Little Things (Second Chances 1)

“It’s me, open up.”

She buzzes the door as I pull it open and head inside her building. I walk up the three flights of stairs to her apartment and knock on her door. A few seconds later, she opens the door and invites me inside. I glance around her new apartment and nod at the coordinated décor. It’s a decent size apartment with a sizable living room, open kitchen, and two bedrooms.

She tells me to take a seat on the sofa and offers me a bottle of water. I suck down the water in an instant and holler at her to hurry up and finish getting ready. She yells from her room that she’s almost done. A few minutes later, she arrives in the living room all buttoned up and ready for the long drive.

I stand up and ask her, “Are you ready for this?”

She nods her head, “As ready as I’ll ever be. Let me just grab my Kindle.”

She stalks off into her bedroom one last time and returns with her Kindle in hand.

“Okay, now I’m ready.”

We head downstairs and climb inside the Mustang as I crank the key in the ignition. I plug the address of the correctional facility into my iPhone’s GPS and Siri buzzes the directions.

Melanie asks, “Do you know where we’re going? Or are we heading into the unknown?”

I huff, “I Googled the place before so I have a pretty good idea on what I’m looking for.”

She scoffs, “Oh, that makes me feel so much better.”

“Hush, woman.”

She laughs at my instruction, “Did you eat yet? We should stop for something on the way.”

“Yeah, I just want to get out of the city first and then we’ll grab some drive-thru or something.”

“Sounds good to me.”

I pull away the curb and head toward the interstate as I glance over at Melanie who’s reading on her Kindle.

“You don’t want to sleep? It’s three in the morning.”

“Duke, I won’t be able to sleep, so this will keep my nerves in check.”

“What are you reading?”

“Tempting Rowan by Micalea Smeltzer. It’s a romance and I just love this book! I swear these brothers are to die for. Trent and Trace melt my heart. I’m crazy jealous of the girls in these books!”

“Yeah, you have fun with them.”

She giggles and continues to read as I drive out of the city. I hit the dashboard display to open the Pandora App, select the “Bruno Mars Radio” and his hit song It Will Rain starts to play. Melanie reaches up to raise the volume and bobs her head to the music.

I hum along to the chorus and Bruno sings his heart out about keeping his love by his side, no matter what the costs. My mind immediately goes to Raya and I realize that without her, my life has been a dark and cloudy haze. I’m completely broken because I lost her. Every day I wake up with an emptiness in my chest because she’s not around to make me smile.

I know she’s out there, somewhere far away, and I want her back. I’m aware that everyone thinks I’m crazy, but she’s all I have and I won’t give up on her.

Four hours later, we arrive at Auburn, just in time for visiting hours. I pull into the parking lot, find an empty space, and pull in. Shutting the car off, I stretch out my arms and roll my neck. My back is stiff and a sharp pain scales along the ridges of my spine. I glance over at Melanie who’s staring out the window. I place my hand on her arm and give it a squeeze. She turns around to face me and smiles timidly.

Concern immediately hits me, “Hey, are you okay? You don’t have to go in if you don’t want to.”

She takes a deep breath, “No, I’m fine. Nervous and scared shitless, but I’ll be fine.”

I laugh at her honesty and exit the car, walking around to her side and opening the door to assist her out of the car. She stretches her arms and legs and yawns wide.

“Tired, huh?”

She nods her head, “Just a tad.”