Coffee with Stacy

Chapter Thirty-Four: The End

On the way to Benjamin's house, both Charlie and Stacy called and texted his phone. He wasn't answering. Keke's car screeched into his empty driveway.

"Maybe he parked out back," said Charlie, "I'll check." The three friends ran out of the cruiser in different directions. Keke circled around to check the windows. Stacy felt a sinking feeling in her gut. She walked up to the home and used her key to open the door. The room looked bare. The only evidence that the living room had been lived in was a pile of objects on the table. Please don't let those be what I think they are. Arranged neatly were three items: Benjamin's phone, still buzzing from Charlie's messages; his laptop, looking like an abandoned child; and a neat stack of paper. She leaned forward to read the text on the front page. Coffee with Stacy. She picked up the papers and flipped through them. Benjamin's new manuscript was about her, about them. A shudder of pain snapped through her lungs. She sat down and turned to the last page.

"As the two lovers danced under the stars, Benjamin felt as he never had before: blissful. Stacy. Beautiful, awe-inspiring, perfect Stacy was in his arms and that was the only thing that mattered in the world. Her. The street fair that he had organized bustled around them, but she only looked at him with those dazzling sapphire blue eyes. The words that he'd harbored in his heart so long were snatched out by her grace, into the air for the world to hear.

I love you.

* * *

"I don't know what to do. She's been like this for an hour." Stacy heard the words clearly, but couldn't put together their meaning. Curled up on the floor, she clung to the manuscript that had broken her and stared at the empty wall where her painting had once hung.

"Maybe we should call for a doctor," she heard Charlie say. Stacy shifted and sat up.

"I just need to go home," she said quietly. The two nodded and escorted her to Keke's car. On the way to her home, Stacy stared at the raindrops racing each other down the window. Her own tears fell faster.