Reese moved slowly through the house, trying to focus on the mundane tasks of everyday life, like doing laundry, tidying the house. She tried to pretend that these were just everyday chores, not her way of putting her house and her life back to the way it was before Blaine moved in.
When she opened a dresser drawer and found one of his socks left behind, she paused a moment, reminded of what her task was really about. Torn about what to do with the item left behind, she finally pushed it to the back of the drawer, before putting the other clothes on top of it and closing the drawer again. It seemed better to leave it for now, forget that it was there, than try to figure out what to do with it.
When she heard a knock on the door, Reese jumped. Immediately she thought it must be Blaine. Maybe he'd had a change of heart and had come back to talk, or maybe he had just come back for his lost sock.
"Mrs. Smith, hello."
"Reese, dear, you're an adult now, you can call me Annie."
"I'm sorry. You tell me that every time I see you."
"Old habits, I understand." Annie looked around her as she followed Reese into the house. "You have a lovely home, Reese."
"Thank you. It's a little small, but it's enough for . . . just me." Reese swallowed as she finished the sentence. She had spoken almost without thinking. It was just her again.
"We always knew you'd do well," Annie said as she nodded her approval. When Reese didn't answer, she changed the subject, "You must be surprised to see me."
"Yes, I am actually. Not that you aren't welcome. I am surprised and . . . a little distracted at the moment."
"I'm sorry if I came at a bad time," Annie apologized quickly before her tone turned more serious. "But there's something we need to talk about."
Cassie walked briskly down the street, enjoying the warm afternoon. She'd woken up feeling in better spirits than she had for a long time. Even the news about Vanessa, as upsetting as it was, didn't completely spoil her good mood. She wasn't sure why she felt the way she did. She just knew she felt like getting dressed up and getting out of the house for awhile.
When she turned the corner and saw Blaine standing at the end of the sidewalk looking out over the water, her heart skipped a beat. Trying to stay cool, she walked over to say hello.
"Hi, Blaine. Funny running into you here."
"Yeah . . ." he said slowly. "Honestly, I'm not sure why I decided to come here." He looked up squinting at the upper story of the building beside him. "The last time I was here was when Reese and I were looking for Mrs. May's heir and we got locked in the office. For awhile I wasn't sure if we'd ever get out of there . . . I was just thinking about how much we've been through."
Cassie cleared her throat. "I'm not sure why I came here today either. I haven't been to the Boardwalk since my father disappeared. Maybe it's because Vanessa's been on my mind today."
The pair fell into an extended silence as Blaine turned back towards the bay and Cassie tried to think of what to say.
"So where is Reese anyway? Did you propose to her yet?" she asked nervously.
"No, I never got around to it . . . we broke up."
Cassie fought to keep her expression from giving away her true feelings and tried to be sympathetic. "Why? What happened?"
Blaine sighed. "Well, we discovered we didn't really want the same things in life."
"I'm sorry . . . Are you ok? If you want to talk about it, I have plenty of time."
"Really? If you don't mind, I might take you up on that. I could use someone to talk to right now."
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