FLAWLESS - J. MAYBANK

xxi. letters

Her face was puffy and red from crying. 'What are you doing here?'

'I need to talk to your dad. And you,' he added, holding out Maelynn's letter. 'How are you holding up?'

She looked down and took it from his outstretched hand. 'Can I swear?'

'Go for it.'

'It fucking sucks. I miss everyone so much.'

JJ moved forward and pulled her into a hug. 'I'm really sorry. It can't be easy to lose two family members in a week.'

She wrapped her arms around him and tucked her face into his chest. 'It's not. I'm sorry you had to lose Maelynn, though. I know you guys loved each other a lot.'

'Yeah. Wheezie, did you know we got married?'

'What?!'

'We used our fake ID's and got married the day before the accident,' he said with a chuckle. 'And then we rescued a kitten, and Mae named her Cassiopeia.'

'That was her favorite constellation,' Wheezie murmured sadly. 'What does she look like?'

'She's a tiny little scrap of a thing, with little white spots around her eyes and mouth, and everything else black.'

'Can I meet her sometime?'

'Of course you can.'

'Who's at the door...' Rose came down the stairs and trailed off when she saw JJ hugging Wheezie. 'What are you doing?'

Wheezie backed up and held the letter out for Rose. 'Maelynn wrote this for JJ before she died. I think she had some funeral-related requests in it.'

Rose snatched the letter from her stepdaughter and scanned over it. Tears pooled in her eyes and she chuckled a few times. By the time she reached the end of it, her makeup had begun to smudge under her eyes. 'Alright. JJ, come inside.'

'Yes, ma'am,' he replied, scraping his boots off on the mat and following her into the sitting area. She handed him his letter back and gestured to the couches.

'Have a seat. I'll bring some water and get Ward.'

He sat on the end of one of the couches, with Wheezie sitting on the other end. They sat in silence for a few seconds before he leaned over. 'Do you want to see the ring she got me?'

'Of course!'

He smiled and pulled it off, handing it over to her. 'She even got a message engraved in it.'

Wheezie smiled and turned it over in her hands. 'It's so pretty. You can totally tell Maelynn chose it.'

'The ring I got for her had little diamonds shaped like a flower on it,' he explained. 'It was gold, too, but I didn't even think to have it engraved. I wish I did.'

'I'm sure she loved it all the same. You could've given her a rock and she would've been ecstatic.'

'Yeah. Oh, I bet I have a picture of Cassie...'

Wheezie leaned over as he pulled out his phone. He didn't even have to unlock it; his background remained as the picture of Maelynn and Cassie he had taken the last night she was alive.

'She's adorable. And M looks so happy.'

'She was,' JJ remembered fondly. 'She tried to pose, but it looked so ridiculous that she just started laughing.'

'Can you send that picture to me? I want to print it out and put it on my wall,' Wheezie said. 'I have this picture wall, and she's already on it a few times, but this picture is too good not to include.'