Page 4 of Right Where You Left Me

“Please.” She whines. “River has been so boring this morning. I need some drama. Please, Sage. Please, give me your drama.”

“Hey!” River says, offended. “We’ve been here for an hour and I’ve been working, and you were supposed to be working on the practice skin I gave you!”

Peyton waves her hand in the air. “Tomato, Tamahto. Gimme the deets, Sage.”

“You should definitely be working on that practice skin.” I say bluntly.

“Sageeee.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “You’re not going to let this go?”

She shakes her head. “You know I won’t.”

“Fuck, okay!” I take a deep breath, flexing my hands as I prepare for this conversation. I look between Peyton and River, before I settle my gaze on River’s hands. “Emma is back.”

The buzzing of his machine stops. “Fuck.” He says, his eyes widening. “Um, I’ll be finished with Skyler in,” he tilts his head from side to side, “forty-five minutes. Peyton, go back to your counter.”

“What? No! She was just about to spill!”

“Peyton.” He says firmly. “Up front. Go.”

“Fine…” She huffs. “Boring ass old people.” She grumbles as she walks back to the counter.

“Thanks, Riv.” I say softly. He nods and gets back to his tattoo, and I settle into my client chair staring off into space, thinking about a night thirteen years ago while he finishes up.

I try not to think about it on purpose. It’ll sneak up on me every so often, the pain and betrayal.

I’ll live it all over again and then shove it down as deep as I can.

It hasn’t happened in a while, and I don’t know what I could have done to deserve this much bad karma that Emma Fucking Newton is back in Cedar Falls.

Just as he predicted, Skyler is wrapped up and checked out within the hour. I wait and listen to the music playing through the shop as River disinfects his station and as soon as he’s done he’s wrapping me up in a tight hug. “You okay?” He asks softly.

“No.” I choke out. “I’m really, really not.” I lean into the hug and force the tears searing the back of my eyes not to fall. River squeezes me tighter as if he can sense that. God, this guy. He’s got a heart of gold and I swear I won the best friend lottery with him.

“Oh my God, now you have to tell me what’s going on!” Peyton laments from her stool. “I have never once seen you this upset. Who is Emma?”

River tightens his arms around me and I let his comfort soak into me before I start.

I have tried so fucking hard to forget about this, never letting myself dwell on it when the memories pop up uninvited.

But now that she’s back, it’s time to face it.

It’s not like I can hide from her for the rest of my life now that she’s working for my sister.

“Emma was my best friend in high school.” I say, pulling back from River and sitting back down on my client chair.

“We met freshman year when my dad’s new job moved us here.

She sat next to me in Biology and we clicked so well.

Everything with her was just so easy. We hung out one time after school, and from that day forward we were inseparable.

” I swallow the knot trying to form in my throat.

“We never had dates to the dances, always went with each other.

She and I were just… Sage and Emma. Never saw one of us without the other.

“We picked the same college, got in, shared a dorm our first two years. Everything was really, really great. It was our senior year, we were at a mutual friend’s apartment for a party and we’d been drinking, probably more than we should have been.

Pretty sure there was a bong being passed around at some point too.

Emma needed some fresh air so we went out onto the balcony and she just looked so pretty.

I remember she had this goofy smile on her face and kept laughing at everything I said.

And I— I kissed her. I couldn’t not; she sucked me into her little orbit, and I just couldn’t not try. ”

“Oof, so bad break up?” Peyton sympathizes.

“Peyton.” River hisses.

“Not exactly.” I say and try to laugh to lighten the mood.

“Um. Well, she kissed me back at first, but after a little bit it was like a switch flipped and she realized what was happening. She freaked out, and I tried to calm her down, but she started going off about how she was straight and didn’t like girls.

That we shouldn’t have done that, that it was probably just because we were drunk, and that we should just pretend it didn’t happen.

” I rub my fist down my sternum, an ache building there now that I’m trudging all of this shit back up.

“Oh. Oh wow.” Peyton says, her eyes wide. “Well that really sucks, Sage, I’m sorry. Fuck, I feel really bad now. I shouldn’t have pushed. Why didn’t you tell me not to ask?” She snaps at River.

He stares at her blankly. “Because you would have asked anyway, and Sage wouldn’t have told you if she didn’t actually want to.”

“It gets worse.” I mutter. River wraps his arm around my shoulders and I lean into him.

“I walked her home, she told me she’d text me in the morning, but she didn’t.

She ghosted me. Stopped returning my texts and calls, wouldn’t answer her door when I’d show up at her dorm.

She didn’t have a roommate, and the RA told me I wasn’t allowed to be let in even though she knew who I was.

She just disappeared on me. She didn’t even have the decency to tell me to my face, I just never saw or heard from her again.

Until today. Piper hired her as the new baker for the cafe.

Walked in to help Piper out, and she was just standing there in the kitchen.

Piper swears she didn’t know it was my Emma when she hired her. ”

The two stare at me for a beat, Peyton’s mouth in a comical O, as they absorb the information.

“So what you’re telling me is,” she starts, “your first girl crush now works for your sister. And not only was she your first girl crush, but your first girl heartbreak too?”

I nod. “About sums it up, yeah.”

It doesn’t though, not really. Emma was so much more than that, but I’m not about to emotionally dump on my two friends while we’re at work.

Besides, I don’t think I even have the words to explain what Emma meant to me back then, how devastated I was that not only did she not feel the same way about me, but that she could just so easily drop me out of her life the way she did.

As if our friendship meant absolutely nothing to her, when it meant everything to me.

Seeing her today, the guilt on her face, I know that she’s aware of how fucked up what she did was.

I’m not going to lie though, it does make me feel a little bit better knowing she feels guilty.

That she’s just as uncomfortable with this situation as I am.

“Well, how about we have a movie night in tonight? You can cry it out and vent all you want. I’ll cook us up something delicious, and tomorrow you can put on your big girl pants and pretend that this doesn’t bother you, for Piper.” River says, kissing the top of my head.

“That sounds good.” I say softly. “Thanks, Riv. You in, Peyton?”

“Obviously.” She scoffs. “But, I get to pick the movie.”

River and I both groan. “Peyton you have the worst taste in movies.” River whines.

“No I don’t, you’re just old as fuck and can’t appreciate good cinema.” She snaps back.

“I’m thirty-four! Jesus Christ, young people these days. So disrespectful.” He grumbles.

“You both are ridiculous and I’m picking the movie since it is my mental health that’s at stake here.

” They both give me sympathetic smiles that are only a tiny bit grating and after a few more hugs we go about the rest of our days.

River and I each have a few clients to keep us busy.

Peyton spouts off her commentary throughout the work day, providing never ending entertainment and distractions, and as soon as we’ve cleaned and closed, the three of us head to mine and River’s apartment where he whips up the most gorgeous cheese board I have ever seen, paired with one of our more expensive bottles of wine.

I side eye him for that one. He must really think I’m falling apart— which, fair, because he pulled a thirty-dollar bottle instead of our regular black box.

He sets everything out on our coffee table and the three of us snuggle deep into the couch watching my comfort rom-com with only a little complaining on Peyton’s part.

“Are you going to be okay working with her, Sage?” River whispers. “Real talk, real heart.”

I lean into him, his words like a hug in themselves.

We started saying that when we were younger whenever we wanted the other to know they could be honest and not hold back whatever they were feeling.

I nod against his shoulder. “I think so. I won’t lie and say that I’ll be able to be nice to her, but I’ll be a grown up about it like Piper asked me to. ”

And I will be. As long as being a grown up means that I avoid Emma like the plague and ensure that we don’t have to speak during the mornings that I’m helping out in the cafe. Because that is exactly what I plan on doing.