Page 33 of Right Where You Left Me

Sage

“ Y ou’re all set.” I tell the young woman sitting at my chair.

I just finished a thigh piece of a nymph sitting on the moon for her, and it looks sick.

I smooth out the last bit of the clear tattoo bandage and have her check it out in the mirror at my station before she heads up front to pay with Peyton.

“I love it so much! Thank you, I’m going to tell all my friends to start coming here from now on!”

I laugh. “That’s what we like to hear.”

The bell above the door chimes and I hear Peyton’s greeting of “Can we help you, dude?” Ever the professional.

I freeze when I hear Liam’s voice. “No thanks, I’m here to talk to Sage.”

“She’s just finishing up with a client. Sage!”

“Yeah.” I croak. “I, uh. I heard him. Gimme a few minutes to get cleaned up here and we can chat.”

He nods and sits himself in one of the chairs up front, grabbing one of the random magazines we have stashed up there to flip through.

What the fuck is he doing here? Hasn’t he done enough… showing up here and being all friendly with my girlfriend. Ex… ex-girlfriend. Fucking, fuck.

I go through the motions of sanitizing my station, moving slower than I normally would because I really don’t want to know what Liam is here to tell me.

Was I right? Is he here to brag? To tell me that he’s taking Emma back to Pittsburgh?

My stomach is twisted in knots, but I take a deep breath and steady myself.

I’ll let him say his piece and then he’ll be gone and if he isn’t taking Emma away I can go back to trying to figure out how to get her to forgive me for being a raging bitch to her the other day.

We make eye contact and I cock my head toward the back room in the shop. “We’ll have privacy in there.”

“Lead the way.”

I shut the door behind us and he leans back against the wall, looking me over. I squirm under his gaze and look at the boxes we have stacked in here that need to be unpacked. I’ll have to remind Peyton. “So.” I say and let the word linger between us.

“I want to talk to you about Emma.” He says.

I wouldn’t be able to hide the pain on my face even if I tried. I don’t want to talk about her with him. He got to see all the parts of her I wished for. He was married to her for almost a decade and knows her so much better than me. How do I compete with that?

He uncrosses his arms and holds them up placatingly. “I know that you two broke up, and Emma told me about the fight that led to it.”

I nod. She said he was still her best friend, it would make sense that if she were going to talk to someone about it it would be Liam.

And if River was telling me the truth, my poor little elf left our apartment so broken…

he would have seen her and known we weren’t okay. “What about it?” I ask softly.

“I wanted to clear the air between the two of us. It seems there was some sort of misunderstanding between you and Emma that had to do with me.”

“That’s a little presumptuous of you.” I snark at him.

He rolls his eyes. “She told me everything, Sage.”

I look down at my feet, toeing the ground. “Fair enough. I was a bitch about it, I let my insecurities and fear get the best of me. What else is there to say about it?”

He lets out a heavy sigh. “That’s not why I’m here.

I’m not going to tell you you were right, or that because you hurt her, I’m angry with you.

I’m here to tell you that she and I aren’t holding feelings for each other.

There is no unrequited love on my end. Yes, we were married.

Yes, I loved her so much and still do, but Sage.

” He shakes his head. “Our marriage wasn’t— She only thought she loved me the way she was supposed to.

The day she realized who she was, what her truth was?

She bloomed . I had never seen her shine like that before.

And now, after having time to think about our life together it’s clear that she and I are just platonic soulmates.

She’s my best friend and always will be, but she never once loved me the way I know she could love you.

The way she talks about you, Sage, is something straight from a movie.

You need to know that.” He gives me a sad smile.

“I hope that you two are able to get over this hurdle, because I know you two are something special. I could tell just from the way she looked at you in the parking lot at the diner.”

“I know that.” I say sharply. “I know that she’s special and incredible. I know that I fucked it all up okay? I was being… irrational.” I growl out. “I plan to apologize. I’m just—” I shake my head. “I’m scared she won’t forgive me, I wasn’t very nice about it…”

Liam shrugs. “Won’t know until you try though.”

“Yeah.” I murmur. “You’re right.”

“Well, I said my piece.” He says pushing off from the wall. “I really hope you guys work it out.”

“Thanks.” I say and try to smile at him. This man that although loves my Emma, is working for us, not against us. “Emma is lucky to have you in her life.”

“She’s lucky to have you too, Sage.” He looks over at the wall across from us and smiles. “Atreyu fan?”

I turn to look at one of the many band posters we have hung up back here and nod. “Kick ass band.”

“I listened to them all the time growing up.” He gives me one last smile, and taps my shoulder on his way out of the back room, leaving me there alone with my thoughts.

I do plan on apologizing to Emma. I need her, this past day without her has shown me that.

I look at the time and groan. Piper has me helping her this afternoon and I need to leave soon so I’m not late.

I’ll just have to brainstorm a way to show Emma just how sorry I am while I’m making coffees for the next few hours.

“Excuse me? I’m sorry, but this was supposed to be a half-sweet vanilla latte.”

I stare blankly at the broad, bearded man in front of me holding onto a to-go cup that says “Sarah” on it. “Sir… Is your name Sarah?”

His brow furrows. “No?”

“Then I’m sorry to inform you that that drink is not yours.”

“Oh.” He says, his cheeks turning a bright pink.

I hand him the cup full of his latte and grab the mocha he’s holding and give him a wan smile. “No worries. Happens way more often than you’d think.” Usually by obnoxious old people, but the guy clearly feels bad so why add to his torture by making him feel worse.

I remake the mocha and call out the name again, getting back into the grind of making drinks and taking orders.

Piper is working in the kitchen, finishing up whatever Emma had prepped before she left for the day.

My chest hurts thinking about that. My elf was in here earlier and if I wasn’t such an ass I could’ve been here watching her work.

Instead I told Piper I couldn’t come in until after Emma’s shift ended because I’m a chicken shit coward and I need more time to figure out my apology.

Piper comes out to join me after a while and the two of us work in companionable silence.

She’s been pretty tight lipped today, even though I told her about the fight and the break up.

Which is out of character for my nosy sister, but I’m grateful.

I don’t feel like talking to her about it while we’re here.

But maybe she can help me plan my apology.

“Hey, Piper?”

“Hm?”

“How would you go about telling Hank you were sorry if you had done something super cunty?”

Piper coughs out a laugh. “Well, Sage. I don’t ever do anything cunty , so I don’t know.”

I roll my eyes. “That is a bold faced lie.”

She laughs. “Well, to start I would just say I was sorry, and then I’d blow?—”

“You know what. Forget I asked.” I say screwing up my face. There is no fucking way I’m thinking about my sister and her husband doing…things.

She’s laughing hard now and I shove her playfully when the back phone rings. She wipes tears from her eyes and goes to answer it. “Sage, it’s River for you!” She says motioning for us to swap places. I grab the phone from her, confused as to why he’s calling the cafe and not my cell.

“Hey, Riv. What’s up?”

“Sage?” He says, his voice shrill and panicked. “Are you able to come back to the apartment?”

“Hey, hey. You okay? What’s wrong?”

“I just really need you to come home okay?” He’s talking a mile a minute and sounds frantic. Oh god, what if he hurt himself? Or what if something happened to one of the girls? Shit.

“Shhh, shh. Calm down. Take a deep breath. I’m going to tell Piper I have to go and I’ll be home as soon as I can. Alright?”

“Hurry.” He says and hangs up.

I rip my apron off and throw it in the dirty laundry bin here in the back before I pop my head into the cafe. “Pipes I’m so sorry, but I have to get home. There’s something wrong with River and he didn’t sound good. I gotta go.”

“Oh gosh! Yeah, get out of here. Text me if you guys need me!”

“Thanks! I’ll let you know what’s up when I get there! Love you!”

I’m out the door fast and sprint to my bike, riding faster than I probably should, but the second I park I’m running up the stairs to our apartment. I’m breathing heavily and when I turn the corner of our hallway I freeze.

Emma is standing in front of our door holding a covered tray.

She smiles hesitantly at me when I get closer.

My mouth is gaping like a fish out of water as I take her in.

Her amber eyes shining in the low lights of the building, her hair thrown up in a messy bun, little tendrils framing her face in a way that never fails to make me weak in the knees.

She looks ethereal, my little elf. So beautiful.

I can feel my chest burning with the breath I’m holding.

Like if I breathe wrong she’s going to disappear.

She lets out a wet laugh, gesturing her head toward the locked door. “You gonna let me in or what?”