Anger edged Phoebe’s next words. “Is that why you’re here? Is this some kind of Belles payback, flaunt it in my face?”
“No, quite the contrary. Did you really want to leave Summerville…Hank?” Maureen asked.
Phoebe twisted her fingers together. “Why are you asking me that?”
Maureen dropped her hand on the younger woman’s arm. “I’ll explain it, but did you?”
“No,” Phoebe said, the seconds passed before she added, “I didn’t want to leave Hank. I love him. It was a little hard at first getting used to the small town mentality but I was. I was doing it for him, but then I grew to like it. Especially sharing it with him.”
“So why did you go?” Millie asked.
Phoebe shook her head. “It doesn’t really matter now. He’s with someone else.”
“Well…” Maureen and Mille shared a look. “She’s the reason we’re here. It was her idea.”
“I don’t understand.”
“She’s being chased away too. Figured there was a chance you were as well and, honestly, she doesn’t want to be the runner up,” Maureen said.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying, you need to come with us so she can explain it to you.”
“She’s here?” Phoebe asked incredulously.
“Yeah.”
Phoebe looked at her watch. “Give me five.”
* * *
It was Arissa’s plan, her brain child, but looking across the table at the beauty that was Hank’s ex, discovering she was as sweet as she was beautiful, yeah, Arissa was on her third glass of wine and it wasn’t even ten in the morning.
“You want me to return to Summerville,” Phoebe asked for the fourth time, but immediately followed that with, “I’m still trying to get my head around this. It’s not every day people from your past show up at your place of employment and tell you to come back home because the man you love may still be in love with you.” She looked around for the waitress. “I think I will have that drink.”
“On it,” Millie said.
“So let me get this right. You started dating Hank and Catherine told you I was the love of his love.” She laughed out loud, but it wasn’t a pleasant sound. “That woman did not like me. She never did.”
“I realized that was a possibility after witnessing the two faces of Catherine Weathers,” Arissa confirmed.
“So you’re with Hank now, but you want me to come home and give him closure.” Phoebe sat back in her chair. “And if he really is over me, I get to experience all the pain of leaving him again.”
“It’s a possibility,” Maureen said. “But so is the alternative.”
“Have you thought about Catherine’s reaction to seeing me?”
“I can only imagine what she’ll do, but then she’ll be very good at only showing you that part. But this gives you a chance to have your closure with her too,” Arissa offered.
Phoebe crossed her arms over her pale pink silk blouse and tested. “And what makes you think I haven’t found my closure?” She dropped her arms, leaned up and laid her elbows on the table, her voice growing firm. “You do realize what you’re all asking of me, right? If I may be so blunt, it’s disrespectful.”
Arissa leaned up in her chair. “What’s disrespectful is a woman meddling in her grown ass son’s life. What’s disrespectful is knowing the man I know, having been with him, you up and leaving without a reason. Have you any idea how that must have felt for him?” She clipped her next words. “As far as closure, you left him not the other way around. There’s no way in hell you have closure.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more, Arissa.” Phoebe lifted her wine glass but didn’t drink it. “Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m supposed to just walk away if he takes my heart and breaks it. Just like that and let you win?” Phoebe took a hefty sip of the sweet wine, dropped the glass on the table with a thud, Riesling splashing onto the table. She rose, grabbed her purse that had been flung over the chair. “I’m sorry, but I’m not doing this.” Phoebe wanted nothing more than to go back to Summerville, to the arms of the man she loved. A man she always would. But risking him choosing Arissa over her, the thought had her stomach twisting in knots.
Phoebe started for the door, the Belles silent, watching her as she went. Arissa stood, shouted across the crowded cafe. “Your ex showed at Hank’s, saying Hank was texting you!”
Phoebe stopped mid-step. She spun on one of her black heels and moved back to the table. “Excuse me?”
“Your ex showed—”
Phoebe cut Arissa off, “Yes, I got that part. Continue?”
Arissa’s lips drew into a thin line while she drew in a calming breath. Her temper sitting on the edge with how this was playing out. “Your ex said Hank was the reason you and he split, that Hank was texting you. Hank assured me he wasn’t—”
“He wasn’t.”
“I know,” Arissa said firmly, nodding her head in emphasis. “Phoebe, something is not adding up. We…” She waved a hand to include the Belles, whose eyes were glued to the action. “Want to make this right… for Hank.”
Phoebe took a deep breath, placed her purse strap along the back of the chair and dropped into it. Lifting the glass of wine she’d abandoned, she swallowed the last of it in one sip.
“And…” Hya clapped her hands. “We’re back!”
Phoebe smiled at Hya before pulling her cell from her purse. Looking at the screen, she said to the group of women. “I’m calling my ex to get this story.”
The ladies hummed their approval. Hya raised her hand, calling the waitress. “Anyone else in the mood for onion rings?” She didn’t wait for an answer when the waitress appeared.
“Bruno?” Phoebe said and the group got quiet, eyes on Phoebe. “What’s this I hear about you visiting Hank?” The conversation went on, with the women only hearing half of it; they were having some problems putting it all together. Phoebe
