Chapter One (The Empty List)
i'm a little nervous to post this bc its my first ever story but i know that it will reach the people it needs to lol! enjoy :D
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“I don't love you anymore.” He told her after four dedicated months of, "I'll never leave you.” and, “You are perfect for me.” This has happened before, three years of this cycle however, this time it felt real.
“Ok.” She responded, reminding her heart to continue beating. She looked at her phone screen waiting for his next message.
“You up for calling tomorrow though?” Eyes wide, she found herself typing out the word yes, before she deleted it immediately. Shaking her head. Her hands shook as she clicked out of their messages and called her best friend.
“What? Honestly Althea, did we not expect this? Everyone told you! You should have seen it coming.”
She didn't need to hear this. She stared at the messages with him waiting for the text bubbles that would not come. “He made me so sad, Chloe. He made me so sad.”
“Its not your fault. Your heart is doing all of this, you can't control it.”
It was her fault, and it took everything in her not to scream that at her friend. She knew he would leave. No matter how kind she was, how hard she tried. He would always leave her. Chloe knew Althea was not going to respond so she sighed and said quietly.
“Look girl, I love you, get some rest. We will talk tomorrow.”
Althea looked up at the ceiling and wiped at her eyes angrily. I would not cry over him. After several minutes of crying, blocking, and unblocking, she finally threw the phone onto the bed. The contact stayed blocked.
“This is ok,” She said aloud into the room, “Now I'm a hot single lady! I'm going to own this shit!”
Althea woke the next morning with a sick feeling in her chest, and picked up her phone before realizing she was not going to get a single text from him. She gulped, and had to drag herself out of bed and into fresh clothes. She knew if she didn't force herself out of bed she probably wouldn't move for the rest of the day. That would be suboptimal.
She slid on her sage green shirt and favorite shorts brushing her long brown hair until she decided that the thin waves were fixed up enough. She tied up her shoes, and looked at herself in the mirror.
“Come on! You got this!” She said to her reflection. The face the mirror reflected back probably looked more like someone said. “Hey, your pet hamster just died, and we took away your birthday!” Her hazel eyes narrowed. She picked up the hairbrush again, and continued brushing furiously. It was the same damn hair. The same length he loved. She. Wanted. It. Gone.
“I hate you,” she whispered, though she wasn’t sure if she meant him or herself.
Her phone buzzed and she realized she was running late for work. She slid onto her bike and peddled to The Toadstool Bookstore. She wrestled with the bike lock sighing internally. The bike lock password was their anniversary.
“Althea!” Grenda, called happily when she saw Althea stumble through the door. “You're late,” She tsked, "It's a good thing we don't have a lot of customers yet or I would be in an entirely different mood.”
Althea forced herself to smile. It's not that she wasn't happy to see the sweet old lady, she just wasn't prepared for “normal” life after hers had just begun spinning.
“Its good to see you too.” She replied putting on her name badge she painted on when she first began working at The Toadstool. She breathed in the familiar smell of books and blueberry muffins. This time when she smiled it was genuine. To her this was home.
“Anyways, honey, I need you to hit the restock. Yesterday was an absolute field day. Half of our romance and self-help books are completely gone.”
“If only I could fix myself with a nice self-help and romance book,” Althea muttered.
Althea started walking to the science fiction shelves, and Grenda cleared her throat.
“Wrong shelves honey, are you ok? You know this place inside and out.”
“Oh, yeah sorry yeah. I just,” Althea rambled. “Didn’t sleep well. Anyways! Self help and romance here I come!”
Althea wandered through the long expanse of cozy bookshelves heading to the back storage, she typed in her pin and trudged in. Her phone buzzed, her first thought and hope was that maybe he had texted her. Remembering she blocked him she blinked her eyes quickly to keep from crying and opened her phone.
“Hey girl, how are you feeling?”
Chloe had texted her. Althea didn’t know why, or what was wrong with her but she felt mad. How could she expect her best friend to know what she was thinking or going though? But here she was anyway. She took a deep breath. Stop. She thought. She's just trying to help.
“I'm ok.” She texted back.
“Thank goodness. You shouldn’t be upset over a guy like him.”
“Haha. Anyways, what's up? I'm at the Toadstool so I can't talk for long.”
“I was wondering if you would be up for going out for coffee later, I miss you.”
“Sure! I can meet you after 2.”
Althea set down her phone with a sinking feeling in her chest. She clenched her fists till her knuckles were white. She huffed and picked up a box of books, and walked out into the shop again. She set the box down right as Grenda turned on the store's soft vintage music. It filled her ears like a warm blanket and somehow the ability to breath came so much easier.. She pulled out a stack of books and set them up on the shelf humming along her mind in a different place.
“The Courage To Walk Away” One of the self help titles said. Althea snorted.
“Oh he had the courage alright." She said flatly, putting three copies of the book on the shelf. She reached into the box and the next book she pulled out made her heart stutter.
“Soulmates never truly leave.”
“You have got to be kidding!” Althea cried as a nearby customer looked at her mildly concerned. She waved them off with a polite smile. “The spine was already broken!” She laughed, making the customer shrink back slightly. “How crazy is that! I mean what a useless book anyways.” Althea was now out of breath, the customer backing out towards the door.
“What was that?” Grenda asked, raising an eyebrow.
Althea’s cheeks flushed and she shook her head.
“Nothing sorry about that, I guess I have just been in a bad mood.”
Grenda patted Althea on the back and Althea gave a small smile.
“Well, you're at the Toadstool, the most magical place in all of Norfield, so loosen up a bit.”
She could see it in the old lady's soft wise eyes and the way her eyebrows creased together that she knew something was up but she nodded and walked back behind the counter. Althea let herself get swept up in the magic of her job. The pain was still there, but she felt herself smiling and doing what made her feel whole.
The Toadstoll was something he couldn’t take away from her.
Soon she was outside wrestling with the bike lock again, the familiar date burning at the tips of her fingers as she keyed it in. Her phone buzzed.
“Omw, I’ll be at our cafe at ten.”
Althea shoved her phone back into her pocket and climbed onto her bike.
Norfield looked beautiful in the soft spring sunlight. Flowers had started blooming beneath shop windows, and a couple walked past with a golden retriever trotting happily between them.
Althea blinked hard and kept pedaling.
After a while she saw Juniper and Oak’s cafe, and the aroma of coffee and pastries making her stomach rumble. Chloe's truck was parked outside and Althea locked her bike up next to it. There she was. Chloe sat at their usual table fiddling with her thumb nails looking down at her ipad with a small smile on her face. Althea walked up the steps of Juniper and Oak’s and walked in.
