Chapter 32
Bailey
The first thing I did after my Uber took me from Atlanta to Rome on Tuesday afternoon was to scour the town looking for Darren.
I headed on a path toward Mel’s A/C, assuming that Darren was at work. On my way to Mel’s, I looked around a few places that I knew he liked to go to, on the chance that I might spot him elsewhere.
By the time I arrived at Mel’s, I still hadn’t spotted him, his Focus, or his golden retriever. His Focus also wasn’t in the parking lot at Mel’s when I arrived. I wondered if Garrett had driven them into work that morning.
I walked through the front door, and there was Garrett by the register, scrolling on his phone. He looked up when the door closed behind me.
“Whoa!” he responded, almost dropping his phone. “Uh, hi!”
“Hi, Garrett,” I said smiling. “Is Darren working right now?”
“Well, as a matter of fact, he’s not,” he answered. “He took the day off.”
“Oh. Is he okay?”
“Not really,” he said. “He’s been kind of going mad lately.”
“Oh, no,” I said with an amused tone. “So he’s at his house?”
“No, he set off of on a road trip a little while ago,” said Garrett. “He and Bo both left together.”
“Where were they going?” I wondered facetiously. “Atlanta? Cartersville?”
“He’s doing the exact thing you’re doing,” he said grinning. “He’s in Memphis.”
“Shut up,” I said in shock.
“He didn’t really say what was on his agenda,” said Garrett. “He just said he had to talk with you.”
“You’re kidding,” I said in similar disbelief.
“No, he’s probably in Tennessee right now if I had to guess,” he said.
I couldn’t believe it. We’d both had the same ideas and enacted them at the same time. It felt like another one of those things that happen that make you believe in destiny.
“If I can ask,” said Garrett. “What were you hoping to talk to Darren about?”
“I—wanted to tell him how I was feeling,” I said. “We’ve had a pretty intense last couple of weeks.”
“This seems important,” said Garrett. “You didn’t even call or text him, did you? You both just left your homes and showed up to where the other was supposed to be. That’s kind of nuts.”
“Garrett, remember when we were all hanging out and drinking together before that one night?” I asked him. “Remember how you said Darren still had feelings for me like he did in high school?”
“I said a lot of things that night. I was super drunk and messed up.”
“Right, but you meant what you said, didn’t you?”
“Sure,” he admitted.
“I want to know how Darren feels about us, and I want to know if we can be together,” I admitted.
Garrett looked at his watch, then behind him. He was pondering.
“I can come back later when you’re not working,” I told him.
“Why don’t we meet up over at Chelsea’s for a drink?” he proposed. “I’ll buy. We’ll talk. And I’ll let you know what’s going down.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “So Darren’s really in Memphis?”
“He says he started missing you from the moment he left,” said Garrett. “I can’t believe he’s over there, and you’re over here. That’s unbelievable.”
It certainly was unbelievable. I was tempted to call Darren and tell him that I’d come to his job and was looking for him. Then, I wondered if he went to where he expected to find me working, and maybe my best friend was talking to him the way his best friend was talking to me.
To kill some time between then and when we were meeting at Chelsea’s, I sat in the house I grew up in, languishing over the fact that I’d returned to Rome already, after only a short few days of being away from it and declaring I’d never return. I felt like a weak hypocrite, but in my state of weakness, I didn’t care. All I cared about was figuring out things with Darren.
Garrett left work and made it to Chelsea’s before I did. He ordered a tall pitcher of beer for us to share, and I gladly took a glass and filled it up.
“Cheers,” we said, toasting ourselves.
We drank and ate pretzels for a short while; mindlessly watching whatever was on the TVs. I was waiting until we both felt comfortable, but it seemed like that was never going to happen.
“So, talk to me,” I said to Garrett.
“What would you like to talk about?” he asked.
“Do you know when Darren is getting back? Have you talked to him?”
“I haven’t heard from him since he texted saying he was in Memphis,” he told me. “I’m not really sure what he’s up to.”
“Surely by now, he knows I’m not there, right?”
“I’d imagine so,” said Garrett. “I figured he’d have called or texted me by now. Want me to call him?”
I was tempted, but I held my tongue. I shook my head, declining.
“So, you two are finally getting together, after all these years?” Garrett asked.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” I answered. “I’m hoping we’ll figure that out once we start talking.”
“Y’all will be fine,” he said.
“So, about that whole ‘Darren never got over me’ statement,” I said. “Care to go more into that?”
“No, not particularly. No,” said Garrett.
“Garrett, please just answer this honestly, and I promise I won’t tell him you told me. Has he had feelings for me like—all this time?”
“He’s never gotten over you,” he confessed. “No other girls have compared.”
“Really? In six years?”
“In six years, your name has come up more times than I could possibly keep track,” Garrett said. “All he’s wanted was for you to come back here, or for him to wake up one day and want the city life. I can’t exactly blame him for wanting to stay away from a big city. Big cities and the people in them are obnoxious.”
“Every city has some obnoxious people in it, Garrett,” I replied. “But, he never loved someone else? He said he’d seen a few girls.”
“Yeah, some girls would hang out with him from time to time,” he said. “There weren’t many, and they were never around for long.”
“He had them around for company and sex?”
“Well, I don’t know if I’d label it quite like that.”
“Hey, after I got to Memphis, all I had in my life were temporary guys that provided a cure for my loneliness and my horniness,” I interjected. “I’m not judging that at all.”
“Great, so you two are basically love twins,” said Garrett. “You’re both doing the exact same things trying to prevent what you both know is true.”
“What’s the truth?”
“The truth is—he’s afraid to ever leave Rome,” he said. “This is where he’s safe. He has a good job, good friends, and he found a good house in town when he never thought he could. Putting that on the line for anything—or really, anyone—would be really risky. Not even talking finances here. I mean, he could gamble away his heart and lose it to someone that hurts him.”
“I would never hurt him,” I said.
“You don’t know that for sure, but that’s beside the point,” he replied. “No one knows whether they’re going to hurt a person or not. Anyway, he has a good setup, and not only could a relationship break apart and he’s lost from that, but, he could give up his life here, have to come back, and his life won’t be able to just take him back. You know what I’m saying?”
“Oddly enough, I think I do.”
“I think he was afraid of you guys trying to make a life out in Tennessee, and then it wouldn’t work out,” said Garrett. “For one reason or another. Then, he’d be devastated. He’d have lost all that other stuff, but really, also, he’d lose one of his closest friends. Even though it’s been a while, I could tell you two didn’t miss a beat. You two were meant to be close.”
“Does he really love me?” I asked, feeling like a child.
“Bailey, that man is so in love with you—it’s kind of gross,” said Garrett. “He gets so sappy whenever he talks about you. I really didn’t think he was ever going to get over you.”
“There’s never been a day when I haven’t thought about him,” I said.
“You’ll probably want to make sure and tell him that,” he suggested. “That’s all he wants to hear, I’ll bet.”
I didn’t want to be rude to Garrett, but at that moment, all I wanted to do was leave, get back on a plane, and get to Darren before he had a chance to drive away.
“If you want to try asking him to move to Memphis again, now would be the time,” said Garrett. “If I were you, I’d consider a change, too.”
“Like Nashville?”
“Like Nashville,” he said. “Or New York. Or California. Shit, even moving to Atlanta would be a good move for you both.”
I beamed, thinking about the different places and ways Darren and I could live together. I was excited by the thoughts alone.
“Do you love him?” Garrett asked me while I was in my daze.
“I’ve loved Darren for years.”
Garrett chuckled, pouring more of the pitcher into my glass.
“Well, not like you were looking for it or anything, but you have my blessing,” said Garrett. “I’ve wanted to see you lovebirds become a couple for over a decade. Stop being such teases and give the people what they want!”