It would be a miracle if Grace was still there when he got back. His phone rang. Finally, Alex was returning his calls. “What happened?”
“She’s gone, man.”
“Home? Did she take the car?”
“No. She left the keys here. Wouldn’t even let me give her a ride.”
Sal gulped, the dreadfulness of this was sinking in. Grace was gone. “You let her take the bus?” He took a quick right nearly sideswiping someone.
“No. She insisted she’d get a ride so I walked with her a few blocks until her friend picked her up. Sal, how you gonna fix this?”
“I dunno. But I have to.” He really did. He couldn’t lose Grace. He just couldn’t.
He hung up with Alex and raced to Grace’s apartment building. He still didn’t know which one she lived in so he knocked on the first one he came to on the third floor. That much he knew. The older lady that answered either really didn’t know what apartment Grace lived or wasn’t willing to part with the information. He quickly knocked on the next one. No one answered. After banging on a few more doors, he finally got a man who pointed him to Grace’s apartment. Her mother answered in a robe. It was after noon and she looked like she’d just woke up. “Is Grace home?”
Her smile turned into confusion. “I thought she was working?”
“She was but she left.”
She shook her head, saying she hadn’t come home but invited him in. Sal declined and took off in a sprint. He’d try Joey and Taylor’s next. He cursed himself as he rushed down the stairs. He should’ve gone there first. One of them had obviously picked her up and she probably figured he’d come looking for her here so she must’ve gone there instead.
At first no one answered the door at Taylor and Joey’s either. But he heard voices inside. “Gracie, please just let me explain it’s all I want. Then I’ll go away I promise.”
The door flung open and a red eyed Joey stood before him, leaning against the door. “I’d like to hear your explanation before you put her through any more. You have no idea what you’ve done to her.” His face screwed up and he took a deep trembling breath. “This is killing her and that kills me. Do you understand?”
If this was the only way he’d get a chance to explain then he had no choice. “Listen to me, Joey. I don’t remember anything about that night. I didn’t spend any time with her the evening all us guys went out. I got totally wasted and somehow she ended up in my room the next morning. But I don’t remember anything about it. She told me that we’d been together and that I’d texted Grace the night before. I didn’t even remember that. But I swear to you I would never do anything to risk losing Grace.”
Joey nearly fell when the door was yanked open further and Grace stepped up. Sal felt the life sucked out of him when he saw her devastated face and how bloodshot her eyes were. “But you did and now she’s pregnant.”
“Baby, I’m sorry. I’ll do whatever I have to—”
“There’s nothing you can do! You said you loved me and I believed you!”
“I do love you!”
“Stop!” She started toward him, arms flailing but Joey held her back. “Don’t ever say that to me again! I hate you!”
Taylor came out from behind the door and helped Joey hold her back. “You should go now, Sal,” he said, pulling Grace inside.
“Grace please—”
“No, you please, Sal! Please leave and never come back because I want nothing to do with you ever again!” She collapsed onto Taylor’s chest and he held her.
Joey cried openly now, too, smoothing her hair, then turned to Sal, eyes as broken as his own heart felt. “You need to go.”
He closed the door leaving Sal standing there frozen, feeling a sense of utter hopelessness come over him. He hated himself for what he was putting Grace through, as if she hadn’t had enough heartache in her life already.
His whole life nothing had ever been impossible. Hearing anyone even use the phrase, That’s impossible, made him angry. There was nothing that would ever stand in the way of his dreams and goals. Where there was a will, there was a way. Now he’d finally hit an unforgiving wall of impossible. Aside from hoping Grace could somehow find it in her heart to forgive him, there was no way around this. He’d lost her and the reality nearly strangled the life out of him.
He left there feeling like his entire world as he’d so perfectly molded it, had just come to an explosive end. He never thought he’d feel like this, but without Grace, nothing mattered. He saw no joy in anything he accomplished from here on. How could one person have such a huge effect on another one’s life? The nightmare that haunted him for weeks now was a reality.
His phone rang as he drove still feeling the haze of overwhelming hurt and doom—Sofie. Great. He’d be hearing it from everyone soon enough. Let the tongue-lashing begin. He deserved every bit of it. He clicked the earpiece and answered.
“Tell me it’s not true, Sal. Tell me you didn’t actually sleep with that bitch.”
Sal took a deep unbearable breath. “I wish I could, Sofie.”
“Why? Why would you do that? How could you?” She sounded ready to cry.
Shit. As if he didn’t already feel like the biggest dick on the planet. He explained again, the story sounding lamer every time he told it. Being drunk was no excuse, but it was the only one he had.