Page 176 of Seasons of Love
“Hi, I’m um…Milo Allen. You came to my place yesterday.”
He goes quiet while he listens to her. His Adam’s apple bobs up and down as he tries to remain calm.
I take my phone out, type out a note, and then show him the screen.
Suggest meeting at Bittersweet.
He looks at me and nods.
It’s so painful to watch him hurt, not knowing this woman’s intentions or if Florrie’s instinct is correct and she doesn’t know about Sara.
“Yes, okay…um, I’ll see you later.”
He ends the call and looks at me with red-rimmed eyes.
“She’s looking for Sienna. Oh my god, Ellis. How can I tell her the truth?”
“One step at a time, baby. Let’s meet her first and go from there.”
I place Sara in her high chair and pull Milo onto my lap.
“What I said yesterday…I’m here, Milo. And if you need to fight for Sara, I will be here. Always. Okay?”
He holds on tight, and we stay like that for a few minutes until we have to go.
We leave Sara with Florrie, agreeing that if Milo feels it’s the right thing to do, we’ll introduce her to Sienna’s mom.
We arrive at Bittersweet early, so I get us a drink while we wait. The sun shines like this summer will last forever. Only we know the storm that could be brewing.
I see the woman before Milo does. It must be her. Dressed like someone who comes from money and holding herself straight.
“Milo?”
He turns and stands.
“Hi, I’m Gloria Seymour. Thank you so much for agreeing to meet me.”
“Hi. This is…” He looks at me.
“I’m his boyfriend, Ellis. Would you like something to drink?” I ask.
She smiles. “I’d love an iced coffee, please. It’s such a warm day, isn’t it?”
I leave them to place the order with Julius. When I return, Gloria has sat down, but it doesn’t look like they’ve exchanged any words. One looks as unsure as the other.
“Milo, I’m so sorry to appear out of the blue like this. I’ve only recently found your details.”
Julius brings out Gloria’s drink. She takes a sip and then a deep breath.
“Sienna is my only child. We’ve always had a complicated relationship. I guess we are just too different, and I haven’t always understood her choices. One day, out of the blue, she tells me she wants to marry this boy she met in rehab, Mikey. I couldn’t agree with it. She was too young, and I hadn’t even met him. We had an argument and then compromised. Mikey would move in with us so I could get to know him, and then we’d talk about marriage at a later date.”
Milo reaches for my hand, and I hold it.
“It was clear Mikey needed help, but also that he cared for my daughter a lot. They lived with me for a year. Mikey found a job, and they were taking the right steps. I felt that, for the first time, Sienna and I were getting closer. On her twenty-second birthday, they both went out, and when they came home, it was clear they’d been drinking. Sienna knew this was a step back in recovery for both her and Mikey. We had an argument about it, and the next day when I got up, they’d left. I tried to track her phone and credit cards, put a search alert to the police, but nothing came back.”
The more Gloria tells her story, the more I feel Milo is upset and anxious. He seems to be holding it together, but I can tell he’s hanging on by a thread.
“The police told me to give up. Sienna is an adult, so she probably decided to move on with her life. I’ve been searching ever since. Some days I feel her presence near me, and others, I feel like I’m too late. It was Sienna’s birthday a week ago, and I finally gained enough courage to go into her room. I saw a note in Mikey’s handwriting. It said: step one, reach out to Milo. And there was an address. I went to the address yesterday, but the person in the house said you lived in a different place on the same street.”
