The Dealers

Chapter 10 - Noah

Watching Lena drive away, I stood there until I couldn't see her car anymore. I pulled out my cell phone as I climbed into my Mustang and let it warm up while I checked my messages.

Thankfully, my only message was from Finn and it was a picture of the Now Leaving Cedar Falls sign. At least my brothers were two less things I had to worry about.

Now what? I thought to myself as I pulled out of the parking lot and headed back to the hotel. Lena had class and I might as well get some sleep and figure out my next step.

I only had a week to be with Lena and I was unsure how to make that time count. She was honest about being apprehensive because I was leaving eventually but, I didn't want to pressure her or push her away because of that. I wanted nothing more than to spend as much of that week with Lena as possible.

But, what about when that week was over? How could I actually leave her? Where would I go? A new job maybe or back to my condo in Boston? I had options but none of them meant being with Lena and that was all I cared about.

Thinking of all the ways that I could wine and dine her, even in this small town, I realIzed it would only make leaving harder. The more time I spent with her and the closer we got, the more impossible it would be to say goodbye.

Was there a way for me to stay? Could I finagle it somehow? I thought of any possible way to do that and I came up short. My job, my responsibilities, were set in stone—and in blood.

Once I got back to the hotel, I took a hot shower. Lena was all that I could think about and it made for an eventful time. Nothing I did could erase her from my memory. Even as I climbed into bed for a nap, she was all that I could see when I closed my eyes.

I forced myself to get some rest. As wired as my body was, my mind was exhausted and my eyelids were heavy. After allowing my body to completely relax and sink into the bed, sleep finally won.

When I woke up a few hours later, the sun was bright and I was almost disoriented by how deeply I slept. But still, I had the same urges from before I went to sleep. My mind woke up groggily at first but immediately flashed back to Lena and everything that happened last night.

Against my better judgement, I pulled out my phone from the jacket I'd thrown over a nearby chair. I began to feel weighed down by all of the uncertainties. I felt so intensely for Lena but knew barely anything about her. I had her cell number jotted down on a ripped piece of paper and she didn't even have mine. The connection we shared was pulling us together but in reality, we were being held together by thin, fragile threads.

I began to panic.

I didn't fit into her world and she sure as hell didn't fit into mine. How would we make that work? In what perfect world could we actually be together? But, I had to think that it could work, right? We could manage it somehow. I had to believe that or what the hell was I even doing there?

What Lena and I shared was stronger than anything I had encountered before and that said a lot. I always had to fight for what I wanted and I wanted Lena. What we shared so far was only a glimpse into what we could have and what we could create for ourselves.

I came to Cedar Falls for a different reason but Lena became the only reason that mattered. I wouldn't give up on the possibility of us.

Full of determination then, I pulled the ripped piece of paper from the same pocket my phone was in and I dialed the cell number into my phone. Saving it under Lena, I felt a tinge of nervousness creep into the pit of my stomach. I began to type out a text message to her but, I wanted to throw up.