At work, Sheila’s one of my first customers, and I’m pretty proud of my acting abilities because we’ve been talking off and on for about twenty minutes and she hasn’t asked me if anything is wrong. I must be doing a good job of hiding my sorrow.
Tom’s on duty, too, even though it’s a Sunday night and not very busy. Valerie hasn’t had me working alone since I was sick, afraid I’d get too worn out handling a rush. I’ll have to reassure her that I’m back to normal.
My new, empty normal.
I’m mixing a dirty screw and talking to Sheila about a new bench she bought for her back patio when, out of habit, my eyes drift to the front door as I see it open. I blink a few times, certain that my signals are getting mixed and that I’m only seeing what I want to see.
Four ruggedly handsome men file in, their faces almost as familiar as my own, but infinitely more exciting than a glance in a mirror. They don’t look my way, but instead head straight to Tom’s side of the bar where they sit down at the counter.
“Christine. Christine!” It’s Sheila who’s calling me. “You’re spilling juice all over the counter.”
Sure enough, I am. I set down the glass and the juice, but I can’t be bothered to clean anything up right now. I can’t do anything but stare.
45
Limitless
Tom goes over to his new customers and leans in to hear what they have to say.
I watch Tom nod, turn, and walk toward me. My focus alternates between the burly bartender and the four men who are now looking back at me.
“Those guys asked me to send you down,” Tom says with a faint hint of a smirk. “They say you look like you can mix a better drink than me.”
The four men are smiling at me now. There’s a hint of uncertainty in Jay’s expression, but the Hayes brothers are all looking at me with the easy self-assurance that attracted me to them the first night we met.
“Can you cover for me?” I ask Tom.
He nods, but I wasn’t waiting for his answer before moving past him.
“What are you doing here?” I ask the four of them.
“We’re in town on business,” Brendan says, without a hint of sincerity.
“And Jay’s here on a photo assignment,” Jonathan says. “You said if we were ever on the island, we should look you up.”
“What an incredible coincidence,” I say, torn between being irritated that they’ve shown up, and so very happy to see their faces. “Tell me why you’re really here.”
“We’re here because we miss you,” Corbin says.
“We’re here because we needed to see you,” Jonathan says.
“We’re here because we don’t want to live without you,” Jay says.
Brendan reaches for my hand. “We’re here — instead of calling or texting — because we wanted you to be able to see our faces, so that you can know how sincere we are when we tell you that we want to be with you.”
He squeezes my fingers gently and strokes his thumb over the back of my hand as he continues. “We’re not asking you to change your life to fit in with ours. We want to change our lives because, after meeting you, we’ve realized our lives aren’t nearly as good without you in them.”
Tears well up then, because that’s exactly how I feel about them.
“Although we haven’t known you long, we like everything about you,” Corbin says. “We want to have the opportunity to get to know you even better.”
“We know you have health challenges, but everybody is dealing with some kind of issue,” Jonathan says. “Friends, family, partners — we all take care of each other.”
“I don’t want you to feel like you need to take care of me,” I say, pulling back, though Brendan doesn’t let go of my hand.
“That’s not why we’re here,” Jay says, his tone firm. “We’re here because we need you.”
“But if you change your life to fit with mine, you’ll come to resent me. You won’t be happy.”