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Sarah fumbled with her keys, opening her apartment door and half expecting a cloud of dust to greet her. She stopped just inside the doorway to take it all in. Seeing her apartment again after all this time was . . . strange.
The long drive home didn't seem so different from the loop. Even parting ways with Nyles felt familiar. After all, the last several . . . months? Years? She had spent without him, doing her research. Though, it was a bit of a shock to learn he lived over 45 minutes away from her. She hadn't even considered that hiccup.
Sarah eyed her couch, but couldn't help but remember the last time she was here. Her heart picked a beat, remembering the desperation and coffee filled hysteria. Remembering waking up in Abe's bed.
She strode forward, turning into her kitchen and checking the fridge. That's what people with fridges do, right? There was a bunch of half eaten taco supplies, haphazardly stacked. The tomatoes were a little wrinkly, but otherwise fine. She really needed to be less lazy about cutting those things up.
Sarah straightened. She couldn't shake the feeling that this food was waaaaaay spoiled. Fuck it, she didn't feel like tacos anyway.
A shrill ringing sounded behind her and she jumped, spinning around. But the sound was still behind her, so she spun around again before realizing the sound was coming from her phone in the back pocket of her pants.
“Jesus!” she answered the phone, belatedly hoping she wasn't swearing at her mom, or her sister, or anyone in her family really. They were just starting to get along.
“Sarah!” It was Nyles, thank god. Also, could that man really not live an hour without her? She was smiling again, she could feel the weird pull in the muscles on her cheeks. “Sarah, are you there?”
“Yes, yes, I'm here. What is it? Can't remember where you live?” she asked. It was already out of her mouth before she realized Nyles was panting, gasping like he'd just run a mile. “Are you okay?”
“I – what? Yeah, yeah – I'm fine. Totally fine, I just . . .”
“What is the matter with you?”
“I can die!” He shouted, panicked. “I can die, and I can be permanently injured or . . . or disfigured.” He sucked a huge gulp of air. “And I'm just sitting here in my car looking at oncoming traffic like, hey, if I just swerve over there into a nice un-seatbelted head on collision I could beat the traffic home. Home! Like I fucking live at that damn wedding cottage!”
“Nyles! Nyles!” Sarah ran a hand through her hair. Jesus, he was in there a long time. Longer than her. A lot longer. “Nyles, listen to me.” She said in her sternest, do-not-fuck-with-me voice.
“What?” He shouted.
“Pull the car over.”
He paused. “I am pulled over. I couldn't . . . I couldn't keep driving.”
She nodded. “Right, good. Get out of the car.” She heard shuffling coming from the other side of the line, and then the sound of the car door closing. “Good. Now walk away from the car.” She heard him sniffling a bit, but he didn't seem to be hyperventilating anymore. “Are you out in the grass?”
“Well, I'm entering some trees now.” He paused, taking deep but quick breaths. “God, I'm such an idiot.” He said softly, almost as if he didn't want her to hear.
“Nyles, you are an idiot, but you're my idiot, and I'm coming to get you.” She was already back at her front door and wondering where on earth she had put her keys.
“What? Sarah, no. I'm fine. I'm . . . I'm embarrassed, but perfectly capable of driving. Also, you can't drive your car and my car at the same time. I don't know why I even called.”
“Nyles – fuck I don't know your last name. I'm gonna need that for chastising purposes.”
“Sarah!” Nyles interjected.
“No, I need it. I can't properly mock you without it. Also, how am I going to address your mom without a last name? And I'm already in my car so why don't you just tell me where you are, so I can get going?” She could just hear him smiling through the phone.
“I'll send you a pin.” Yeah, that was definitely his smiling voice.
“Good. I'm putting you on speaker phone, so I can badly sing radio songs to you while you wait for me. I'm thinking county.”
Nyles laughed. It was a bit soft, a bit sad, but she would take it. “Oh, is that so? I had my heart set on rap.”
She snorted, “Fat chance!”
Her phone dinged, and she started up her car.
Well, her life certainly wasn't mundane.