Invisible String

Chapter 17 - Stay, Stay, Stay

I left around noon with a ton of stuff loaded into a cab, and when the cab reached my apartment building, the doorman helped me carry everything up. I spent the next three days sifting through letters and emailing or writing out replies to fans and readers. I threw out the mail that was hateful and piled all of the gifts together. Most were drawings of what readers imagined the stories and characters of my books to look like. They were usually excellent and I had an extra room that was supposed to be an office that I instead used for hanging up these pictures and gifts. I had a few really excellent ones that I framed and put up around my home.

During those few days that I spent sifting, I also took out time to write a little and check my phone hourly. Alex never texted, but I spoke with Sandra briefly about visiting my hometown, where she lived, in Minnesota, to read for her high school seniors.

By the time Sunday rolled around, I was done going through the four bags of letters and two boxes of gifts that I'd grabbed from the office, and my living room was a mess again, and I was too pooped to worry about it at that moment. I woke up around eleven and checked my phone for the hundredth time. The only difference this time was that there was actually a missed call. And it was from Alex. I hesitated to call him back, even fought with myself mentally for an hour before deciding to go ahead and do it. Technically he took the first step by calling me at all. But he could've left a message. That would've been nice.

He answered on the second ring, sounding much more pleasant than the last time I'd spoken with him. "Hey, you," he said.

"Hey, you, too." He was quiet, and I wanted to say I was sorry, but God help me, I was just too damn stubborn. So, instead, I asked, "How are you?"

"Oh, you know, busy. But I'm okay. How are you?"

"I'm doing okay, too. I, uh, I was sifting through some letters, fan mail stuff, and I found this really nice drawing that someone did of you. It's old, from about a year ago, but it's sweet. And really good. I'm thinking about hanging it up somewhere."

"Oh, really?" I could practically hear him smiling through the phone.

"Yeah." I smiled, too. It certainly was nice not to be fighting with him. "Alex, I miss you."

He sighed, then he went silent. There was a banging at my front door, and I got up from the bed and went to the door, peering through the peephole. Alex was on the other side, smiling.

I opened the door, and he pulled me into his arms. "It might've been awkward if you didn't."

We kissed for a long moment before I pulled him inside and drug him into the living room.

"I'm sorry, Hannah, you were right, you were right to do what you did. I shouldn't have been so hard on you," he said as he pushed me back against the couch, pinning me to the couch and kissing me while running his fingers through my hair, moving the ever-growing strands out of my face. "It was your choice, and I can't take that away from you. Just because I don't always agree with you, it doesn't mean you were wrong."

"I'm sorry, too, Alex. I should've told you what I was going to do."

"I would've tried to talk you out of it." He ran his fingers down my cheek and smirked.

"Tried being the operative word." I grinned back at him.

He got off of me and stood up. "Do you have any wine? Something that we could celebrate our reconciliation with?"

"Yeah, I bought some more the other night." I smiled. "Do you want me to put something on the TV?"

"Yes," he said as he walked into the kitchen. I could hear the fridge door open and then a cupboard door shut. I was messing with the remote when he became reticent.