me to save money. Do you have a problem with that?”
“Actually, yeah, I do have a problem with that,” I shot back. “You shouldn’t be living in this rat hole.” As if on cue, a mouse ran across the corner of the room. Anna sighed and grabbed a mouse trap off the counter and placed it in the corner. “Seriously, this place is unsanitary. I can’t believe you still live here. Whatever happened to getting out of this place?”
She spun around and shot me a death glare. “You know exactly what happened. Don’t pretend like you don’t know what happened.”
“But after your mom passed-“
“You mean after she poisoned herself with alcohol?”
I sighed and shoved my hands in my pockets. When we were kids, everything was so easy. We had the same dreams and hopes for our lives. But making those plans play out were a completely different story, and a major part of that was my fault. Then she came back here and had to deal with her mother’s funeral. While she had nobody to support her, I had a family that loved me and wanted to see me succeed.
“You could have gotten a different job. You could have moved into the city or something.”
“Okay, first, do you know how many jobs there are around here? I waited years for the job your brother was offering to become available. Dick didn’t even need me at the gas station. He kept me on because he knew that there were no other jobs available. I don’t have a college education, and with what I was making, I couldn’t even afford night classes until the past few years. And you think moving to the city to look for a better job would have been an option?”
I ran a hand angrily through my hair. “Why didn’t you call me? I would have helped you. Did you really think that I went off to college and forgot about you?”
“Yes,” she snapped angrily. “I think that’s exactly what you did.”
“Well, you’re wrong. There hasn’t been a single fucking day that I haven’t thought about you.”
“Yet in thirteen years, you never once managed to pick up the phone and call me or see how I was doing. Yeah, that really sounds like you were thinking about me.”
I hung my head in shame. “I thought you hated me. I hated me. Anna, what happened…everything happened so fast. One minute you were here and the next you were gone. What was I supposed to do? Was I supposed to wait around for you to come back? You didn’t reach out to me either.”
“You know what? I don’t want to talk about this anymore. We have a job to do and then we’re done. You go back to your life and I’ll go back to mine.”
I sighed and set the food on the table in the living room. “If that’s what you want.”
“That’s what needs to happen, Robert. What happened between us was a long time ago. Neither of us needs to be reminded of what happened back then.”
I nodded, though I wasn’t sure I felt the same way. I knew we were different people. I knew that walking back into her life was ridiculous. But seeing her again and spending time with her, even if it was only a small amount of time, brought back some of the best memories of my life, and I found myself wondering if those feelings were still real, or just something I was hanging onto.
“So, I had everyone write down what they could provide for the wedding and asked them to fill out a form to meet at a later time. It looks like pretty much everything we could possibly need is covered.”
“If we decide to go with them. I’m not sure Kat would ever forgive me if we served chili at her wedding,” I said.
“I need to get in touch with Kat and see if she wants me to take over with all this or if she wants to be there for the meetings.” She sighed heavily as she looked at all the paperwork. “This is such a mess. I would never want all this fuss at my own wedding.”
“Really?” I asked curiously. “It’s not like they’re planning a big wedding.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I always pictured having a small wedding, something really intimate.”
“Did you picture that with me?” I asked. Man, I was asking for trouble. I never should have said that.