ABOUT SAME TIME NEXT WEEK
Shelby's hands gripped the steering wheel tightly as she drove away from the airport.
The last hug she’d shared with Evelyn was bittersweet, and now with the faint scent of her mother’s perfume clinging to her clothes, she was on edge. She waited until she’d pulled into the garage, set down her purse, and locked up the house to collapse onto the couch and let the tears flow.
Later, when Evelyn called to check in the sound of her father's gruff voice in the background broke her heart all over again. She missed them already. They were all she had in this mixed up mess.
The last year had been… hell would be a good word to use to describe it. Running from Miami and people she thought she could call friends, people she was about to call family, people who said they cared about her was a last resort. The expression went that the world was a cold, lonely place. Miami was far from cold, but lonely fit the bill.
Shelby had promised herself a few minutes to indulge in self-pity but ended up spending hours lying on the couch, her back against the overstuffed cushion. She stared at the white ceiling, eventually turning on the TV but barely registering the the constant background noise. The sun slowly sank below the horizon, casting shadows over the dimly lit room. Flashes from The Tonight Show, then The Late show flickered against the walls.
She sighed, forcing herself up and off of the couch. Time to play out this farce I call going to bed. Shelby stumbled toward the bedroom and rolled into bed, surprisingly falling asleep almost right away.
But now it was 4 AM and she was wide awake. Tired as sin, grumpy, almost in pain, she wanted to sleep so badly, but it wasn’t happening. Heaving a defeated sigh, she sat up and began her nightly ritual of wandering.
She toured every square foot of the house from her bedroom to the two spare rooms down the hall, to the den and the formal living room and dining room, to the kitchen and out to the garage, around the back of the house. She ended up outside in one of the patio chairs near the pool, gazing up at the stars, wondering what the hell she was supposed to be doing with this time? How was life better when she was three hours away from the only people who had proven they loved her by sticking by her side?
“I need to get out of this house. That’s what I need."
That idea sounded good, better every second she considered it. A little drive, maybe to the 24 hour grocery store down the street. No one would be there. No one would think it was odd to see someone picking up a few items at… she checked her watch… four-thirty AM.
It was a time of day. Middle of the day, middle of the night, who could tell anymore? She hadn’t slept more than a few hours at a time in months. Around this time of morning, she was fidgeting from cabin fever, having wandered every inch of wherever she was staying—hotel room, condo, house in the hills, or this new home in Orlando. As beautiful as the fantastic view of high priced homes could be, she felt closed in, claustrophobic, a little trapped. Fresh air always did her some good and there was something about the air at the edge of night that she preferred.
Energized, Shelby stepped through the sliding glass doors off the den, back into the house. Made a mental grocery list. Almost ducked into the bathroom to check her hair, but who would be at Publix that early? Stock boys and random people that would look as harried and tired and disheveled as she did.
A little early morning shopping trip seemed like a good idea.
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