Page 140 of Eleanor & Grey
It was what she thought.
Eleanor walked up, combing her hair behind her ears. She looked at me with a frown and then lightly knocked on Karla’s door.
“Karla? It’s me, Eleanor.”
“Go away, whore!” she barked.
I parted my lips to discipline Karla’s words, but Eleanor held up her hand, stopping me in my tracks.
She went back to speaking. “Karla, I know what you’re thinking, but—”
“You’re a liar! All you do is lie! You said you really cared about me, but you were just trying to get to my dad. You don’t care about me or Lorelai at all.”
“That’s not true.” Eleanor sighed.
The door swung open, and Karla’s face was covered in rolling tears. She crossed her arms and huffed heavily. “Look me in the eyes, then. If you’re not a liar, look me in the eyes andtell me that you two haven’t hooked up at all since you started working here.”
Both of our mouths opened, and Karla began shaking more as she pushed her door closed. “Just go away! I hate you both. I hate you. I hate you...”
We both stopped trying to push her door open, because we were guilty. Me more so than Eleanor.
I’d fucked up.
“Maybe you should go for a little bit,” I told Eleanor, unable to look at her, but I could already imagine the hurt that was in her eyes. “We should just give her time to cool off.”
“If it’s OK, I’d like to wait in the guesthouse for a few hours—just to see if I can talk to her later and explain.”
“Yes, of course.”
Eleanor nodded slowly and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder, but I still couldn’t turn to see her. “Come get me if you need anything, Grey,” she whispered before walking away.
I laid my hands against the door as my forehead fell against it, and I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry, Karla,” I softly spoke. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry...”
Deep breaths.
Erratic heartbeats.
I’m sorry.
53Greyson
“She’s gone,” I breathed out after pounding my fist against the guesthouse front door. Eleanor stood there with a look of concern. My mind was spinning, and I hadn’t any tools to slow down the speed at which my thoughts were shooting through my mind. “I just went to check on her, to see if she was ready to talk, and she was gone.”
Eleanor’s eyes widened with worry, which only made me more scared. Her hand landed on my forearm and she released a breath. “OK, OK. Don’t worry, we’ll find her. So where would she go? We can go looking for her. What are some of her favorite places?” I asked.
“I don’t know, I don’t know where she would go. She was so upset, she could be anywhere,” I said, pacing back and forth, racing my hands through my hair. “This is all my fault. I did this. I made her run away,” I muttered, falling apart second by second.
I needed Eleanor, because I couldn’t stop myself from going wild. My thoughts were running away from me, and each one that came felt worse than the one before it. I needed her to give me some reassurance that everything would be OK.
She stepped back and narrowed her eyes. “OK, so where would I go if I felt betrayed... Where would I go if I felt lost? Where would I go? What would I do? Who would I run...” She paused and realization hit her brow. “My mom. I’d go to my mom. That’s probably what she’d do. She’d go to her mother.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, pausing to raise an eyebrow.
“When I’m lost and confused and at my lowest, I always go to Laurie Lake, because that’s where my mom is in my heart. That’s where I’d go. I’d go to my mom.”
The pieces clicked in my mind. “The cemetery,” I spat out. “Can you watch Lorelai?”
“Of course. Go. Call me if you need anything.”
