No One Else

Chapter 3

3

Elle

My head was still swimming through murky waters after our session with Lisa; I was glad she suggested us meeting without Jude. Expressing my true feelings to him was harder than she made it seem.

But I put my own hesitations and needs to the side. Jude spent his birthday alone, and that hurt me more than it should have. Having him leave early ended up serving two different purposes; it saved Lily from jail time as she would have surely tired to kill him, and it gave me a chance to call his mom.

The tips of my fingers lost all feeling as I scrolled through my contacts for her number. Surely he told her bits of what happened between us, but I had no idea where she stood on anything. I didn't expect her to take my side; he was her son. But given her history with Jude's dad, I also imagined he'd left out some details in discussing things with her.

The call rang and rang, and I had a moment of hoping her voicemail would click on and I wouldn't have to face her just then. But she answered, and her voice brought me back to the time we spent in Ireland at her home.

"Elle, dear, is everything alright?"

I coughed before speaking; my throat had become inexplicably dry. "H-hi, Janet. Everything's, everything's okay."

"Nothing has happened to my boy?" The panic was evident.

Shit. "Ah, no, no, he's fine. Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"Given the last conversation I had with him, I feared something had happened when I saw your name pop up."

"Well, I guess, um...I'm sorry. I'm being awkward right now." My eyes fell closed and my free thumb and forefinger found my temples.

"You've nothing to apologize for sweetheart. I'm happy to hear from you, especially knowing Jude's well-being is in tact. What's going on?"

It would have been impossible for her not to have heard the deep breath I took. "We saw each other last night. Things are...okay; we're working on them. Jude mentioned not having been able to see you since the holidays because of the play, and I was wondering if I could convince you to come to London for a belated birthday party for him. I, I'm not sure what his schedule is, but I think late June would give me enough time to pull everything together."

"Say no more, dear. I've been trying to give him his space. I'd asked him if he wanted to come stay up here with me for a bit, but he refused. I'd love to come see the both of you."

My chest sunk with relief. "That's perfect. I can look up the flights and send you over a ticket once I find one. Is that okay?"

"Oh, dear, don't worry about the flight. I can make that happen. Thank you for initiating this; we don't see each other nearly enough."

"I want him to be happy; seeing you will help with that." I also wanted to show him that despite everything that went down between us, his happiness was still central to me.

"I'll see you soon."

"Bye, Janet."

I spent the rest of the time between hanging up with Jude's mom and Lily coming home searching for the perfect place to have Jude's birthday dinner. Knowing Jude, he'd want something small and intimate; we were alike in that sense. I narrowed my search to a few restaurants and made appointments to chat with each of them later in the week. So long as they had a private room and good food, I'd be able to easily make a decision on which place would be best.

As I was copying down the address of one final restaurant, my ears picked up the sound of a key being shoved into our lock, and my eyes screwed shut in anticipation. Lily was in my bedroom in a matter of seconds, and I turned slowly from my desk to face her.