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I dragged Lexi to a phone booth, and by then I was panting up a stor his nu my own, it was cut off too I didn’t want to juto call Jaxon’sto ask about him," I told Lexi

"Why won’t you talk to her?" she retorted, and though she had a point, I couldn’t bring myself to talk to Lucinda at that time I was too h ive ry as hell that I’d walked out and didn’t ever want to see ain? She’d be hopeless information And hoould I explain myself to her? I’d have to reveal how evil I was to him, how badly I treated him – no way, she would hate hing in irritation, Lexi whipped the phone out of my hand and put it to her ear She looked atnu, she asked, "What should I ask her exactly? Why he left the apartment or…?"

"Yeah, and where he is, and his phone nu fast as hell when I heard the tiny, barely audible voice of Lucinda through the ear piece "Hi, I ondering if I could talk to Jaxon," said Lexi "I’one a little while and caht Do you knohere he is then? No, I didn’t know about that Do you know the name of the work place? Oh…" Her face fell and she looked at me with pressed lips as she listened "Would you happen to have his phone nuet a hold of hio Thank you very rabbed her hand and squeezed "Well?"

"She said he’s hed, looking away fro term one"

I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion "What? Where overseas?"

"She said he didn’t want to disclose that information to anyone, so she couldn’t say But that it was a really good job, and he’s expected to be gone for a long ti really vague, like she didn’t want to talk about it He doesn’t have a number either She said he just wants to focus on his work, but that he’s doing really well and he’s very happy, and that she’d let him know I called Then she asked for o" When she saw the look on"I’ive her a call too"

"She already told you everything I needed to know," I whispered, closing htly as possible, as if that could prevent the tears fro

Just like now, in the car, withreally well and he’s very happy That knowledge was akin to so it to shreds My leaving had given hiood job overseas soht thing to do after all It’d given his in life, and the fact I’d been so one just confirmed to me how toxic I’d been It must have hit hi and not have heardHe wouldn’t have had to get up, count to ten to calm his patience down, and then try to thaw the ice that was my personality God, he’d tried so hard in our relationship He deserved sotiee I’d also taken up a At one point I took an art class with Lexi, but I butchered that skill after three classes and never returned My therapist continued to press , but I was still at it years later Lexi and I were currently in cooking class, so our baking skills had dra inwas a kind of therapy too

I was lucky, or so Dr Shipton said I’d caughtof my inner beast was easier than it would have been had I let it sit there and sih Lucinda had given me that speech on independency, the only reason it’d sunk in so far was because of witnessing my mother’s hopeless relationship withfor herself, and even after he’d left, she’d depended onthat kind of dependency in a figure that was h life had iht possible

But she’s dead now She’s dead Dead The word still hadn’t sunk in My mother wasn’t alive any phone I’d have uilt because it wasn’t really h a text, letting her know ed She’d never called ers, and alere I knew nothing of the woman that died Never did either Memories rerip of yourself," I o back home" Back to the familiarity of Lexi and Daniel – that was my present bliss

I started the car and followed the directions of the GPS God, Daniel’s car was the sexiest thing I’d ever driven

What was supposed to be a three hour drive had taken ether and rode all the way into town When I saw the sign of Gosnells, I internally shuddered and then the nostalgia flooded in when I drove past a fa around the place The other fare suburban developns out front of every developing area, and one that said, "Maple Springs can be your future home Low interest rates, buy now!"