When it rains in the desert

Maggie

It's Jacob from the present again. There's about to be some bumps in the story but I will get back to Lia, pinky swear.

The next morning I woke up early to the sound of a cell phone ringing. It wasn't mine though. I looked over to see Celia fast asleep and saw her phone ringing. I reached over to the phone and picked it up to see who it was. Maggie. Now that I thought about it, Celia didn't have any friends, none that i'd met anyway. I answered the phone to tell her that Celia was asleep but when I answered the phone it didn't sound like a Maggie.

"Rick is back, now's you're chance Celia" and before I could say anything he hung up. Before I even had a chance to let my mind run the possible scenarios Celia stirred awake. "Good morning my darling" she slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes open. She yawned, looking around my room until her eyes fell on my face, and then her phone in my hand. "what's wrong baby?" She said, now fully alert.

"you got a phone call" I said looking her dead in the eyes, waiting for any signs of panic or guilt.

"Who was it ?" she asked taking the phone from my hand.

"Maggie" With one word she sat up straighter and whipped herself around so she was fully facing me.

After a moment she said "Jacob, What did he say?" I looked back at her, at her lips and then her eyes again. Those lips, those lips that melted onto my own, the ones that felt like magic and fireworks, was she lying to me with those lips? Had I been fooled by those lips. It seemed so easy to think at the time. The fear of those lips being in someone else's, the thought of her calling someone else my darling or telling someone else her secrets.  It sent a shiver down my spine. But Celia didn't notice.

"Jacob, I really need to know what he said" I shook myself from my thoughts and told her

" He erm.. he said something about Rick being back and now's your chance" She swore under her breath and jumped out of bed.

"Wha- Celia, what is going on?" she ignored me, looking for her pants, telling me that she had to get back and to tell her parents she was sorry for leaving too quickly. "Wait, no. Celia!" I said a little too loudly, grabbing her attention. She stopped in her tracks with her boot in her hand and slowly turned to look at me. "What is happening right now Celia? Who is Maggie?"

She walked towards me and stopped right in front of me, "Look I can't explain right now Jacob, all I can tell you is that i need to go back to New York, please tell your parents that i'm sorry for having to rush off, just tell them my boss needed me back urgently, okay? I love you." She was rustling around the room, getting her bags and putting on her shoes. She came over and kissed me before leaving. I was still kneeling on the side of the bed when I heard the car pulling out of the drive way.

I  was so confused with what had just happened that i'm pretty sure I spent around half an hour just sitting on the side of the bed, staring at the door. I had so many questions. Why was this man called Maggie on her phone? Who was Rick? Why did she have to leave in such a hurry? The only person that could answer those questions wasn't here, she'd left.

I went downstairs that morning and told my mother exactly what Celia had told me to tell her. That her boss had called her back early this morning and she had to go back. My mother understood of course, to her work always came first. The next few days was radio silence, she wasn't answering my texts or my calls. I was getting worried. I'd booked a flight back to New York since Celia had taken the car back and when I got home, it was parked outside our apartment. When I opened the door and saw Aaron I asked him where she was. "Hey nice to see you too man" Aaron had said that the car keys were posted through the letter box of the apartment and he hadn't heard from Celia since.

Two days later I got my first letter from Celia. I have no clue how it got there, it was just laying on my bed when I got home from work.