The Things We Couldn't Forget

Chapter 16.

I look out onto the street and search the faces of people as they walk by.

Is he out there?

Right now is he standing in the shadows looking back at me?

I know in my bones that Aries has nothing to do with this. I believe that. I saw it in his eyes as he looked up at me scared and hurt and professed he didn't do anything.

I have a lot of bad blood between the two of us but one thing I could always stand firmly on was that Aries and I never lied to each other. Even when the truth hurt so much more than a simple brushing under the rug would have.

But....

I'd also once believed he would always be there for me. I believed all of the other things we whispered in the dark to me. I believe when he said he'd never leave.

But he had.

So maybe....

No.

I don't let my mind go there.

But....

The police and the FBI are working on these cases and Gillians had told me they were being careful because whoever was doing this would be watching. Did they already have suspicions towards Aries?

He was in handcuffs.

Dammit.

But so was I.

They'd wrongly tried to connect me to Linn Pierce's body. They'd brought me in with my hands shackled just the same. This doesn't have to mean anything.

"What can I get ya?"

I jump as a young girl with curly hair and a pad in her hands stops at my booth.

"I'm sorry." I say, placing a hand to my chest. "You startled me."

"Apologies," she says in a chipper voice. "It's so easy to spook people these days." She purses here lips around a tiny frown. "Can I place an order for you?" She asks, tacking the bright smile back into place while her free hand plays with a gold locket around her neck.

"I'm sorry." I tell her again. "I actually...I don't have any money and my...well." I don't know what else to say. I'd only even come in here to get out of the cold for a few minutes. Not to drop all of my problems on an unsuspecting teenage girl. "Do you have a phone I could use?" I ask instead.

She pauses, shifting her weight from one leg to the other. "Oh, uh, let me go get the manager to check, ok?" She tries to smile again but I can tell it's uncomfortable now.

She walks away quickly, stepping behind the counter to talk to a big burly man with a hairnet wrapped around his enormous beard.

They whisper back and forth for a second before the man waves a hand calling me over.

I step between stools at the counter and offer him a small smile. "I'm sorry." I say again, my word vomit just turning me into an apologetic dunce. "My phone is dead and I don't have a car. I just need to call someone for a ride home."

"Can't you Uber?" The man ask, narrowing his eyes.

"I would, but like I said my phone is dead." I say and he nods. I know he's about to offer to pull up the Uber app himself but I stop him. "I also don't have any money on me, so I'd I could just borrow a phone?"

He cuts his eyes over to the young waitress and she shrugs a little before going back out to check on other tables where people will be actually ordering food and leaving tips.