Page 2 of Trashed to Treasured
There wasn’t anything.
It was just…water. I spit it out, right in Jesse’s face. “What’s this shit? I didn’t want actual water. I want my water. My special water.” I looked for the discarded bottle and pointed. “You were supposed to bring more vodka.”
He blew out a deep breath. “No more drinking, Brody. You’ve had a few days to sulk. Now we start to get over him.”
I pursed my lips, hoping he’d find my drunken whining cute and not pathetic. “One more day. Then I’ll start picking up the pieces.”
He spread his arms, gesturing to the random boxes and bags strewn about. “Are these the pieces you’re talking about?”
Ugh. If he was gonna make me do this, it was better to just get on with it. Then he’d leave and I could order a grocery delivery with a few more bottles and some electrolytes for Monday morning. “Yes. If you must know, I’m purging Geo from my life. Completely. All this shit needs to go. All the stuff I bought for him. All the promises he made and broke.”
A fresh pool of tears coated my eyes, and I pinched the bridge of my nose, hoping to hold back the waterworks I thought had dried up. Damn Jesse and his insistence on hydrating me.
“Honey.” He sat beside me and wrapped his arm around my back, holding me against his side. “I’m so sorry. I wish I could help make it better, but you might have to hurt a little bit before you feel okay again. But you will feel better some day. I promise.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” I huffed out a breath and then pushed up to a wobbly stand. “But there is one thing you can do for me.”
“Anything.” He stood up too, bracing me with one hand on my shoulder so I didn’t tip over. “What do you need?”
Trying not to slur or stumble, I straightened my back and waved at all the stuff I’d collected. “I need you to help me get rid of everything that reminds me of him. I need a clean slate, and I can’t have that with all the memories.”
Jesse whistled low. “That’s a lot of stuff. Maybe we should have a garage sale.” He reached into a box and pulled out my snowboarding jacket. “This looks brand-new. You can’t just toss it.”
I reached for the jacket and threw it back into the box. “It is brand-new because I bought it last month when Geo said he wanted to take me to the mountains. Now, I just want it all gone. Everything that was his, was for him, or makes me think of him.”
“So, everything?” He picked up a backpack and began to unzip it before I stopped him.
I flailed my arm in his direction. “No, don’t look in there. Just get rid of it.”
I could see so many questions in his eyes and so much apprehension. “Are you sure? I can just put this in the garage for now, and if you want it in a few months, it’ll be waiting.”
“I’m sure.” I grabbed his hand and held it close to my chest, begging him to understand how badly I needed this. “Please do this for me, Jess. I need him gone for good. I can’t keep holding on to these memories that just make me miss something I never even had.”
He nodded and pulled me into a hug. “If you’re totally sure, I’ll do it. But if you decide tomorrow that you want it all back, you have to promise not to be mad at me.”
“I promise.” I needed this fresh start more than I needed vodka. Okay, I needed another bottle to get through the weekend, but after that, it was totally fresh-start time. “I give you full indemnity. If you really think I need to move on, then I need all this stuff gone. Otherwise, you can pass me that bag of burritos and leave me to my wallowing.”
He huffed and reached for the bag he brought. “Okay, everything that’s boxed up?”
I snatched the bag from his hand, suddenly famished. Then I realized I hadn’t eaten in a day or two. Maybe three. “Yup, take it all.” Then my gaze landed on the backpack. So many of my hopes and dreams were stored in there, waiting to be shared with the man I thought loved me. What a joke. “And the backpack. Don’t look inside…but get rid of it.”
2
AARON
“I’ll take a dozen glazed and…” I glanced in the display case and tried to decide what else to bring back to the shop. “Um, can you just pick an assortment of twelve others? Whatever you like is fine.”
The woman behind the case nodded. “Of course, dear. I’ll make sure to give you all my favorites.”
The guys at my shop were working on inventory, and we all had a long and tedious day ahead of us. “These should keep us going for at least a few hours.”
She rang me up and then handed me a chocolate old-fashioned donut. “For the ride back.”
“You’re an angel.” I ate half the donut in one bite as I headed to my truck.
To my surprise, there was a car parked right next to mine and a young guy leaning up against it, looking at his phone. It wasn’t until I was right up next to him that I realized who it was. “Jesse?” I held out my hand to shake his, but I was still holding the donut. I popped it into my mouth and wiped my hand on my jeans. “What are you doing here?”
“Hey, Aaron.” He shook my hand and was polite enough not to mention any stickiness he might have felt. “I thought this was your truck.”
