Chapter 33: Farewell For Now

Farewell For Now


“Got everything?” I asked Tom, looking around the cleaned sun room in wonder. It had gotten progressively messier since he had arrived, and today we had taken the time to clean it for my mother, who was at work, of course. They – my parents – had said good bye to Tom earlier in the morning. On the way back from dropping him off, I was supposed to pick up an order of flowers for my parents.

“I think so.”

“Want to start loading shit into the truck?” I asked him. I bent over and grabbed two of his suitcases, rolling them along behind me towards the front door. I heard him grab the others and follow me. It would be so weird without him around. I was so much happier now that I had spoken to Roger. It almost seemed unfair – I couldn’t be happy when Tom was around or something.

“I have the other bag left inside.” Tom said, weaving his way through my dogs to grab his final bag.

“Make sure you shut the door!” I yelled to him as he walked out with his carryon. The door shut with a click, and we got into the truck.

“Any warnings about Megan?” He asked. I placed the key into the ignition and turned it, starting my truck. I shut the air conditioning off so it wouldn’t blast warm air at us for the few minutes it took to cool down.

“I don’t think so. She can get bitchy sometimes. I hope I wasn’t too bitchy through all of that.”

“Nah, you were great, and so is your family.”

“Thanks.” I put my arm behind the seat and backed down the driveway.

We rode mostly in silence. It was a surprisingly warm day, considering we had bad weather a few days that week. But the sun was shining, and although it was humid, it was weatherable, so to speak.

Megan didn’t live very far away from me, and despite a small interlude into the depths of local traffic, we arrived in maybe ten, fifteen minutes. I shut the truck off and climbed out. There was no point in wasting time, you know?

“Go ring the doorbell.” I suggested. “I’ll start unloading your bags.”

Tom wandered off to the front of Megan’s house to find the door bell, and I lifted all of the bags out of the back of my truck and placed them gently on the ground. They weren’t really all that heavy. If I had been going to a different country for more than two weeks, I probably would have brought more stuff than he had.

I rolled two of the bags to the front porch and set them down. Tom maneuvered around me to get the rest of his bags before I could do it. He had something wrong with a female lifting things. Apparently, we tended to hurt ourselves. Who knew?

“Storm, hey.” Megan stood at the front door, eyeing the bags. She opened the door.

“Where do you want his stuff?” I asked her, lifting the two bags up the small flight of stairs to reach her door.

“Just in the living room. For now, at least. We’ll move them when we clear out a space for him upstairs.”

“At least I don’t have to carry them up that devil flight of stairs.” I said, motioning to her set of very steep stairs. I had nearly fallen and broken my neck several times. Almost every time I went to her house, actually.

“Yeah. That’s his job.”

“That’s it.” Tom said, barely breathing hard as he set the two suitcases on the front porch. I pointed inside.

“Living room.”

“Oh, a’ight.” He said, lifting them over the door’s threshold and into the house. He reappeared moments later.

“Now that’s all.” He said. Before it could become awkward, he walked outside to where I was standing and enveloped me in a scrawny-guy hug. I hugged him back, and tried to fight back a blush as I stood there. I hated getting hugs. But I let it go.

“Okay, I’ll be seeing you online, probably in a few minutes.” I said. “Bye Megan, bye Tom!” I turned around and walked towards my truck as they echoed their good-byes back to me.

I got in, and turned the truck on, sitting back in the seat for a moment. Freedom at last. And silence. And no guy scent hounding me. And I could walk around the house naked again! And my boyfriend wouldn’t be a bastard. Yay.