Champagne Problems

Part Two

"Ma'am?"

I blink into focus, facing a middle aged man, who's gently nudging my shoulder.

"It's the last stop, ma'am"

Perplexed, I look around. The carriage is empty of passengers, only me and the train conductor waking me up and bits of litter left around. I quickly grabbed my purse and stood up.

"Sorry, I lost track of time..." I say, sounding more like a question than a statement. The conductor smiled kindly, "Long day?"

"It's about to be."

♡ ♡ ♡

I quickly pull my scarf tighter around my neck, trying to stop the stingy cold reaching my ears, before digging my hands back into the bottom of my pocket. I walk swiftly, keeping my eyes trained on the cracked, cobbled pavement - occasionally looking up to make sure I was going the right direction to his house. Stepping on the crunchy auburn leaves that layer the path I take.

Willow Ridge was a small, quaint town with an actual ridge closing us in. Lots of small businesses and nosy people who'll look out for one another, but still very nosy and up in everyone's business. It's where I grew up before I inevitably moved away to the big city, but Theo stayed. We worked it out though, commuting to each other regularly and talking on the phone about how I would move to his place once we're married. I was never really fond of that idea. My greatest accomplishment was running away to the city to land the office job of my dreams. Not to come back to the very place I was running away from.

"Mallory?"

I glanced up, noticing I was just walking past an old friend's house.

"Clara," I greet, walking towards her white picket fence as she quickly steps out and wraps her fluffy robe tighter around her body, "How are you?"

Clara was my old friend I had growing up. Always up and waiting at each other's front doors early in the morning and dropping each off late at night. We were quite close when we were younger - doing everything together, but as life carried on, we eventually drifted apart. Me pursuing my office job in the city and her settling down with her boyfriend she had since she was sixteen. From my once-in-a-while social media sleuthing on old friends, she has two kids and a pet cat named Alfred.

"Good, how are you? Don't really see you much around here." Clara leans her hip against her fence.

Normally I'd urge Theo to come to meet me in the city.

It's too boring in Willow Ridge.

There's so much more to do in the city.

But when I do come visit him here, we stay cooped up in his house, curled into each other with cups of coffee and a good show on the TV.

"Ah yes, just visiting Theo. He's cooking dinner." I say curtly, bristling against the cold gust of wind blowing between us, the leaves floating around between us.

"Gosh it's cold! I'll let you get going." Clara pulls her robe tighter as she starts to turn away, "we have to have a coffee sometimes."

With a demure nod, we exchange small smiles before I start walking away.

I was ten minutes away from his house before I got a notification.

Snapchat:

Remember this day?

And attached was a blurry picture of me and Theo, dancing underneath a starry sky.