Alone Together • JJ Maybank

Twenty Five.

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The music from the live band faded quieter with each step I took toward the open glass patio doors. All I could hear was my heartbeat vibrating through my body and ringing in my ears. There were just three small steps between me and the entrance to the country club that Ward Cameron had just walked through only moments before me.

He stood in his navy suit by one of the many bars serving the event, scrolling through something on his phone as he waited for the barman to make his drink. I hovered in the doorway for a moment, noticing a middle aged woman walking towards the toilets and an older man sat on a barstool at the opposite end of the bar. Ward was alone.

With a deep breath, I walked in his direction. Every step I took felt like there was led in my shoes weighing me down, and once I made it to the bar it was as if I had to hold on to stop myself from falling over. I mirrored his position, standing only a meter away from him as he paid no attention to me beside him.

"Congratulations," I eventually found the courage to say as I plastered on a fake smile and looked in Ward's direction, "for the award." Ward's eyes looked up at me first before his head lifted, still side-tracked slightly by whatever he was reading on his phone, until the same fake grin I had seen on his face all evening made another appearance.

"Oh, well, thank you." He nodded politely at me before looking over the bar to see where the barman was with his order.

"I haven't been in town too long, but I can tell it was well deserved. You're a very popular man around here, it seems." I reeled off the words I had practiced in my mind over and over as I poured myself a glass of water from the glass bottle left out on the bar.

"That's very kind of you." Ward studied my face for a moment, and I could tell he was trying to place where he knew me from. 

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't introduce myself." I turned fully to face him, reaching my hand out to shake his as I took a breath. "I'm Abby Miller. Angie and Bobby Miller's daughter." The flash of emotion that crossed Ward's eyes in that moment was brief, and to anyone else they wouldn't have noticed it, but I had made sure I watched him closely as I said my parents' names.

Ward faltered for a second, before taking my outstretched hand in his, the fake polite smile that he had clearly perfected over the years still plastered across his face. "Nice to meet you, Abby." He shook my hand firmly before dropping his grip with a subtle look over the bar, looking for the barman again. "I'm, er, sorry to have heard about your mother's accident."

I smirked to myself as Ward was walking straight into the trap that I had hoped he would. "Thank you." I took a sip of my water as a glanced around to make sure no one else was in listening distance of us, readying myself for what was next. I placed the glass back down on the bar, keeping a hold of it to stop my hands from shaking. "But it wasn't an accident."

I couldn't bring myself to look at Ward as I said it, but I could see his reflection on the mirror behind the bar. His body tensed at my words, with his head twitching in my direction but stopping before he fully looked at me, as if he had physically held himself back from doing so. "What makes you say that?" His words were low now, and the polite smile on his face had faded.

"Well, I know the cops brushed it off as one, but I didn't believe it. So, I started looking into things myself." I stopped talking as the barman walked towards us, placing Ward's drink on a napkin in front of him before walking off again. Ward picked up the glass, but didn't leave.

"Grief can make you believe weird things, but best to let the men in charge do their jobs." I could feel his eyes burning into me as he took a sip of the drink.