To save me time and a little frustration, on all following Book Store Series posts I'll only be linking to Part 1 and the part previous to the post. It's just a royal pain to put all the links in and if you start at the first one, you can easily click through the whole series because I have been trying to go back and update previous posts with the link to the next part. (Um, if that made sense. I only had about 3-4 solid hours of sleep last night, so that could all be mumbo jumbo!)
Now, enjoy!
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I vowed to avoid the
bookstore for a week after that, feeling the space was necessary for all of us
to process. But Milo came to visit me a few days after Theo and I had our big
fight. I had just gotten home from work, thrown my hair in a messy ponytail and
I was wearing sweats and a t-shirt. I heard the knock and peeked through the
peephole when I got to the door. Milo’s face filled the little glass bubble,
and I let out a heavy sigh. For a split second I considered playing possum,
pretending I wasn’t home. But I knew I’d have to face Milo sooner or later, so
I might as well get it over with. I opened the door wide.
“Hi,” I said. He stood
awkwardly, turning and squeezing his winter gloves in his hands, avoiding any
eye contact. “Well don’t just stand there, come in.” I waved my hand towards
the living room and he stepped inside.
I closed the door behind
him. He paused for a second, then turned to me. “I really don’t know what to
say to you Lily. I had no idea about any of it.”
“Come on,” I said as I led
the way towards the kitchen. Milo took off his coat and shoes, then sat in a
chair at the dining room table. I went about making some hot chocolate. “So you
know everything then? About Lillian and the adoption deal and all that?”
“I do now. I honestly
thought you just looked like her. I see people who look a little like people I
know all the time. I just thought you were mom’s doppelganger. It’s all so
weird.”
I brought two cups of
steaming cocoa to the table and set one in front of Milo. “What do we do about
it? Does it change things?”
“I don’t think so. Our
friendship happened naturally, if not awkwardly. We will get along, regardless
of whether or not we’re related to each other. I don’t want it to change.”
“I don’t either…brother,” I said and kicked him under
the table. “Wait, so does that mean we have all those years of beating on each
other and teasing to catch up on?”
“Really? That’s what you’re
taking from this? I thought we were doing a good job of that all along
anyways.” He smiled and sipped his cocoa.
“How’s Theo doing?” I felt
awkward asking, the anger still twitching on the surface of my skin. But if I
wanted to keep the status quo of my relationship with Milo, I had to play nice.
After all, it was his father. No. Our
father. I erased that thought with a little shake of my head, filing it away
for processing at a later time.
“He’s really upset. He feels
awful about the whole thing. I’m not sure he ever thought he’d have to deal
with this situation. He spends a lot of time at the store, long after we’re
closed and before we’re open. Same as he did right after mom died. After...
well, you know.” Milo wouldn’t look in my eyes. I could tell he felt ashamed
for his dad’s actions.
“Milo, you can’t feel bad
for something your dad did. Those were the choices he made, and none of us can
change them. I am angry and hurt, but we’re talking about a decision made 25
years ago now.”
He nodded and said, “Times
were different then. And how emotional dad must have been with mom taken away
so suddenly. You sure seem to be taking this awfully well.”
“Yeah, that’s me; Logic
Girl. Able to analyze any situation in the blink of an eye. Or at least over
two or three days and a tub of ice cream.” I laughed at my divisive processing
skills. The only way I could handle situations like these was if I tore them
apart, bit by bit, and processed each detail individually. I guess that’s what
made me a good accountant.
We were smiling, enjoying
our cocoa, when we heard muted music. I
Love This Bar by Toby Keith floated out of the pocket of my coat hanging
near the door. Milo raised his eyebrows at me, but I ignored him; I was sure
he’d give me a hard time about it later. I went to the coat rack and pulled my
phone out, checking the screen. It read Sophie
across it, and I answered.
“Hi Soph, what’s up?” I started
walking back to the table, but Sophie’s voice stopped me in my tracks.
I could hear her crying on
the other end. Through her sobs, she managed to tell me that she and Vin had
gone to the bookstore. It was still closed, which was odd because Theo was
supposed to open. Vin used his key to get in and they found a mess, but no
Theo.
“I’ll be right there,
Sophie, hang in there!” I put my phone in my pocket and got ready faster than I
ever had, filling Milo in as I rushed him out the door.
There weren’t enough
details, not enough pieces. I guess that’s why what happened next was so hard
for me to handle.
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Stay tuned! I might just do an editing post tomorrow since yesterday's post was so lame.
Thanks for stopping by!
**P.S. If you've been reading all along, please leave a comment on this post every week. Even if it just says "ME!", there may or may not be a reward at the end of all this for being loyal readers. ;-)
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