I was a nervous wreck and tried my best to hide the feelings. The dark evenings made it easier to hide my face, because had Brooks been able to see my expressions, I may not have been so lucky this time.
“I missed this,” he whispered as he pulled me close to him and kissed me on the neck. “I missed this...”
I smiled even though I knew he couldn’t see. I glanced at the clock on the nightstand. 7:23. “We should make some dinner. I’m kinda starving,” I lied to him. I wasn’t starving at all. In fact, I wasn’t even hungry. I was putting the first step of my escape plan into play.
“I could go for some dinner,” he replied. “What do you have in mind?”
“I have some chicken. No. Wait. The chicken is still frozen. Don’t have time for that,” I laughed.
“Agreed,” he said.
“Wraps? How does that sound? I think I have some turkey thawed in the fridge and some bacon. Turkey bacon wraps. Those are easy.” I shrugged, hoping he’d agree with me so we could leave the guest room.
“Let’s do it.”
I could hear him smile through his response, and I felt the guilt wash over me as we got out of bed and put on our clothes. We walked downstairs, and I tried to glance at Easton’s cabin to see if he was even home. Although I didn’t want to draw attention to it, I casually walked towards the patio door and pulled the placemats from the small cabinet I kept near the corner of the kitchen.
Brooks noticed but didn’t appear to connect the pieces as I set each placemat on the island. I then grabbed some plates and silverware while he grabbed the food from the fridge and set it out.
“Don’t forget the ranch dressing,” I laughed at him.
“Ranch,” he repeated as he opened the fridge back up to grab the bottle. “Anything else I’m missing?”
I glanced at the counter. “Turkey, cheese, bacon, lettuce, ranch. Nope. Looks good.”
“Wraps. Where do you keep those?”
“Oh yeah,” I laughed. “The most important part of the entire meal. I keep them in the drawer with the bread. Which is the third drawer right over there.” I pointed towards the cabinet by the fridge.
He grabbed the wraps as I opened the turkey and cut it into slices. I set the turkey on a plate and put it in the microwave while he filled two glasses with ice water.
There wasn’t much conversation going on, and even I felt awkward, but Brooks didn’t seem to notice. At one point, he had walked towards the front door and locked it. He set his truck keys on the entry table and set his boots away from the door and onto the nearby mat.
I held my breath as the microwave beeped. I knew this was step two of my plan, and I was getting more nervous the closer I was to escaping.
I opened the microwave and took the plate out. I specifically picked these plates because I knew how hot they got in the microwave. Yes, I was willing to burn myself to save my life if I had to. I reached for the plate and yelled as I dropped it on the island and used my hand to swipe the two glasses of ice water onto the floor at the same time.
Both glasses shattered, and Brooks rushed over. “Erika! Oh God! You okay?” He sounded concerned as he rubbed my hand and walked with me to the sink to run it under the water.
“I forgot how hot those plates get,” I whined. “Did the plate break?”
“The plate looks fine. It’s the glasses.”
I turned off the water, grabbed the towel to dry my hands, and walked into the closet to grab the broom and dustpan.
“I can get this,” Brooks said as he walked towards me.
I laughed, hoping to keep his guard down. “I made the mess, I’ll clean it. Looks like I’ll have to get one more set of glasses. I only bought four cause it was just me. Now I’m down to two.” I shrugged. “Oh well, I also have Dixie cups as a last resort over there where I keep the placemats. We could always use those.”
“Might be safer when you cook,” he laughed as he put a wrap on each of our plates and added the meat.
I swept the glass and left it on the dustpan inside the closet, hoping he wouldn’t notice. “At least it smells good.”
“It smells so good. Kind of like you just made it. Juicy, too. Sometimes it gets so dried out, but this stuff still looks juicy.”
“Good,” I said. “I could go for a nice-tasting wrap.”
I moved my boots from the closet and set them on the first step that led to the basement. Then I closed the closet door, walked over, and took a seat next to Brooks to finish making my wrap.
Brooks had already poured two more glasses of ice water and took his first bite as I wrapped mine.
“Mmmm,” he said. “Even your leftover turkey tastes delicious.”
I smiled at him as I struggled to eat. The nervous feeling made me want to vomit. I begged God to help me hold myself together. I couldn’t get sick right now. That wasn’t part of my escape plan. In fact, it would ruin my entire plan. I was close. So close to making a run for it. I just had to time it right.
I knew going forward, I needed to have an emergency kit. Even though I had a few security measures in place, a safety bag or kit would alleviate some of this stress. It was so dark out, how would I see where I was going? I wouldn’t have time to grab my hat and gloves. I’d have to make do without them. As long as Brooks didn’t notice my boots on the basement steps, I’d at least have something on my feet. I couldn’t imagine having to run out there with nothing on my
