I step over to the quiet side of the café and hit the answer button, my thoughts all over the place. “Hello?”
“Addison, have you seen it? Have you seen the press conference?”
“Huh? What are you talking about?” This can’t be work related; she wouldn’t be worried about that.
“Jace. Sorry, I know you don’t really want to talk about him, you haven’t said much because I’m sure it hurts a lot, but I think that you should just… watch this. I’ll send you a link.”
“A link? A press conference? Luci, I don’t get it.”
“Just watch it. Watch it and you’ll see what I mean. Call me back once you’ve seen it.”
I don’t move while I wait for her to send it. Something about this seems like a private matter, not to watch in front of Jace’s mom. Since she’s all up about me getting a sign anyway, I want to keep my head on straight.
Soon, it comes, the link to a video online. Immediately I’m struck by how nervous he looks. I don’t know what’s about to happen but it seems like it’s something massive.
“Oh my god,” I whisper, clapping my hand to my mouth in shock. He’s leaving the band?
He doesn’t say too much about it, he doesn’t give many details, but it seems like he really is done. He’s leaving and it can’t possibly have anything to do with me because I’m not around anymore. I’m no longer a factor. He can’t possibly resent me for his decision because I wasn’t a part of it.
“I want to see the one person I have loved and lost,” he says, looking a little spacy. “I want to see her once more to try again.” Is this it? The sign Felicia was talking about? My heart skips a beat and bursts with excitement regardless of whether that’s accurate or not. “We shouldn’t, we had our first and second chance, but I know that I will never be able to let her go. She isn’t the reason I’m leaving the band, I made that decision for personal reasons, but she is who I want to see first.”
I hit the call button to speak to Luci before I can even begin to process this. “What do you think?”
“He seems serious, doesn’t he?” she replies carefully. “It seems like he wants to be with you.”
I bite down on my bottom lip to stop hope bursting free. “You… you think?”
She sighs loudly. I can sense her shaking her head with disappointment. “I don’t know what to say, Addison. I don’t know if it’s the best idea in the world. You know I think that you should move forwards not backwards, but that doesn’t mean I’m right. If this is what you want…”
It is! It really is.
God, it’s stupid. It’s so damn dumb. But I do want him again. To give it a third shot. This time it will really feel like all the ob
stacles are out of the way, so we can really try. We won’t be young, dumb, and easily led, we don’t have the distance, we can just finally be him and me and just see.
“I’m not going to be a bitch and fall out with you again, Addison, I just want you to be happy.”
“Yeah, okay. Well that’s something I need to think about. I’ll see you soon, Luci.”
She’s saying something to me, but it’s too late for me to hear it. I’ve already hit the end call button. It takes me a couple of seconds to get over the shock for long enough to make my way back to Felicia. She smiles up at me, her eyes shining as if she already knows what I’m going to say.
“Did you know?” I gasp at her. “That Jace was leaving the band?”
“Oh, he’s done it now, has he? I knew that he wanted to for a long time. I’m glad, he’ll be happier.”
I get out my phone and show her the video of the press conference. I do that for myself as well because I want to hear it again. I want to feel those words running through me, and as he gets to the bit where I just know that he’s talking about me and us, an intense shiver tears up and down my spine.
We can be happy, I’m sure of it. We make each other happy. It’s everything else.
“I wonder why he hasn’t told me. This was last night by the look of it.”
“I don’t know.” I grab my phone back. “But I need to go.”
“Where are you going?”
I turn back and smile at her, the knowledge that I’m about to do the right thing flooding through me. “I’m going to LA. I’m going to find Jace. I’m going to make it right.”
“Now that is the best news that I’ve ever heard, Addie. Good luck and let me know how you get one.”