paused before asking, “What were you protecting me from, Flint?”
Flint stared down at his folded hands on the table. Her pulse quickened as she tried to figure out what to say to break the silence.
“What was it?”
Taking a deep breath, Flint said, “Someone would leak a photo of us. Together. While we were… intimate. One condition I had to agree to was that I couldn’t tell you why we needed to break up.”
Rae stopped breathing. Well, it felt like she had. “This isn’t what I was expecting. At all. Why are you telling me this now?”
“It’s not how I wanted this to go, but this has been on my brain for years. And just seeing you again, being around you again… I had to tell you the truth and hope that you might be able to forgive me at some point.”
Rae thought about everything he said before she formed her reply. “So I understand why you did what you did somewhat. But I also think you were very selfish.”
Flint, taken aback. “Wait. What?”
“After all of these years, you think you can storm back into my life and declare that I was the one that got away and that everything will be fine? You didn’t even have the decency to break up with me in person.”
“I couldn’t—”
“Oh, come on. You were old enough to know better. Even if you sent a letter a month later explaining things, it still would have been better than what you did.” Rae thought for a moment as she grabbed the glass of wine. She drained the rest before placing the glass back down on the table, debating whether or not she wanted to get another drink.
“You’re right.”
“Hmm?”
“You’re right. I knew better. I used the threat as a way to avoid doing what I should have done. I was stupid, and not a day goes by that I wish I could take it all back.”
“Would you have wanted to stay together if it hadn’t been for this threat?”
Rae looked up at Flint after he didn’t reply right away. He was staring at her, and when his eyes connected with hers, he said, “Yes. I know times were hard with me being thousands of miles away, but I would have done everything in my power to stay together.”
His words and his stare became too much for Rae. She sighed and said, “I should probably head out.”
She started gathering her things as Flint grabbed something out of his pocket. He soon had his wallet in his hands and placed some money down on the table to pay for their drinks. He then stood up and waited for Rae to make her move. Once she was standing, the two walked to the doors of the bar.
She turned to Flint and said, “Well, I can’t say that this meetup wasn’t eventful.”
“Yeah, there were a few shocking moments.” He rubbed his hand on the back of his neck.
“It was great seeing you again.” She knew she was lying through her teeth, but here they were.
“It was great seeing you too.”
“Well, thanks for the wine, and maybe I’ll see you around.”
The smile fell from his face briefly before returning. “Yeah. Maybe.”
Just before she turned and walked away, she said, “By the way, the person sending the text messages is back. Sent me a message a few days ago.”
Rae exited the bar. She looked both ways before heading back to her apartment, missing the flash of a camera that took her photo from a car parked farther down the block.
10
“Eve. Girl. You won’t believe what happened.” Rae was back home in her sweats and sitting on her couch. She knew that if she wanted to tell anyone what went down today, she needed to be in comfy clothes and have alcohol. Why was she lying to herself? Alcohol, at this point, was a strong want.
“Do you want to keep talking on the phone, or does this require me to come over with a bottle of wine? ’Cause I can be there in thirty.”
The thought of wine and hanging out with Eve was tempting.
“I can order sushi, and we can make it a girls’ night in. ’Cause let’s be real; we don’t go out anymore besides happy hour anyway.”
“That works. And I know this is probably super last minute, but I’ll send a quick text to the group chat to see if anyone else is available to come over, if you don’t mind.”
“Sure. That reminds me, I should probably get around to planning my little housewarming party to celebrate the new place. This party will allow me to be social so I can maintain my friendships for another six months. You know my favorite hobby is watching trashy television with a glass of wine.”
“Why are we the same person? Because that is something I would do. Anyway, let me get ready so that I can get over to your place as soon as possible. See you soon.”
“Bye.”
As soon as Rae hung up, her phone dinged from a new text message that she assumed was Eve asking the other girls if they could come over to Rae’s new place. Jules quickly responded that she was with her mom this weekend, while Liv took a few minutes to let them know she was working. Rae placed an order at a Japanese fusion restaurant that wasn’t too far away from her apartment. She tidied up the papers she had thrown on the coffee table the day before and got some wine glasses out of the cabinet. A few moments later, Rae’s doorbell rang and Eve was at the door.
“I think you made it here in less than thirty minutes.”
“The taxi driver was moving, and although I feared for my life, I’m happy he got me here quickly because I have to know wh
at happened between you and Flint.”
“Let’s get this wine open, and I’ll start storytime.”
As Eve struggled to get the cork out of the wine bottle, Rae turned her television on and lowered the volume. She pulled her throw blanket across the couch so she and Eve could share it. Although during the day, the weather was still somewhat warm, the cooler temperatures at night were showing up.
“Ah, there we go!” Eve exclaimed as she poured the wine into the two glasses.
“What should we have cheers to?”
“Hmm. How about finding happiness?”
That wasn’t what Rae expected Eve to say, but she went along with it. “To happiness.” The women tapped their glasses together and took sips of their wine.
“Oh, that is smooth, what is that?”
“It’s a red blend. Recommended to me by a high school friend. I’ve had it a couple of times, and sometimes it’s a little too smooth.”
Rae giggled and took another sip of the wine.
“So can we get down to business about this Flint stuff? What happened?!”
Just as Rae was about to tell her story, the doorbell rang for the second time.
“On one hand, that is horrible timing because I want to know what happened with Flint. On the other hand, I’m starving.”
Rae snorted as she opened the door. She received the delivery and placed the food down on the coffee table. “How about we eat here?”
“Sounds like a plan.” The girls swiftly organized the food to their liking and got settled. They took a few bites before Eve leaned over and grabbed Rae’s arm.
“Okay, I’ve waited long enough. What happened?”
“Do you want a summary or want to know every painstaking detail?”
“Now, why are you asking a question you already know the answer to?”
Rae smirked as she began telling the long version of what went down with Flint. The range of emotions that appeared on Eve’s face as Rae told her story was almost comical. When Rae finished, Eve said nothing at first.
“And that was the end of the bar outing.”
“He told you he still cared about you?!” Eve exclaimed as she shook her head in disbelief. “To be honest, I don’t know why I can’t believe he said what he said. Did you tell him how you felt?”
“No, because, to be honest, I don’t know how I feel.”
“Understandable. As you mentioned, this was all thrown at you while this has been on Flint’s mind for years.”
“I can’t even describe how I felt at that moment. And that’s not including the thing Flint mentioned outside of the fact that he still cares about me and wants to start over.”
“I hadn’t even gotten to that part.” Eve took a sip of her wine. “And he doesn’t know the creep that was texting? This person or people had to be following you guys around since the text messages came around the time you were with Flint. If I remember correctly, you didn’t get another text after you blocked the number, right?”
Rae nodded. “So as far as we know, that person is still out there. Actually, we know that for sure because I got another text message the other day.”
Eve spluttered on her wine. “You did?”
She took in a nervous breath. “Yep. I received a threat again.”
“I don’t consider a threat light in any sense of the word.”
Rae nodded. “I know, I know.”
Eve took a few deep breaths for several moments. Rae assumed she was trying to gather enough control not to throttle her, but what did she know?
“You can’t take this to the police, right?”
She shook her head. “Chances are they’ll probably say it’s a prank or something because it’s not a text message that says ‘We will kill you if you don’t stop seeing Flint.’”
Eve shook her head and leaned back, further sinking herself into the couch with her wineglass. “So pretty much there’s nothing you can do besides block the number. Did you tell Flint?”
“I did. Just before we parted ways at the bar.”
Eve sat up and leaned closer to Rae. “Wait, you didn’t even allow him to respond? Even after he told you he wished he had done more for you when this started up the first time around?”
Rae shrugged as she picked up the wineglass and took another sip.
“But what about the future?”
“What do you mean, what about the future?”
Eve placed her wineglass on the table and turned to Rae. “Flint still cares about you. You don’t know how you feel, so everything is up in the air.”
Rae made sure her face remained neutral as she waited for Eve to continue.
“Let’s say you throw your hat back into the ring and get back together. You’ll have to address the elephant in the room. This person who sends you these text messages whenever Flint is in your life.”
“I know.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“Who knows? I sure don’t.”
A week later, Rae waltzed into her apartment at her usual time and hung her coat up in the hall closet. She slipped off her heels and threw her purse onto the couch before she wandered into the kitchen. She poured a glass of wine to help unwind after a long day at the office. Somehow, a bag of popcorn that she bought at the grocery store earlier that week ended up in her hand, and she headed back into the living room to snack on it while she watched some mind-numbing television.
Rae thought about what Eve said over the last week or so. She had also replayed her last interactions with Flint in her mind. Not only did she risk getting her heart broken again, but there was a potential safety risk. Yes, it was minor now, but would the issue escalate as time went on? How should she handle this if she wanted to rebuild what they once had?
That way of thinking wouldn’t work. He needed to help find out who was sending these messages and how to get them to stop. And if the situation got worse, they needed to be on the same page with whatever measures needed to happen. Together.
But that was if they started dating again. What should they do if she just wanted to be friends? She knew that she wouldn’t mind being his friend, but there was also the potential that that would snowball into them becoming involved again. A few years ago, she would have jumped up and gotten back together with him in a millisecond. But she was older, wiser, and more cautious now.
Her mind told her that getting to know Flint again was taking a step back. But her heart said the opportunity to start something new with him was exciting. Eve was always telling her to go with the flow and not overthink things. Here was the perfect opportunity to do just that.
Rae put her wineglass on the coffee table and reached over to the other end of the couch to grab her purse she had haphazardly thrown there when she walked through the door. While fishing around for her phone, she ended up pulling out the lip gloss that she thought she’d lost a few weeks ago and placed it in its proper pocket in her purse. Finally, retrieving her phone, she scanned her messages before she thought about what she wanted to send to Flint. Seeing that the girls were talking in the group chat, she answered them to avoid the urge to text Flint.
Liv: Are we still thinking about taking the girls’ trip? I need to know as soon as possible to take time off work. There’s always a chance that I won’t be able to make it due to wedding season, but I’ll cross my fingers extra hard for this.
Eve: I’m down.
Jules: I want to go and could make it work, depending on what dates we chose.
Liv: As if we would choose dates that you couldn’t make. I’ll figure out some dates that should work on my end and see if any of them line up with your calendars. I’m so excited about all of this!
Rae: Me too.
11
“I can’t invite him to the housewarming party,” Rae mentioned to Eve, Liv, and Jules. It was two weekends after Flint asked Rae out for drinks, and the friends got together to go to barre class. They were sitting in one corner of the room, away from the other patrons, waitin
g for class to begin.
“Yes, you can.” Liv readjusted her sticky socks and looked at Rae. “What’s wrong with inviting him to the party as another way to say thank you?”
“Oh, I can list plenty of reasons I shouldn’t.” Rae was staring at her feet but looked up when no one responded to her comment. Her eyes darted to each of her friends, and everyone was waiting on her to expand on her remarks.
“First, we work together.” She hadn’t seen him in work capacity in a while. Semantics.
“You wouldn’t invite a close coworker to your housewarming?” Jules lay back on her elbows and watched Rae.
“I would, but it doesn’t help that we dated and had a shitty breakup.” Rae hoped her emphasis on the cussword she just dropped was enough to dictate how she felt..
“Yeah, I get that.” Rae thought it was about time that someone saw it from her side and silently thanked Eve for jumping in. “But I also see inviting him because what’s the worst that could happen?” And that thanks was short-lived.
“I just don’t want things to be awkward.” She also didn’t want to spend more time with him because she feared what she might feel while in his presence. Her gut told her she could keep it together around him, but her heart made her doubt it was possible to remain indifferent.
“He seems to want to hang out with you, so why not just take it slow and go from there? Plus, if you invite him to the party, there will be plenty of people there to either keep between you two or keep both of you distracted.” Rae breathed out a sigh of relief when their teacher entered the room, and the class was about to begin. She had fifty minutes to figure out why she shouldn’t invite Flint to her party.
She took the time to focus on her positioning and the teacher as she guided them through another barre class.
“Where are you, Rae?”
“Huh?” Rae said as she focused on Eve. She had been so out of it that she hadn’t noticed that Eve placed her hand on her shoulder.
“Is everything okay?”
Before she answered, Rae, saw that only she, Eve, and their teacher, who seemed to be preparing for her next class, were left. Feeling the heat on her cheeks, Rae wiped down the exercise tools she used, cleaned up her area, and hurried to the lobby. Jules and Liv were waiting for them there.
