Page 329 of Safe With You
The store suddenly felt quieter.
“What about him?”
“He reached out to me.”
I didn’t say anything.
My fingers tightened around the phone.
Five years since I stood outside his apartment waiting for him to come home.
Five years since I finally walked away.
Apparently my body still knew his name before the rest of me decided what to do with it.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Yesterday.
I looked toward the dark windows at the front of the store.
“And you’re just telling me?”
“I wasn’t sure there was anything to tell.”
“Then why are you telling me now?”
Mama was quiet for a second.
“Because I didn’t want you finding out some other way and wondering why I kept it from you.”
I pressed my lips together.
Fair.
“What did he want?”
“Asked how you were doing.”
A laugh left me, but there was nothing funny in it.
“Five years later?”
“I know.”
“Why?”
“He didn’t say.”
I started walking again because standing still somehow made the conversation feel heavier.
I picked up another chair.
Pushed it beneath the table.
Straightened a stack of books that didn’t need straightening.
