The Spice of Life

Burnt to a Crisp

Burnt to a Crisp

Everything happened so fast that Brynn barely had time to blink before she was on a plane back to New York. Her mind was dull as she looked out a window to the dark ground so far below she couldn't even distinguish it.

When she and her mother had hung up, she had immediately run into her room and began throwing her things into her bags. There were a few outfits, a few trinkets, she had accumulated in her months there that had given her pause. In the end, she left those there. She was returning to her old life, she didn't want any reminders of Trenton.

She called a cab and was on her way to the airport before Grace returned from dinner with Lance.

She knew the exact moment that happened though because she started getting calls from her cousin. Like a coward, she didn't answer them. She didn't deny them either. She just watched her cousin's picture on the screen until the call stopped naturally.

At one point, she knew Grace would have called Jess. She could time when that happened too because the calls suddenly stopped.

At exactly 11:36, as she waited in the airport terminal for her plane to begin boarding, she got a single call from Leo. She saw his picture on her phone and quickly looked away. She knew she could handle talking to him. If she did, she would run back to Trenton, that chocking force would capture her in its claws.

Her hastily bought ticket was on a red eye flight on a plane with a bunch of sleepy passengers. She boarded and took her seat almost the moment boarding began. She just wanted to get away.

She couldn't describe this force that was making her want to run. She didn't know where it was coming from or what caused it. She just knew she had to go. Go now.

An old lady from Texas sat beside her on the flight and immediately launched into a conversation with her that Brynn neither heard nor cared about. Which was fine with the Texas lady, it just gave her leave to keep talking without interruption.

When the plane took off, she felt something inside her tighten and her eyes shut as she tried to resist grabbing for her chest. Leaving was supposed to alleviate this feeling, not worsen it.

Maybe it was a medical problem, she thought wildly. Maybe she was dying of some weird heart problem. For some reason, that was a better thought than the truth that she refused to look at.

She was going home, she was getting what she wanted. So why did she feel so unhappy?

o~O~o~O~o

Leo felt like he had been blindsided.

His body was suddenly numb. He had lost all sense of balance.

She was gone.

He had finished out his shift at Thyme & Sage because he had no choice but even he could tell that there wasn't the usual amount of love and attention paid to the dishes he created.

How could she be gone?

He hadn't been able to close the restaurant though. Which was fine. The servers did that while the kitchen staff cleaned. They didn't know that Brynn was gone, just that she wasn't there.

She had left him.

Leo was left sitting in his car in the parking lot, staring at the wheel without actually seeing it. He hadn't even started the vehicle and the cold of the night air was creeping inside. He barely felt it.

She was just gone.

He had gotten the call from Lance. Grace had gone home to find Brynn gone, her room cleared out and Grace's address book open to Jess Porter's information. She had tried calling Brynn but that did nothing so she called Jess herself only to be told that Brynn had begged to come back.