Page 38 of Ebbing Tides

This was ludicrous, and I was a moron.

“Well,” I began, scratching the back of my head as she headed toward the door, “I hope it was everything you wanted it to be.”

Her hand reached for the doorknob, and then she stilled. She stared ahead, as if she refused to look at me, and barely shook her head.

“It wasn't,” she replied so quietly that I thanked God I was wearing my hearing aids.

I barked a laugh. “Well, gee, thanks—”

“But that's the problem.”

Then, before I could get another word in, she opened the door and hurried through, letting it slam behind her.

CHAPTER EIGHT

WEDNESDAY

“Do you know what time it is?”

It had been a while since I had heard Sid's voice. Not since Christmas, I didn't think. And not for lack of wanting to, but simply because my life had been running on a monotonous cycle, a hamster wheel of sorts, and I strayed very little from the normal routine.

Today hadn't been a part of that routine. And now, despite the anxiety tying a thousand knots in my gut, I smiled at the sound of his groggy voice.

“Oh, sorry. Were you sleeping?” I joked as the truck barreled down the road toward Dad's house.

“Listen, Serg, I know it's been a while, but not all of us keep the hours of a vampire,” he replied, sounding a little more awake than before.

“Oh, that's right.Shit… I forgot.”

“Mmhmm,” he grumbled, then yawned loudly. “Fuck, man. The sun isn't even up yet.”

I squinted my eyes upward, noting the streaks of purple beginning to appear across the sky, like paint strokes on a canvas. “It's starting to rise.”

“Oh good. That makes it better then,” he muttered sardonically.

In the background, I heard my sister mumble something unintelligible, and Sid replied, “Don't worry. Just your dumbassbrother deciding I don't need to sleep.” She murmured something else, and he said, “I know. I'm getting to it.” He sighed, cleared his throat, and said, “Serg, is everything all right?”

Everything was not, in fact,all right.

Melanie had left my office a handful of hours ago, and I hadn't spared a moment to think about anything else since. Just seconds after she walked out, leaving the room colder than an arctic chill, the time dragged along at a snail's pace while my mind slogged through something like a dream. Mulling it all over. Trying to make sense of the time we'd spent, the unexpected sex we'd had. The bristling fact that I had been with a woman for the first time in ten years, a woman who wasn't my wife.

The very woman I had dreamed about for years.

I recounted the timeline of events for Sid, starting from the beginning, and by the time I finished, I was pulling up to the house I'd grown up in.

Sid was quiet, and for a second, I thought the call might've been disconnected.

But then he drawled, “Wow. Okay. Let me make sure I understand this correctly. This is the same woman you said you were crazy about, like, fifteen years ago?”

I couldn't believe he remembered that conversation we’d had, just before the attack that left us both permanently disabled. Sid could hardly remember what he'd eaten for breakfast.

Surprised, I said, “Yes.”

“And by some fucking miracle, she justhappensto be the sister-in-law of the creepy guy you work with?”

I snorted, looking out the window at the dark, still house. “Yes.”

“And you went out with her on a date—like adate, date—and you thought she hated you until she showed up at your office to fuck?”