Chapter 73

This is not like Eric. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t the tiniest bit impressed, still it’s not fair of him to do this.

I haven’t moved from the couch, despite Emily’s efforts. “Just hear him out,” she says stifling a yawn. By now we could have watch both of the movies we wanted to. I shake my head.

“I’m surprised you’re not setting off the sprinkles or something to get rid of him,” I say with a hint of suspicion. Emily made it painfully apparent how she feels about Eric at the party.

“It’s a free country,” she shrugs. I cock my head towards her direction.

“What do you know?” I ask. Emily’s draws back.

“Nothing,” she says and that’s all. I wait for her to say more, she doesn’t. Emily cracks under my pressuring gaze. Her shoulders fold.

“Okay fine,” she admits. I have a feeling if she weren’t so tired, she wouldn’t cave so easily.

“Eric approached me at the story and asked how he could win you back,”

My eyes widen. “You told him to do this?” I ask aghast. Emily shakes her head.

“No,” she insists. “This was all him. I simply told him to pursue you,” she says. I roll my eyes.

“I guess he really heeded your advice,” I say bitterly. Emily ignores me and stands up. Her black suede sweater set clings to her thin body making her legs look like black licorice.

She peers out the window and frowns.

“Is he gone?” I ask hopeful. If I’m lucky, maybe he got tried like Emily and packed it in for the night or left all together. But if its one thing I know about Eric, its that he doesn’t quit.

“No,” Emily hesitates. Her silence clears away at me.

“What is it?” I ask.

Emily bites her nails. “It’s just this is the third car I’ve seen drive by,” she says looking back at me and I notice the worry lines etched in her forehead, but I don’t understand why.

“And?” I ask for clarity. Emily waves her hand in the air.

“I don’t really live in a busy area in case you haven’t noticed,” she says.

I stand up, my knees and ankles cracking from my shifting weight. “Again, what’s your point?” I ask trying to connect the dots. Just then headlights from another car flood the living room.

Emily sighs. “I don’t really know my neighbors, which is how I wanted it,” Emily says and shuts the curtain just as I try to peak over her shoulder and see what it is that Eric’s doing. Emily turns around and I quickly pull myself back pretending I wasn’t just a little curious.

I start to gather what Emily is saying. She’s not used to this many cars driving by, which means Eric is drawing a crowd, which means. . . Ugh.

I pull back the curtain and see Eric in fitted joggers and a black sweatshirt with the hood up. He lifts his head up at me as soon as I appear at the window, as if sensing me. Even in the dim of the night his watery blue eyes shimmer. I nearly lose my breath.

He gives a slight wave up at me and I resist doing anything back. I know he can see me, but I pretend that he can’t. I continue staring at him and I will see what he reads on my expression.

Just then he turns up the volume on the speaker and plays our wedding song for probably the hundredth time. I shake my head no.

A small jeep rolls slowly by the house, catching my attention but it’s obvious that Eric has there’s. The white jeep slows to a stop.

“Uh oh,” I say.

“What?” Emily asks suddenly standing next to me with a burst of new energy.

“Who is that?” I ask.

“I don’t know, like I said I don’t know my neighbors.”

The door to the jeep opens and out steps a middle aged man in ripped blue jeans and a gray zip up. He’s average height, clearly wouldn’t stand a chance in a fight against Eric as evident by the rounding of his midsection probably due to years of neglect and one too many beers.

The man approaches Eric, who remains in his seat, clearly not seeing the man as a threat. Though I can’t hear what they’re saying, I can gather the conversation well enough based off their loose hand gestures towards the house.

Just then the stranger looks up and smiles knowingly at Emily and me. We look at one another and silently agree this isn’t good.

The man turns back to Eric still smiling, but this time he reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone. He steps away while bringing his other hand up to his ear and speaks into the phone.

Eric nods towards us and turns up the radio.

“You have to get rid of him,” I tell Emily. She scoffs.

“You know he’s only going to leave once you talk to him,”

“I’m not talking to him,” I protest. “I don’t even know what I would say,”

“Then just hear him out!” Emily whines. I sigh. This argument has become circular.

Another car pulls up behind the jeep. This time a woman in a bathrobe and slippers storms out.

She doesn’t even close her door behind her.

Eric stands to greet her, but before he even has his hand fully extended to take hers, she’s wagging her finger at him.

Eric gestures towards the window and I watch as the woman’s face changes from one of anger to one of joy. Clearly Eric is explaining his reasoning for being here and the people are eating it up.

The first man hangs up his phone and joins in on the conversation. He points to his phone and then behind him. I try to decipher what his unofficial sign language means.

“These people are going to end up disappointed if they think I’m going out there,” I say and step away from the window. Might as well not give these people anything to watch and hope they just get bored and leave. “Maybe we should go to bed,” I suggest. “They’ll leave eventually,”

Emily’s lips purse and she doesn’t move from the window.

“Don’t tell me you’re on their side,” I say and Emily shrugs with a slight smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

“You know I’m a sucker for a good love story,” she says.

“Unbelievable,” I murmur. I go get ready for bed.

Twenty minutes later my face is washed, my hair is twisted up into a bun, and I’m wrapped in a cozy matching pajama set.

“Hey, Renee,” Emily calls from downstairs and I know instantly I’m not going to like this. “You might want to come check this out,”

The thudding in my heart quickens as I skip the steps two at a time. I nearly trip on the bottom step and practically crash into the window over looking her front yard and my face instantly

flames with embarrassment as I see how many people probably witnessed me trip.

I can only hope they didn’t mistake it as excitement, any slight I cation that they think I’m enjoying this will only heighten the situation.

I scan the yard. Rows of chairs line Emily’s garden, some people stand, many sit and almost all of them have their phone out to record what’s going on. Now wish I didn’t wash off all my make

up.

I school towards Emily who is no longer trying to pretend she isn’t loving this. “You just had to pick the house with the biggest yard,” I say.

Behind me my phone pings. “Oh yeah, that’s been going off too,” Emily says her eyes still glued to the scene below us, her breath fogging up the glass.

I snatch my phone off from the couch and immediately drop it again when I see the amount of missed texts and phone calls I have. Some from Eric, but those are from earlier- when he first

showed up. All the recent texts are from unknown numbers begging me to come outside, giving words of encouragement. Well, except this one that says, “you’re a bitch if you don’t come outside,”

Eric must have given out my number thinking he could wear me out. I kick my teeth and toss my phone back down on the couch.

That one text from the unknown number is about to be proven correct.