Love Remains The Same

Let Me Go

Good on paper
Picture perfect
Chased the high too far to fast
Picket white fence, but we paint it black
And I wished that you had hurt me harder than I hurt you
And I wish you wouldn't wait for me but you always do
I've been hoping somebody loves you in the ways I couldn't
Somebody's taking care of all of the mess I made
——Let Me Go, Hailee Steinfeld/Alesso ft. Florida Georgia Line/Watt

April 2018

"You go pick him up at the airport," Brian frowned at her. "You're perfectly capable of driving in this country. You drive to the market all the time."

"Can't you do it?" Cait asked. "The market is different from Dublin."

Brian snorted. "It isn't the driving you're scared of, Caitlin. He's your father. Why are you so afraid to spend an hour in the car with him?"

Because he would see that she was an abysmal mess. But she didn't want to say the answer out loud. "I'm not afraid," she lifted her chin and lied. "I just thought that it would be easier for you to do it. Maybe we should both go."

"Hell no," Brian told her. "I'll not be your buffer. And I'd like a break from you for a couple of hours."

Cait gritted her teeth and lowered herself to beg. "Please, Brian," she whispered. "I'll clean the bathrooms for a month."

"Saints alive, you are desperate," he smirked at her. "And who says you're staying for a month? You'll be going back for your graduation."

"No, I'm not," she said hoarsely. "I'm finishing my classes this semester, but I'm not walking at graduation. And I withdrew from summer term."

"Why in the bloody hell would you do a damn fool thing like that?" Brian snapped at her.

"I can't go back to Durham, Brian," she said quietly. "I can't."

"You can't hide here forever, baire," he told her.

"When I can go back, maybe I'll go to New York," Cait sighed. "But I'm not ever setting foot in Durham again."

"And if he gets drafted by a New York team?" Brian raised an eyebrow.

"The odds of that are slim to none," she frowned.

"But you won't take any chances until after the draft, will you?" He stared her down.

"I have no immediate plans to return to the states," she told him. "For the foreseeable future, you have an interested and present business partner."

"Well, aren't I just the luckiest bloke around," Brian returned. "But you can still go fetch your own father from the airport."

*****
In the end, she'd gotten Brian to cave by promising to make his favorite meal. And to clean the bathrooms for a month. And to muck out the stalls while he was gone. But she didn't care. It wasn't like she slept much anyhow these days.

And mucking stalls was exactly what she was doing when Brian returned. But it wasn't only her father that was with him.  She just didn't know it initially.

She heard the footsteps in the stable and turned to see her father standing in the doorway.  "Hello, Dad," she said softly.