Delayed (27 page)

Mimi shrugged. “What happened that day? You ran out without a reason. Then Nick acted like the two of you hadn’t even talked.”
 

“We decided there was no friendship to salvage,” Olivia said. “Well your brother did, before I got the chance to clear things up with him. I let it go. He seemed happy with his new girlfriend.”
 

“You two should get trophies for the best dramatic goodbyes. Why didn’t he want to be friends?”
 

Olivia shrugged. “He said he didn’t need me in his life anymore. That he had Joy now.” The words still stung, because she still needed him. And he let her walk out, crying, without looking back.
 

“What do you have to show me?” Mimi asked, abruptly changing the subject.
 

Olivia turned her phone on and scrolled through her pictures. She’d been planning it as a gift to Nick, but his sister would have to take it, since she never got the chance to give it to him. She held the phone out.
 

“I was going to show you, the day of your mom’s memorial, but I didn’t get the chance. It’s a plaque with a quote that I remember Nick telling me she liked. It has her name on it but no birth or death date. It’s a place called the Immortal Garden a few miles out of Glensford. They let people commission pieces to display there.” Her voice trailed off as she saw Mimi scan the picture.
 

Esperanza Rivero

All that is lost in love is never truly lost.
 

 
“You had this made for her?” Mimi asked.
 

Olivia nodded. “I didn’t know who the quote was by, so I just left it like that. I hope you don’t mind. It’ll give you a place to visit, if you’re ever away from the beach house. I hope I didn’t over step a line…”
 

“She came up with it,” Mimi said, cutting Olivia off. Her eyes were still on the picture. “She used to say to us all the time. How did you know about it? Nick never mentioned it to anyone.”
 

“He told me, the first day we met,” Olivia said. “On the plane ride over here from Shepton. I’m surprised I remembered.”
 

“The day your flight got delayed…” Mimi began.

Olivia gave the hint of a smile. She could admit it now. “My flight didn’t get delayed that day. I skipped it.”
 

“Why?” Mimi asked.
 

She shrugged. “Curiosity, a guilty conscience. Maybe both.” She hadn’t really known, but that day she knew she had to stay behind. Staring at the crying little boy next to her, despite everything, she knew she couldn’t leave. The second flight being delayed, that had been a coincidence. The first time though, that had been a risk, a choice too, one that she never regretted.
 

“Thank you,” Mimi finished. “My dad never wanted to put up anything. He thinks it might not let her move on.” She gave Olivia the phone back.
 

“If you stayed behind for Nick that day, does that mean you liked him since then?”
 

Olivia shook her head, unsure of the answer. “I didn’t want to leave him crying. I knew how that felt, to have no one there when you were at your worst. I would have done it for anyone at that point. He just happened to be that someone.”
 

Mimi shook her head. “Then why would you date your ex-boyfriend again? If you liked my brother…”
 

“Simon?” Olivia asked. “I never dated him again. We worked together on a play for six months last year, but that was the last time we spoke. Did Nick think…” It didn’t matter what Nick had thought or hadn’t. He was dating someone else now and she had to respect that.
 

“Why don’t you tell Nick?” Mimi asked. “Clear things up with him.”
 

“It’s too late for that,” Olivia said. “I didn’t come here to talk about Nick. I just wanted to show you that you have a place to visit in your mom’s honor if you wanted to, and to say goodbye. I know we haven’t talked much, but I want you to know that if you ever need anything or if you’re ever in London, you can call me up. I’ll be there.”
 

Mimi bit her lip. “I wish you had said that a long time ago. I could of used you when…”
 

“When what?” Olivia asked.
 

Mimi shook her head, letting the sadness dispel from her face. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not going to ruin the moment. I won’t talk about Nick if you don’t want to either. He has his girlfriend now, and he never even calls anymore.”
 

“People change,” Olivia said, realizing she was trying too hard to sound like a wise leader.
 

“People don’t’ change, they just get tired of keeping up a pretense,” Mimi said. Her eyes darted to a thought, and Olivia realized she wasn’t talking about just her brother. “Have a safe trip. Don’t get too famous and remember the little people.”
 

Olivia smiled. “I’ll try. I really will.” She stood up and wrapped Mimi in a hug. Her mom would be waiting for her soon.
 

“Whenever I have two grand leftover, I’ll try visiting,” Mimi said. She kept her head against Olivia’s shoulder. It was the longest embrace the two of them had shared. “Thank you again, for the plaque. You don’t know what it means to me.”
 

“There’s no need to thank me,” Olivia said. She let Mimi squeeze her in silence, before they said a final goodbye.
 

The path back to the main campus felt lighter. She wished she could say goodbye to Nick, but she knew that wasn’t an option anymore.
 

She went over the list in her head. She’d have to pack, and say her goodbye to Isabel. Her dad was going to have lunch with them tomorrow.
 

Olivia tripped as she let her thoughts carry her away. The keychain rattled in her pocket. She planned on bringing it with her to London, for luck of course, and maybe for the memory of it. This was her final goodbye, not just to Mimi or Isabel, but also to Glensford as a whole. She’d return someday, but without Nick, it’d never quite be the same.
 

31

July 8, 2014

The words haunted him like nothing had ever haunted him before.
 

 
I don’t need you in my life.
He’d said the last thing he could ever mean. They followed him even now, as Nick made the first step toward a new phase in his life.
 

He had quit his job at the mayor’s office in Shepton. It happened two weeks back. Joy had begun a rant about how everyone in the office was surprised she wasn’t engaged yet. She held out her ring finger in the air.
 

“If you want me to be with you Nick, you’re going to have to show me you’re serious about our relationship. I can’t be with someone who takes things this casually. We’ve been together for two years.”
 

He sighed at that. “We’ve been going on dates for a year and a half, and we’ve been in a relationship for less than three months. What other step is there, right now?”
 

That made Joy crack. She dropped the file of folders she had been carrying to the mayor’s office and held her hands on her hips. It took Nick a moment to look up from his work, but when he did her blue eyes were bent on digging two holes into his skull.
 

“You should be making plans to propose to me.”
 

“What?” he almost spat out his coffee. “What gave you the idea I’m going to propose to you?”
 

Joy crossed her arms. “I gave up seeing those other guys so that I could be with you. You should be willing to make a similar sacrifice.”
 

“I’m not going to marry you,” he said. “I don’t want to be with someone who says that getting engaged is a sacrifice.”
 

People in the office began to gather around, watching the fight play out. He knew he wouldn’t let it go on.
 

“Are you saying you’re never going to propose to me? Did you even want to be with me?”
 

Nick paused, taking in the question. “No. You were just the only person I knew in town.” The words were harsh, but they were the truth. And he was tired of not being able to make the truth known.
 

Joy ran out of the office at that point, a few of her coworkers went to comfort her. Nick stayed behind and finished the files he had been sorting through. Then at the end of the day he went into the mayor’s office and turned in his letter of resignation. For the first time in two years he had finally felt free.
 

“You quit your job? Just like that? And you broke up with your girlfriend… the one you shoved in Olivia’s face.” Mimi reacted to the story in a different manner that Nick had expected. She was the first person he had called over to pick him up from the airport. Their dad hadn’t found out he was back into town until later that day. He was moving his things into the beach house for a few weeks, until he could find a better situation. His sister had offered to help.
 

“I didn’t shove Joy in Olivia’s face. And this has nothing to do with Olivia. I’m telling you that I finally quit the job that has been making me miserable for the last two years and that’s all you can say.”
 

“I didn’t know it was making you miserable,” Mimi said. “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend until a few months ago, and I didn’t know you were such an idiot. Did you even like Joy?”
 

“She was the only friend I had in Shepton,” he said, trying to make up an excuse. “And I didn’t tell you those things because I didn’t want to worry you. Did you just call me an idiot?”
 

Mimi groaned. “How difficult is it to communicate with other people, Nick? You should say what’s on your mind. I’m your sister, not some person that’s going to judge you for anything. Besides, I have a right to worry about you. And you’re an idiot for a lot of reasons, but right now, you’re one for everything you put Olivia through.”
 

“What are you talking about?” he asked.
 

“The day of mom’s memorial, do you have any idea why she went to the beach house?”

He nodded. “She was trying to restart our friendship. I told her I didn’t want to.”
 

“Idiot,” Mimi said again. “She went to tell you she had feelings for you.”
 

Nick set the box he had been unpacking down on the counter. “What?”
 

“She went to confess her feelings for you. Amor. Love.” Mimi was starting to sound like their Abuela.
 

“You’re just trying to make me feel guilty,” he said, thinking back to the day he had let Olivia walk out crying, without so much as a word of protest.
 

“You know me, Nick. Do I waste my time making things like this up?”
 

Nick scanned his sister. She stood straight, arms crossed, her dark eyebrows raised.
 

“No. But why didn’t she say anything? Besides like I told you before, she’s dating Simon… I saw them.”

His sister shook her head. “They weren’t dating. They were working on a play together. That was all. And she didn’t tell you anything because you didn’t give her the chance to. You brought your girlfriend on one arm and your contempt for Olivia on the other. What was she supposed to do?”
 

Nick felt himself stagger back. He leaned against the wall, not able to hold himself up right.
 

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
 

“It’s not my job to send messages back and forth between the two of you. You’re adults. You should be able to talk like adults.”
 

“What do I do?” he found himself asking his little sister. “I can’t take a train out to New York. Or can I?” He needed to see her. He needed to tell Olivia that he was sorry. It wasn’t too late for them. Even if all she wanted was friendship, he’d accept.
 

Mimi rolled her eyes, twice, for emphasis on what she thought of him. “She’s not in New York. She’s leaving for London today.”
 

His heart began to beat, faster than it had before. “What? London, why?”

His sister tilted her head. “She’s moving for work. I don’t think she’s coming back either. You don’t even have a passport to go after her. Yours expired like two years ago.”
 

Nick hated that his sister was right. He began to stare into the distance, trying to think of a solution. “What do I do?” he asked again. “How do you know she leaves today?”
 

Mimi shrugged. “She came to say goodbye a few days ago. And we’re friends on Facebook. She was packing this morning, and left a message saying goodbye to all her friends in Glensford.”
 

“What time does her flight leave?” Nick asked, feeling somewhat hopeful.
 

His sister shrugged again. “I don’t know. It might have already left.”
 

He picked up his wallet from the counter. There had to be a way to find out. “Call me if you hear anything,” he said.
 

“Where are you going?” Mimi asked.
 

“To find Olivia. I can’t let her leave without telling her that I still feel the same way about her.”
 

Nick picked up his sister’s keys and headed out the door. “I’m borrowing your car.”
 

He heard her groan. “Whatever. Seriously. So dramatic.”
 

He ignored the comment and ran out the door. It was rush hour in Glensford. Piles of cars were packed together, waiting for a single light to change. Nick tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. What had he done? He had let the one girl he’d ever loved that much, walk out of his life. He had been angry with her, for doing the same thing to him that he had done to her.
 

The light turned green. He sped up to a few more miles per hour, but the progress was minimal. He could call her. He reached for his phone, only to realize he had deleted her as a contact a long time ago. But the number was engraved in his mind. He dialed it. There was no answer, only her voicemail. Even then, hearing her voice, it made him want to get out of the car and run to the airport.