Broken Down: A Novel, page 23
“It could’ve gone so badly,” he said, then laughed. “I mean, really. That could’ve been by far the most embarrassing moment of your life.”
“I know.” I put my hand on my chest. “Why do you think my heart is racing?”
“What made you so sure this was going to work?”
“Oh, I wasn’t all that sure,” I said. “I was just really really hopeful. You told me once that I had a way of talking that spoke to you. I guess I was really just banking on that.”
He nodded. “I remember when I told you that,” he said. “I was trying to put words to a feeling that I didn’t understand fully myself. I knew you had this effect on me, but I didn’t know why, and it sort of drove me up the wall a little bit.” Then, his expression went from elated to downtrodden. “I would’ve liked to have figured out what the feeling was, but you stopped answering my calls.”
“I know.”
“You were mad?”
“I was… disappointed. When you went back to Denver the night of the party, Ursula told me that I should expect nothing more from you. She said you were married to your job, and no one would ever take priority over your work. I didn’t believe her at first, but then I quickly realized she was right. You only ever spoke to me on the phone for what, five minutes? Then you’d have to run off to another meeting. Finally, there was one time I called and you picked up sounding really exacerbated. I asked what was wrong and you just said it was a bad time, that you couldn’t talk. I understood then that you were exacerbated by me.”
“No,” Theo said. “No, that wasn’t it. I remember that day. That was the last time we spoke until now. I had been working since like five that morning, I was exhausted, and I’d just been chewed out in front of everyone. I wanted to answer when you called, but I knew if Mr. Nichols saw me on a personal call, that I’d be yelled at for a second time. That’s why I sounded so upset, and why I got off the phone quickly. Raina, you have to believe me, your calls were by far the best part of my day.”
I smiled. “I wish you would’ve told me that a month ago.”
“I don’t,” he said.
I frowned.
“I don’t because if I told you that, things might’ve been different. I might’ve been able to convince you that I could be in a relationship and also keep this job, and we would’ve tried, and things would’ve ended terribly. I much prefer this scenario. The one where I quit, and we—” He stopped short.
“And we what?”
He smiled with half his mouth. “We do whatever we want to do.”
“Right now,” I said, letting my bags drop the ground, “there’s only one thing I want to do.” I took a step closer to him. “And that’s kiss you.”
He didn’t say anything. He just wrapped his arms around me, lifted me effortlessly off the ground, and pressed his lips against mine.
25
The drive back to Aria felt like a fairy tale. Theo was still riding high from the feeling of freedom and excitement he received after quitting his job. I too was elated. We’d kissed in the parking lot, and afterwards Theo had made it pretty clear that he wasn’t interested in parting any time soon. He eagerly agreed to drive us both to Aria, and when I asked him if he could stay for the whole week, he smiled and said, “I’ll be staying as long as you’re staying. And when you leave, I’m going wherever you’re going. If you’ll let me, that is.”
Of course I had to tease him a little bit. I told him I would think about it, but he and I both knew, on some level, that we were never letting the other one get away. Not again.
Coupling that feeling with the gorgeous fall scenery, the drive was magical, and I forgot all about my bias against road trips.
We got into Aria a little after eight and saw all the lights in Beth’s house were still on.
“She must still be awake,” I said.
“Urs is here too.” He pointed to where her car was parked in the driveway.
I swallowed. “You nervous? Have you spoken to her since… you know?”
“Not really,” he said. “Except when I called to check on my mom once and she answered. Do you think she’s still mad at me?”
“I don’t know. There’s only one way to find out.”
He nodded, and we got out of the car. I told him I would get our bags and said he should go inside. I thought it might be good to give him a minute alone with Urs, and I also was a little worried it might hurt her feelings all over again to see us waltz in together, holding hands and looking happy as clams. I watched as he went up to the front door, opened it, and disappeared inside. I wanted a few seconds, then went about retrieving some of our bags, when I heard the door open again behind me.
“Why are you getting all the bags?” Beth demanded to know. “Why isn’t Theo helping you?”
That’s how she greeted me. With those questions, and then a big hug. She came down the driveway in her bare feet in the freezing November air.
“Beth!” I said, hugging her back, holding her tight against me. “Go back inside! You don’t have shoes on.”
She slipped her hand through one of my bags and said, “I’m going, I’m going.”
I followed her inside, where I saw that Urs and Theo were sitting on the couch in the living room talking. She had a smile on her face, and I could tell from the lack of tension in the room that they were probably having a nice, friendly conversation.
“Raina!” Ursula popped up. “There you are!”
She gave me a hug as well, then took the heavy bag from Beth. “Theo was just telling me what you did at his office. Are you insane?”
I laughed. “Maybe a little.”
“What did she do?” Beth asked, looking at me expectantly.
“How about we get settled in?” I suggested. “And then I’ll tell you everything that happened today.”
Theo agreed and went to retrieve the rest of our stuff, and soon we were all seated around the living room table, sipping wine and eating leftovers from the dinner Beth had ordered from the Chinese/Mexican place before Theo and I arrived. I told them the whole story, start to finish.
“But the best part is,” Theo said when I was done with the story, “is that just this morning, I had gone down to the warehouse and filled the car up with boxes and boxes of extra wine. I figured that I would be able to get down to Aria for at least an overnight sometime shortly after the election, and I thought it would be good to have some on hand. So now we have it, even though I quit. Which is good. We’ll need it to celebrate Urs’s big win.”
“Or to drown our sorrows in if I lose,” Urs said.
“Or that,” Theo agreed.
“You two stop that,” I said. “Urs, you are not going to lose. Not if I have anything to say about it.”
“And clearly your words have more power than I originally knew,” she said. “You convinced four people to quit their high-paying jobs today.”
“Honestly, Mr. Nichols did all the work for me. You should’ve seen him. He was basically begging for his people to stage a walkout.”
“Sounds like someone else we know,” said Beth, eyeing Urs. “Mayor Jason has been on the warpath ever since you left. He’s been threatening people with evictions, running a smear campaign against us, and just generally trying to scare people into voting for him.”
“Is it working?”
Urs shrugged. “Yes and no. He’s pushed a lot of people into our camp. Mostly the ones who he doesn’t have direct power over, but I know there’s still a good amount of people in town that he’s managed to put the fear of God into.”
“It’ll be close,” Beth said. “But I still think we have the votes.”
Urs crossed her fingers. “We can only hope.”
“We can do more than hope,” I said. “We have a whole day. A lot can be done in a day. Let’s see.” I stood up and paced back and forth while I thought. “We could have another party tomorrow night. Free wine again, that seemed to be pretty popular. Or we send Ursula around to people’s houses with goodie baskets. If I stay up all night, I could easily put those together. Or—”
“Raina,” Urs said. “We’ve done enough. Beth and I have been going door to door all month, we’ve been visiting local businesses and schools. We’ve talked to everyone who would talk to us, and now it’s time for us all to sit back and just see what happens.”
“You mean just wait around?” I said.
“Exactly.”
I sighed and slumped back into my seat. “That sounds so… anticlimactic.”
“Need I remind you, I’m running for the mayor of Aria, not the mayor of New York. Everything about this race is a little anticlimactic.”
“Not if we win,” I said, shaking my head. “If we win, we are going to do big things, make major changes. Everyone will remember the day you win, Urs, because it’ll be the day everything in the town Aria got that much better.”
I was anxious for most of the day Monday. I went to the polling places to double check that everything looked to be in order, then I did some shopping, getting everything ready for the party that was going to be held Tuesday night at Walkers. When I went to drop off the decorations at the bar, it was already early afternoon, and I was behind schedule. So when Danica greeted me with a smile and asked if I wanted to have a drink, I had to politely decline. I ran out of there shortly after, hoping I would get a chance to talk more to Dani and Kenny the next day after the polls closed.
That night, Theo insisted on taking me out to dinner to get my mind off things. Unfortunately, all anyone at the restaurant was talking about was the election. On the bright side, I overheard people talking favorably of Urs, and it gave me hope for our odds the following day.
After dinner, Theo and I returned to Beth’s house. She was already in bed, and I was feeling pretty exhausted myself. We said goodnight, he kissed me once, short and sweet, and went to go make up his bed on the couch.
I dreamt of winning the election that night and woke up on voting day with the overwhelming feeling that in less than 24 hours, everything was going to change. For me, for my new friends, and for the entire town of Aria.
“It is after midnight here in Aria,” said the local news anchor. She looked sleepy as she stood outside one of the polling places, wearing a puffy coat and gloves. “Many of the poll workers will be going home soon, but we do have an update for you. The numbers from a few more distracts are in, and it looks like this race can safely be called.”
Urs reached for my hand and squeezed. We were standing in the middle of Walkers’ bar, surrounded by all our friends, while everyone stared up at the TV screen in anticipation.
“The next mayor of Aria, and the first ever female mayor of the town, will be Ursula—”
The whole bar erupted into cheers, applause, whoops, and laughter. Ursula was crying. I brought her hand up into the air, triumphantly, and then hugged her. “You did it!”
“We did it,” she said.
When we pulled apart, Beth got in between us and hugged Urs as well. Everyone was tearing up at this point, and Danica let everyone know that the next round was free. People cheered again, and after that, the party went from being tense and slightly too quiet to being loud and utterly jubilant. At the bar, I ordered myself another drink and looked for Theo. He was standing off to the side, taking pictures of everyone, his eyes lit up with joy. I smiled at the sight of him so happy, and then someone tapped me on the shoulder.
It was Urs.
She had gotten away from all the people who just felt they had to hug her, had to congratulate her, or had to tell her everything she should do now that she was mayor.
“Hey,” she said. “Can you believe it?”
“I can,” I said. “I always knew you could do it.”
“If they called it tonight, you know what that means, don’t you?”
“That you won by a lot,” I said.
“There will be no real way for Jason to dispute the results.”
I laughed. “He might try anyway.”
“Let him,” Urs said. “I’m not afraid of him.”
“Neither is most of the town, it would seem. His time having that sort of influence over everyone has finally come to an end. How exciting is that?”
She grinned. “You have no idea.”
“So what are you going to do for your first official act as town mayor?”
“You know, I’ve been thinking about that, and I think the best thing for me to do will be to elect a deputy mayor. Someone who can oversee some of the smaller departments, make appearances for me when I’m expected to be two places at once, that sort of thing.”
“Sounds like a fun job,” I said. “Maybe Danica would like to do it.”
She shook her head. “Dani’s too busy. Everyone I know is too busy. Well, except one person. I do have this one friend who doesn’t actually have a job, and who conveniently owes me some money for all the work I did on her car.”
A smile crept across my face.
“Are you serious?”
“If you want the job, it’s yours.”
I jumped up and down. “Yes!” I said. “Of course I want the job.”
“Good,” she said. “Because I don’t think I would trust anyone else with it. I’ll have Beth as my assistant, you as my deputy mayor, and Theo… well, he can be the official mayoral photographer. It doesn’t pay well, but I think he’d enjoy it.”
I nodded. “He’ll be honored, I’m sure. So, does that mean you two are okay? No weirdness?”
“No,” she said. “No weirdness. What about you and Theo, though? What’s going on there?”
I shrugged, trying to act casual. “We haven’t discussed the details yet, or labeled it or anything. It’s no big deal.”
“Isn’t that what put you here in the first place?” she said. “Having a relationship that was ‘no big deal’? Don’t you want something that is a big deal for once?”
I didn’t have a response to that, so I didn’t give one, but those words echoed through my head for much of the night. About an hour after I accepted Urs’s job offer, I saw Theo slip outside, and I followed him. He was standing on the curb with his arms wrapped tightly around himself.
“It’s colder than I thought,” he said. “I came out for some fresh air, but I’m regretting it—”
“Theo, I’m falling in love with you.”
He turned to face me, slowly, his mouth neither a smile nor a frown.
“Excuse me?” he said.
“I’m falling in love with you,” I said again. “And I know that’s bonkers. I haven’t even officially divorced my ex-husband, I’ve only known you for like six weeks, maybe even less, and most of our relationship has been a total mess, but I don’t care. In fact”—my voice was getting louder—“it’s more than that. I don’t just not care, I’m happy about all this. I like that we’re dramatic, that we get into arguments with one another. I like that I decided to stay in a town where I barely knew anyone and had no prospects mostly because I’d met you and felt something between us. And I like that you quit your job after I barged into your meeting wearing sweatpants and making a speech that was borderline nonsensical.”
He smiled.
“I like that we are this way,” I said. “I like the drama—I love the drama. The drama that is you and me.”
I waited for him to say something, and he was quiet for a few seconds, then he reached out and took my freezing hands in his.
“I’m falling in love with you too,” he said. “And I can’t wait to find out what dramatic thing happens to us next.”
He pulled me in and kissed me, and there we stood on the sidewalk, arms wrapped around each other, in front of Walkers’ bar, on Main Street, in the heart of small-town Aria.
The End.
Also By Hazel Taylor
Hanging On
CLICK HERE FOR NOVEL
“A deeply moving novel of continuing on even when it seems impossible. “
Life is over for Lee Inola when a terrible car accident takes his life too soon. Lee was more than just the handsome guy with a heart of gold, Lee was the glue that held Evan, Sara, and Naomi’s friendship together. Ten years after the accident grief still haunts the group of friends as new information about the accident becomes known.
As questionable inconsistencies regarding the accident come to light, Evan, Sara, and Naomi continue to be tormented with grief and regret. Unable to move on, Sarah’s continued grief is greatly impacting her marriage.
With the final attempt to save her marriage, Sara finds a reason to bring the trio of friends back together, and in doing so, brings to light every bad memory that Evan and Naomi have been trying to bury for all these years.
Secrets are revealed, and new startling evidence regarding the accident is uncovered, but the one question that still remains on everyone’s mind is what really happened on the night of the accident?
…or was it no accident at all?
Emotional, romantic, and nail-biting. Hanging on is a story about friendship, the healing powers of time, and learning when it’s okay to let go.
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“A Secret in Paradise” - CLICK HERE
Her sister had been dead for years when her newly written and recently postmarked letters are found…
Alexandra Reed died years ago in a freak drowning accident while on a trip to Hawaii with her mother. Her sister Laura, a teenager at the time, lost her best friend, sister, and confidant, all in one day.
Years after the drowning, Laura receives a phone call from her father, who was going through some of their family’s old boxes. He tells Laura he’s found something, something that is causing him to question everything he thought he knew about Alex’s death: Letters.
