Whatever It Takes, page 5
Sarah’s cheeks darkened, her eyes fixed on Emily’s hand which she continued to hold in hers. “I can tell you one thing.
Today’s a day I’m never going to forget.”
“That makes two of us,” Emily assured her, trying to hide the disappointment in her voice when Sarah took her hand
away again.
“Anyway, I should be heading back. I still need a stiff drink and I’d feel a lot better having it at home.” She pushed out her chair and stood to leave. “I’ll talk to you on Monday?”
She was looking at Emily, her expression hard to read.
“Sure,” Emily said with a smile. “We can meet up first thing.”
“Great. I’ll bring the coffee.”
With that, she was gone, collecting her things and leaving behind some cash to cover her part of the bill. A mountain of food sat in the middle of the table, the sampler Sarah ordered making up most of the leftovers.
“Looks like we’re set for tomorrow as well,” Jess said when Emily didn’t say anything. “Hey.” She placed a hand on Emily’s. “She’s talking to you now, so what’s up with the face? You have your worry lines and everything.”
Emily offered her a partial shrug and left it at that. She’d talk to Sarah on Monday, but something about the way Sarah spoke left an uneasy feeling in Emily’s stomach.
“I’ll be right back.” Without giving it a second thought, she ran after Sarah, catching the other woman just as she was about to get into her car.
“Hey, I was just about to leave,” Sarah said as she opened her car door. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. I was actually coming out here to ask you the same thing. You left your sampler behind.”
Sarah managed a small smile, then tilted her head to the side. “You’re worried. You always were a worrier.”
“Of course I am. We were having a good time tonight, and then you up and leave. I mean, I get it, you need to unwind, but the way you spoke… I don’t know. Are you sure everything’s okay?” Because it didn’t sound like it to me.
Emily kept the last bit to herself, chewing her bottom lip as she waited for Sarah’s response.
It wasn’t what Emily expected to hear. “It was great hanging out with you again,” Sarah said as she averted her gaze. “Almost too great, actually. It was almost like you never left, but…”
“But I did, and the pain that caused isn’t something I can ever take back.”
“I know. And as much as I want us to move on like you asked me to do before, I just can’t. Not yet. I… I need more time. Just give me that, okay?”
“Okay. But you’re okay otherwise?”
Now Sarah did look at her. When she did, there was no mistaking the tears in her eyes or the regret that made its way into her voice. “Yes. It’s just getting a little too real too soon.
I’m thankful for what you did for me today, and I have missed this… a lot.”
“But?” Emily urged, feeling as though she was standing on the edge of a blade. She could fall off at any moment. The only thing holding her up were Sarah’s words and her hope that they might become friends again.
“I can’t forget the last twenty years. We talk about the past like it just happened because, in all honesty, that’s the last thing we did together. I still don’t know you. I don’t know this Emily,” she said, poking Emily in the arm. “So until I do, I’d like things to be platonic. Nothing serious, okay? Maybe a lunch out here or there, but nothing too significant. I want to get to know you better before we move from here.”
She didn’t say where here was, but Emily knew. Sarah looked back on their first kiss probably as much as Emily did, and yet, their time apart was what held her back.
After everything Emily had put her though, she couldn’t blame her for that.
“That sounds fair,” Emily said with a nod, “but next time, can we go without a chaperone?”
Sarah laughed at that. It was a tight laugh but one all the same. “I promise, the next time we hang out, it’ll just be the two of us.”
With her concerns out of the way and Sarah still smiling, Emily stepped aside so she could get in her car and leave.
Sarah lingered a moment more before turning on her car to go, but before she pulled out of the lot, she had one more thing to say.
“I’ve missed you, Em. More than you could ever know.”
She didn’t wait for a response, leaving Emily in the parking lot with heat on her cheeks and a spark of hope she hadn’t felt before.
Chapter Eight
Monday couldn’t come soon enough. By the time Emily walked through the front doors of Williams Middle School, she was a ball of nerves. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, her nerves tingling as she climbed the stairs leading up to her classroom. Rounding the corner and turning down another hallway, her heart skipped as soon as she realized Sarah’s door was ajar.
Light spilled out into the hallway, a strange, almost fuzzy voice radiating from its general direction.
It’s a podcast, Emily decided, having heard the same voice coming from Sarah’s room before.
Not wanting to interrupt, Emily paused outside Sarah’s doorway before giving it a knock. Sarah jumped, then turned to her with a huge smile on her face. A pair of coffees sat on the desk in front of her along with a bag that most likely had donuts inside of it.
“You still like the Boston Cream, right?” Sarah asked with a tilt of her head. “I figured you might be hungry, and if not, you could always save it for later.”
“I don’t think I could ever have another favorite,” Emily admitted, walking over to the desk to join her. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” Sarah paused and hit a button on her phone, muting the podcast or whatever it was she’d been listening to.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that. It sounded good.”
Something about stars and space as far as Emily could tell, though she honestly wasn’t sure.
“It’s okay, I can catch up on it later. They keep all of their past episodes online. So how did your weekend go?”
Emily released a long breath and shook her head. “I’ve kind of been a wreck. You know how I used to overanalyze everything back when we were kids?”
“Like when you almost got hit by a car and kept replaying different scenarios in your head?”
“Yeah. That’s pretty much been my life since you left Oliver’s the other night. I slept, I think, but it was those microsleeps where you don’t know just how much sleep you actually got. Man, being responsible for someone else is a lot scarier than when it’s just you and a couple of friends.”
“I had to do the Heimlich on a kid a few years back,”
Sarah said between sips of coffee, “so I totally understand wanting to play it over in your head to the point of madness.
You want some advice?” When Emily nodded, she continued.
“Exercise before bed. Workout until you’re too tired to think.
Your muscles will be sore in the morning, but it helps. You need to focus on something else. Nothing bad happened, and dwelling on it isn’t going to help, not even in preparing you for next year. You never know what will happen between now and then, so if you can, let it go.”
“You make it sound so easy.” Even now, Emily couldn’t help thinking about what might’ve happened if one of the kids never showed up. Maybe they’d fallen or gotten hurt. Perhaps they passed out in one of the bathrooms. None of these things happened, but it bothered Emily all the same.
The way Sarah looked at her then with deep creases above her eyes, she also wasn’t the only one.
“It’s not,” Sarah told her, “but over the years, I’ve learned to compartmentalize. I gave myself the entire night after Oliver’s to freak out, then I moved on. You already gave yourself an entire weekend. Don’t let it ruin your week as well. Besides, from what my students tell me, your class is one of their favorites. Make sure it stays that way.”
Which meant no deviating from her plans by changing their assignments or talking about things that were already said and done. Sarah might’ve thought their time apart made them strangers, but she still knew Emily. In fact, she knew Emily all too well.
“You’re a little scary sometimes,” Emily said with a nervous laugh.
“What?” Sarah joined her in her laughter. “How do you mean?”
“It doesn’t matter how much time has gone by. You still know me, sometimes even better than I know myself.”
“Your personality might’ve remained the same, but I’m sure there are things about you I don’t know. Trust me, taking things slow and restarting our friendship is the best thing we can do. We owe it to ourselves to give it the time it needs and not rush into it.”
She was right, and as they finished their donuts and coffee, an unsettling silence fell between them.
Once they were through, Emily gathered her things and turned to leave, pausing just inside the doorway. “This was fun,” she said as she looked back at Sarah. “I’ll get the next one.”
“You got it. How about we meet up at Oliver’s on Saturday?” Sarah cocked an eyebrow, the hint of a smile playing on her lips.
“Sounds great.” Good food, good company, what’s not to love?
“Then I guess I’ll see you then.”
With their future arrangements out of the way, Emily headed into her classroom. Situating the desks only helped so much. As soon as she stopped behind her desk, she glanced across the hall at Sarah again.
Sarah’s head was down, her long ponytail draped over one shoulder. Emily smiled. Come Saturday night, she’d have Sarah all to herself.
She could hardly wait.
When Jess heard about their upcoming meet at Oliver’s, she practically begged to go with them. However, once Emily promised to grab a burger for Jess on the way out, she settled for a night in instead, much to Emily’s relief. It wasn’t that she
didn’t enjoy her cousin’s company, but there was only so much Emily could talk about with her around.
So after checking her hair in the mirror one last time and grumbling under her breath at the annoying cowlick along the part in her hair, Emily gathered her things and left. Sarah’s car was already parked in front of Oliver’s by the time she arrived.
An exhausted Sarah stood with her back against the door, her hair just as out of sorts as Emily’s probably was.
“Long day?” Emily asked once she pulled in next to her.
“Soccer practice,” Sarah said with a wry smile, lifting up her slacks to show the tall socks hidden underneath. “I’ve got my cleats in the car.”
“I thought you didn’t coach,” Emily said as she got out of the car.
“Not usually, but I assist one of the other coaches from time to time. I was looking forward to it, but those kids were off the wall today. I’m surprised I wasn’t late. I felt like I was running behind all afternoon.”
“You could’ve called if you had to cancel,” Emily told her as she closed the car door behind her. “I would’ve understood.”
“Nah, it’s okay. I knew I could do both, I just had to manage my time a little better. Besides, when it comes to soccer, I’ve put way too much time into it just to walk away.”
“It’s your drug,” Emily said with a slight nod, joining Sarah as she made her way toward the door to Oliver’s.
“That’s how writing’s always been for me.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I remember. You tried to rope me into one of your plotting sessions once, but if I remember correctly, it didn’t go very well.”
“No, it didn’t,” Emily said with a laugh. “Of course, when you took me to soccer practice with you, I spent most of the time playing on one of the mats with your little brother. How is Matt by the way?”
“Oh, you know, still into cars and a total grease monkey.
He always has something parked in the driveway that’s torn apart. Sometimes I can’t tell if he’s trying to fix them or if he’s rendering them down for parts.”
“It could be a little bit of both,” Emily offered, pausing to get the door and following Sarah once she was through. “You want to get the same table we had before?”
Sarah paused just inside the doorway, gesturing to the back of the room. “It’s already taken, but to be honest, the table doesn’t matter. So long as the menu hasn’t changed in the last week, I’ll be fine.”
“Man, I hate when places do that. There was one spot I loved back where we moved. They had some of the best wings I’ve ever had, but then the management changed and they replaced the cook. That was the end of that.”
“That’s usually how it goes, unfortunately. Good thing Oliver’s is one of the hot spots in town. It didn’t use to be. Up until a few years ago, they were struggling. Once we realized this, we started to have our after-practice meets in here. That got the word of mouth going, and it’s been doing well ever since.” Sarah stopped at a table and pulled out a chair to sit down. “Now, I won’t say we were responsible for saving Oliver’s, but we certainly helped. I’d like to think we did, anyway.”
The hostess dropped by then to take their orders. Once they were alone, Sarah continued.
“So what was it like? Did you like living in Cartersville?”
Emily lifted her shoulder in a partial shrug. “It isn’t anything like it is here. It’s still considered small as towns go, but it’s twice the size of New Brook. It’s a very different community and one I never really got into. I tried, and I hung out with some of the other kids, but it never felt right. I couldn’t really talk to them the way I used to talk to you because they weren’t around before the move.
If I got quiet, you let me be. You’d check in to see if I was okay, but then you’d give me my space. Those other kids
thought I was weird and mistook my silence for being a snob. I tried to explain, but there’s only so much you can say to a bunch of kids about your dead dad before they ignore you.”
Sarah groaned. “Ugh, I’m sorry you had to go through that.
If it helps, it wasn’t any better back here. A lot of our friends sort of fell out of contact with each other as soon as we hit high school. Then it was just me and Matty, swimming in the pool and working on Dad’s car whenever he let us.”
“It sounds like we all followed our passion.”
“I tried,” Sarah admitted, digging at something under her fingernail, “but I don’t have the heart to tell someone they need to put their pet down. It doesn’t even matter what it is, either. I cared way too much and ended up crying in the back as much as the owners did. The folks I interned for were really nice about it, but in the end, I decided it wasn’t for me. They offered me a job at the front desk, but that wasn’t what I went to school for so…”
“So you went back to become a teacher.”
“Pretty much. At least all of my studies could still work in what I’m doing now. I have so many old tools I used in school that I’ve started using them so the kids can have a more hands-on experience.”
“Like models and such?”
“And anatomy books. Some of it can get rather boring, but showing the muscle structure of a dog can really help.”
“Well, if you ever feel like you aren’t cut out to work in bio anymore, you could always turn to art. Those would be some amazing resources for drawing.”
“I’ve thought about it, but I don’t have an artistic bone in my body. My passion for animals, though? It shows through every single time.”
Emily believed it. Back when they were growing up, Sarah always had a pet or two around the house. They’d owned three dogs, two cats, a turtle, a handful of guinea pigs, rats, mice, and a goldfish. Not all at once, but there was always something new to experience at the Thompson place.
“Do you have any pets now?” Emily asked after giving it some thought. She could definitely see Sarah owning a dog.
She loved the labs they had when they were growing up.
“I wish. The only thing I’ve had in the last ten years was a beta that liked to eat way too much. He didn’t live ten years, obviously, but I didn’t really get anything else once he died.
He was one of the really pretty ones with a blue shimmer and everything.”
“Now see, I thought you would’ve gotten a dog.”
“I did for all of two seconds before he started tearing up the place. He’s with my folks now, so I see him every weekend. He’s an absolute nut, though. Their yard has seen better days.”
“A digger, nice,” Emily said with a laugh, sitting back when the server dropped off their food.
“They’d get rid of him but he’s actually very sweet once you get him to calm down. What about you? Did you ever get that cat your mom promised you?”
“Oh god.” Emily had completely forgotten about that.
“That was one of the worst bribes ever, and no, I never got one. We looked, but then Mom talked about how Bob was allergic and—”
“Is he allergic?”
“Surprisingly, yes. I didn’t expect him to be, but once we went to the animal shelter, he started wheezing like crazy. He said it had been a minor thing since he was a kid, but I guess things get worse once you’re an adult.”
“So if you didn’t have a cat and you didn’t really like your friends, what did you do for fun out there? And don’t say writing because I know there’s more to it than that.”
“Does teaching my stuffed animals count?”
Sarah choked back a laugh, coughing when some of her soda went down the wrong way. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”
“I am,” Emily said with a grin, “but you should’ve seen the look on your face.” It was bright red!
“I mean, I know you used to do that back when we were eight or nine, but as a teen? I couldn’t imagine how out of your mind you’d have to be to do that.”
“I did use my chalkboard,” Emily said fondly. “It was mostly a plotting device, but—”
“What did I just say? No writing. You must’ve done something else.”
