Page 49 of Angels Fall

He nods his head and I walk through the door of his office and down the stairs, thinking about how much I really do have to be grateful for. I mean shit, I’m still alive. And I’m in love with my best friend’s kid sister. And she, at the least, keeps letting me fuck her, so I feel like that’s an encouraging sign.

I do need to show Maddie how much I’m thankful for her. He’s right. I need to give her a gift. One that shows her I understand where she’s at. What she needs. Something that’s only for her and isn’t at all about me.

I just need to figure out what the hell that is.

Chapter Eleven - Maddie

I wake up from my after-work nap to the smell of pumpkin pies baking in the oven.

Because it’s Thanksgiving. Or will be tomorrow. Annie, Diane, and Caroline are making pies for a dinner they’re going to with some old friends from college.

They invited me, but I declined. I don’t actually know those friends from college, seeing as how I was a mess almost the entire time I was there and didn’t actually get to know anyone, Diane, Caroline, and Annie included.

It’s been years since I did anything on Thanksgiving. Last year I was just starting the wedding planner stuff, so I pretended it was another work day and kept working. The year before that… I think for a minute. Same thing, only it was the multi-level marketing stuff. I was running online giveaways for an early Black Friday sale. The year before I think I was trying out new recipes for the pet bakery.

Jesus Christ. Thanksgiving is like an endless reminder of how many times I’ve failed over the past few years.

My phone rings so I turn over, fish it out from under my pillow, and stare at the screen.

My mother.

No, thank you. I force it to go to voicemail and stuff it back under my pillow.

I bet Evan and his husband are having a nice dinner for Thanksgiving. I bet it’ll be all fancy and shit too. I bet he wouldn’t mind if I invited myself over. But it’s all too much effort. The phone call, the asking, the accepting, the everything. It’s just too much effort when I can just stay right here in this bed and pretend Thanksgiving is already over.

My phone dings a voicemail notification, and I’m just about to press the icon to see what she had to say—probably something simple, like, Happy Thanksgiving! We miss you!—when a soft knock at my door stops the screen tap.

“Come in,” I say.

“Hey,” Annie says, peeking her head in first. “You awake now?”

“Yeah.” I yawn. I’ve taken to sleeping after work lately. I think it’s probably a bad sign because I’m not actually tired when I get home. Just… uninterested in doing anything else but crawling back into bed. Which I realize might be a sign of depression. Which isn’t surprising because I think I am actually depressed.

This is not the life I imagined for myself. At all.

“Good,” Annie says. “Because I wanna talk to you about something.”

“What’s up?” I ask.

“I’m not sure,” she says, sinking down onto the mattress next to me.

I sit up a little. “What is it?”

She looks out my window, closes her eyes, takes a deep breath. “You know David?”

“Sorry… Which one’s David?” She fucks men for a living, so David could be anybody.

“My high school boyfriend? The one I tried to make it work with when I came here?”

“The one getting married?”

“Yup,” she says, sadly. “Him.”

“Sure,” I say. “Yeah, I remember.”

“Well…” She hesitates. “He’s not getting married anymore.”

“What?”