At last it was time to go. Christina couldn't put it off any longer. She had done her laundry, taken a much needed shower, had breakfast and watched her favorite comedy, Tommy Boy, before reluctantly getting up. Ryan knew it was time for her to go. He knew it was selfish of him to ask her to stay, it was her journey and he couldn't stall her any longer. Her friend in Florida, Samantha, was already blowing up her phone and asking if she was on the road yet. After the 8th "get up off your ass and get down here" message, Christina sighed loudly. It was time.
"you will text me and let me know you're safe?" Ryan asked. As if he even had to. After all he'd done for her, she knew that he was a part of her life, a perfect addition to her circle of friends. "of course! Now I really have to go before I end up spending another day here." it was 11am and she was itching to get on the road before she felt it would be too late to get very far. She grabbed her bike and he grabbed her backpack and slid it on her back. Silently, they made it outside. The heat of the Georgia day was already upon them, and Christina was grateful for the extra water bottle Ryan insisted on lending to her. She looked into his eyes, wanting to savor this moment. This was the first time she had felt at home somewhere in a long time. As much as it pained her to admit, she felt the first pangs of anxiety upon leaving. But of course she powered through them, she had to get to Boynton Beach. Her heart was aching for the beach, her bff, and her beautiful niece.
Ryan held out his arms and Christina fell into them. She took a deep breath in, inhaling his scent. He smelled like the beautiful breakfast he had made for them. She felt her emotions giving her away as a tear ran down her cheek. And another, and another. Ryan took Christina's face in his palms as he gently brushed her tears away with his thumbs. Still holding her face, he gave her a simple kiss on her lips. "don't be a stranger, you big cry baby," he said with a wink.
Christina let him kiss her again and gave him another huge hug. "I need to go," she said quietly.
"I know," he answered.
"what if I don't come back?"
"you will."
"how do you know?"
"I don't."
With that she finally let go of him. She gave the house one final glance. She silently thanked it for letting her feel at home, and she made a promise to herself that no matter what, this wouldn't be the last time she laid eyes on it. But she wouldn't say the words out loud. She didn't want to promise something she had no way of keeping. She'd just have to make the effort.
With that, she left Ryan standing in the driveway as she pedaled off, into her newest adventure.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
She was pedaling for a while when she noticed something. Even though it was autumn it still felt like summer and she was about another few hours to her next hotel room stay (and another couple of days to sunny Florida). Out of nowhere the air seemed a bit chillier. She glanced up and noticed a very angry looking cloud hovering overhead. Before she could bike for cover she felt the first few drops of rain before the sky literally opened up.
She was about an hour away from Ryan's place. That thought made her heart leap out of her chest, but she kept it in and tried to drown out the emotion with more pressing matters. She would have just enjoyed the rain but soon it was coming down so heavy she couldn't even see a few feet past her nose. This was getting ridiculous. She had just cleaned all of her clothes, including what she was wearing that was now completely soaked through. All the rest of her belongings were in her trusty duffel bag... Which wasn't exactly water proof but kept everything dry enough. She would have just put up with it but even her pride wasn't a match for this storm. "fine," she said, looking up to the angry clouds looming above her head. "I'll check into the first hotel that I see. Happy now?" she wasn't sure, but she could have sworn at that statement the rain let up a little bit. Not enough to make her think she could ride through it, but enough for her to find a Holiday Inn just around the corner. It had been a very long time since she had treated herself to a real hotel. The ones she normally stayed at were clean enough but provided nothing more than the bare essentials. This one at least had an indoor swimming pool. If she was lucky she would get a room with a Jacuzzi in it as well.
Very carefully as to not slip and fall on the wet pavement, she carefully made her way to the hotel.
She made it to the hotel with some effort. She made sure to stay to the side in the foyer of the lobby as more dry guests came in and out. She was too soaked through to make it to the receptionist. She had been still seated on her bike too wet to move trying not to attract too much attention when a familiar face came her way.
She noticed the gorgeous baby curls on the five year old's head first before anything else. "auntie Christina!!"
"Miss Winter Grace. Where is your mama?"
Sure enough, Samantha appeared as if out of nowhere. It had been so long since she had seen her friend that they just stared at each other for a while. "Sammy!!!" Christina shouted. "I'd give you a hug but I'm soaked through," she explained.
Samantha looked her best friend up and down before speaking. The sight of her brought tears to her eyes and she had to blink them back before they came spilling out everywhere. She hadn't seen Christina in such a long time, at least before the accident. She couldn't wait for Christina to get to the beach house so she piled her daughter into her car and started driving. She made it as far as this Holiday Inn in Fort Stewart, an hour north of Savannah, Georgia when the sky opened up and she was forced to pull over. She hadn't even checked in yet when Winter started running around and that's when she saw the bike.
She just stood close to her friend and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "will somebody get this woman a damn towel?!?" she shouted. Samantha had such a commanding presence that at the volume of that inquiry, at least 4 bellhops showed up with towels. "thanks," Christina muttered as everybody, including her 5 year old niece, started patting her down. After a few minutes she felt like she could move again and thanked everyone for their help and could someone please help her off her bike? One of the bellhops took one arm and Samantha took the other as they helped her off.
As soon as she was free, she felt so much better. "now I can hug you!"
"oh no ya don't, I can still see through your shirt."
"since when has that ever stopped a best friend forever hug?"
Samantha rolled her eyes at this but her eyes smiled as she finally gave in, not caring that her shirt was going to get wet as well. She still had her hoodie on at least.
"well come on, let's get us a room so you can feel like yourself again... Right after you tell me about this Ryan guy that your mom has not shut up about."
Christina blushed a little at the sound of Ryan's name, but she didn't think anything of it as she followed her best friend and niece to their room. Samantha didn't even have to ask Christina what kind of room she preferred, she got one with 2 queen sized beds and a Jacuzzi. Christina didn't care about that right now as much as she cared about getting out of her wet (and freezing cold, thanks to the hotel's policy of keeping the temp at a frosty 60*) clothes. All the way to room 358, Christina listened to her niece go on and on about everything they had seen on their trip already. Christina knew that it was a huge deal for Samantha to be even this far away from home. She hadn't gotten her license until she was almost 25 and that was only because she had a daughter and the man who got her pregnant had left her so she had no choice but to get her license. But having it didn't mean she drove much, only to work and to run errands. But definitely not across state lines.
Winter was just getting into the part about the rain starting when the room number finally appeared. "yay! We're here!" Christina exclaimed.
Samantha had been very quiet on the walk up, but Christina knew it was only a front for what would come later. She'd wait until Christina was warm and dry before bombarding her with a million questions. The only reason why her mom knew she was with Ryan in the first place was because she didn't want her mom to worry. But as far as she knew, she might never see him again so what was the point of rehashing everything? And to top things off, Sam only knew bits and pieces of what happened to Jimmy, mostly through Christina's mother as well. She just wanted to wait until she was in Florida before breaking down completely. But she knew Sam well enough to know that she was extremely impatient and she probably couldn't wait for her friend any longer before packing up the kid and heading out.
"okay, I get this bed," Christina said as she dropped her wet duffel bag on the comforter of the nearest available bed. "okay, you go take your shower and we will see you in a bit," Samantha answered, giving her best friend a warm smile. Christina grabbed the first dry thing she could grab, scared to venture too far into her bag, and went into the bathroom. She kept the door unlocked just in case someone had to use the toilet and turned the water on. As she was waiting for the water to warm up, she peeled off her clothes. Thankfully the water was starting to steam as soon as she was done, because the air made little goosebumps appear on her skin and she started to shiver. Pulling the curtain back, she welcomed the almost too hot water on her skin. She stopped shivering almost immediately. After she felt more like herself, she turned the water down so she didn't end up scorching her skin, letting her mind wander. It wasn't something she did often; the past had been too painful for her to revisit. But as she looked back to the past few days, she realized that she was really beginning to feel better. For the first time since seeing her dead exboyfriend laying in a pool of his own blood, she felt like she was running to something instead of away from it. Jimmy had finally started leaving her alone, she met a new friend named Ryan, and she was reunited with her best friend and niece. It had been almost a year since this journey began and for the first time since the start of it, she felt like she could breathe. She knew that running away wasn't the answer, but she was still on this journey had vowed to see it through. As much as she would have liked to do the whole thing by herself, fate had already stepped in and had decided for her that she wasn't meant to be alone for this. She smiled to herself as she turned the water off, the bathroom still steamy and warm, and wrapped the white Terry cloth hotel towel around her body.
Upon opening the door and letting out a puff of steam, she noticed something strange. Her bag was empty and her best friend was nowhere to be found. She started to panic a little but then saw the note. "dumped out your bag to see what the damage was, most stuff was salvageable. Your clothes are in the dryer, your cell phones are all in rice, and the munchkin and I are downstairs waiting for you to get dressed so we can have dinner. Love, Sam and Gracie."
Christina loved it when Sam used her nickname for her niece. She hated that Sam had gotten pregnant by some asshole who didn't even deserve her and put her through hell, but she was thankful when he left. She had felt bad for her friend, but she knew they were all better off.
David wasn't a bad looking guy. In fact, he was the type of guy who knew he was cute enough to get what he wanted, and that was good enough for him. Having dyslexia he could barely write and never read. Talking to him was like talking to a wall. But Samantha swore up and down that they were going to be married one day.
By the time he met Samantha at a friend's Halloween party, he was already married. He had gotten married at age 18 because he got his girlfriend pregnant. They lived in a small town called Troy, Ohio. He moved back down to Florida after the baby was 7 months old. He and Sam were together for 4 months in Boynton Beach, Florida, before his wife was threatening to take his parental rights away. So, he moved back up to Troy, and Sam followed shortly. They lived up there for 2 1/2 years, enduring drama after drama, before he finally got divorced from his first wife only to propose to her 4 days later on Valentine's day. They were married on June 5th, 2006. In October 2006, she had to be rescued by her dad because things had gotten so bad that she shut down mentally. She was being accused of child abuse and was trying to keep her head above water only to get knocked down everytime. Her dad flew to Troy and picked her up and he drove her car back down. A month later David followed and they were together for a while longer, having a baby in the process. Winter Grace brought her joy, but the constant fighting didn't. Shortly after a particularly nasty argument about her cheating on him (he was convinced that the baby's throw up on all of her clothes was something different), he slammed the front door and never opened it again.
Samantha cried for a long time, sometimes finding it difficult to get out of bed. Christina was determined to not lose her best friend so she flew to Florida and stayed with her and her new baby until Sam could pull herself up again. They all celebrated Winter's first birthday together before she had to go back to her own life. But she kept the photography job going and managed to sell some beautiful pictures of her time in the Sunshine state: the beach, waves, different animals. She even documented her time with her best friend and niece, creating a whole scrapbook of memories of that time for the 3 of them.
Returning back to the present, Christina pulled on her new outfit, not caring so much about her appearance as she did having dinner with her family. Grabbing the room key just in case Sam forgot it (which she always did), and her purse, she started her journey into the interrogation.
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