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He hadn’t run that day he encountered me in his chair. I wonder what changed.
∞∞∞
I’m not surprised when Luke doesn’t show up the next day. I don’t intend to stay long either. I stop by the table, check in with Shauna, then move on to the next phase of my schedule.
The second day I can forgive as well. I never lost a spouse. I have no idea how long the grieving period is or what it takes to recover from something like that. I figure it’s probably more than two days. I still check back in at Jemma’s, just in case, this time taking my place at the table for a cup of tea. I hope the recovery period is shorter than I imagine, and my gaze shoots to the door every time it opens, but it’s never Luke. I see Stan, even Darryn showing up for a shift, but not Luke.
By day three I’m starting to get concerned. I don’t really know him, but that fact brings no comfort, only leaves me feeling incomplete. We have work to do, conversations to explore, memories to share. I don’t know Luke well enough to need him, but I know I need to finish whatever we’ve started, even if we’re only two strangers who decide to remain that way. I just need it to end with a choice.
I quiz Shauna on day four, but she hasn’t seen him. Even the hostess shrugs, making it clear that my problem is not her problem. Luke is a sidebar, an anecdote for her friends over a beer on the Friday nights she isn’t working. He’s the weird guy who comes in and disturbs the peace by staring at a chair like a freak. That is, until he started eating breakfast with me. Now, he’s the freak who runs away when other people sit in a chair. She isn’t going to help me.
Oddly enough, my only clue comes from Stan. Luke had taken a call after he fled that day. Stan heard every detail as the younger man hovered in the windbreak, pleading with someone to cancel something and sell the rights to something else. Since Stan knows nothing about him, the conversation makes no sense to him. Since I do, I know I have to keep waiting for him.
So, I do. Day five, day six, and day seven. An entire week I wait.
It isn’t until the following week when I can finally breathe again.