On The Run: Part Two

Chapter Twenty - "Side Effects"

“You and Sarah, you could have something great. Hold on to that.”

Here was me, holding on.

The big picture – Fitch was utterly selfless.

“I know you’re lying, but thank you,” she said, sneaking a piece of sausage off my plate. As she turned to her phone, I took in her outfit; she didn’t look dressed for work at all in her tracksuit and high ponytail, but rather, like she was going to or coming from the gym.

“You’re not going to work?”

She shrugged, and replied nonchalantly, “I have other stuff to do today.”

I had a feeling it had something to do with me; my crying spell on the bathroom floor. God, who was I? I certainly wasn’t this girl.

I resisted the urge to ask whether she might be seeing Fitch at some point, although I wasn’t sure what I could do if she was. It wasn’t like I could tag along – I was probably off the visitor list, and I wasn’t sure what seeing him would do for us. Would it fix things? Would I hurt less? Would he even speak to me? Would I—

Sarah cut into my thoughts. “So, what do you want to do today?” she asked.

That was a hell of a question. All my days were spent absorbed in this other person; what was I supposed to do when he was no longer around?

“I’m not sure,” I murmured.

“Well, what do you like to do?” she asked.

I shrugged, “Um . . . I like to read.”

She nodded, “Okay. That’s something that can be fixed right away,” she said, walking over to the wall directly across from the kitchen doorway. She grabbed a handle I’d never noticed before, and pulled it, so that it slid across the glass wall, to reveal a mass of books that ran from the top to the bottom of the wall. “Voila!”

My mouth fell open.

There had to be about a thousand books there. Maybe five thousand! I got off my stool and practically glided over to the shelf; I could physically feel my eyes shining.

“Oh, wow,” I breathed.

Wow was right! Everything was there. Name a title, it was there – well, a respectable title, of course.

“It was either the view or the books. One had to go,” she said, “And if that’s not enough . . .” she trailed off, picking an iPad off the table and handing it to me, “you can always go digital.”

She handed it to me; “I figured you’d get bored of me at some point, so there you go.”

“It’s mine?”

“Yeah. Do with it as you please. You can buy all the books you want. I got the guys at the genius bar to sort it all out, and you have a thousand dollar gift card; I don’t know how much books are these days. If you run out, it’s connected to my account, and the password is saved in your notes.”

I stared dumbfounded at her, “I couldn’t,” I said.

“I knew you’d say that, but don’t think of it as a gift or charity; think of it as an investment in your intellect.”

I smiled, “That’s lawyer talk.”

She grinned, “I am a lawyer, after all.”

“That is a lot,” I murmured, already admiring the sleek screen.

“I just want you to be happy, Chloe, and I know everything’s a little complicated for you right now, but I just . . . I thought maybe if you felt a little better, you might . . .” she sighed, trailing off.