Free Return to Me by Riley Sinclair

shifted her chocolate leather purse with the square silver buckles and turned to make her exit. "It was good seeing you Hailey. I won’t bother you again." Her soft spoken statement was met with stony silence from the girl turned woman who had shared her childhood years.
         Paige walked away with her head held high and her dignity, for the most part, intact. She faltered only once on her walk down the pebbled sidewalk to her midnight blue z28. Pushing all thoughts of friendships lost and love left crying in the dark, firmly from her mind, she turned the key in the ignition and drove away without looking back. Screw strolling around the lake; what she really needed was a good solid hour of retail therapy.
    ***
         Erik was casually turning burgers on the grill when she returned. Normally the sizzle and hiss of barbeque would be enough to catapult her from dark mood to ravenous light, but not today. She had spent the entire fifteen minute drive from Hailey’s house to her own mulling over their less than pleasant encounter.
         "Well look what the cat dragged in." Erik drawled, replacing the shiny black metal lid on the grill and turning to give Paige a cursory once over. "Is that for me?"
         "I stopped for coffee. Heavy cream, heavy sugar, just the way you like it."
         "Thanks. What’s in yours?"
         "Mocha something of other." She waved her hand in a vague gesture, although she thought there may have been Carmel as well.
         "I like chocolate."
         "Well then here, you take it." She shrugged, extending the thick cardboard cup.
         "Really?" His eyes lit up.
         "Yeah, switch me."
         "You're a doll." He winked, handing over his own brightly colored cup. "How was it?"
         "The coffee or seeing Hailey?" She sighed, though she already knew the answer.
         "Hailey."
         "Oh, that." Paige ran a magenta red fingernail along the edge of the brick that lined the side of the patio. "Let’s just say some people around here have long memories." She raised her eyes to Erik’s, seeking shelter from the storm that still raged inside.
         "That good, huh?"
         He cried, he drank, and he picked fights with anyone who so much as dared to look at him for months. Then again, if you had bothered to stick around, you wouldn’t need me to tell you this.
         "Better."
         "Sorry Paige." He said, hunkering down beside her on the cool tile.
         "She doesn’t want anything to do with me. I understand, it’s just...I don’t know what I expected, really. Doesn’t matter."
         "I'm glad you understand because I sure as hell don’t. What’s wrong with that witch? She knew what your life was like back then, how you were forced to grow up."
         "I can’t change it, Erik. If she feels like I've wronged her, then so be it. And maybe I did, but you know what? I'm getting pretty damn sick and tired of forever defending myself for decisions I made while I was backed into a corner."
         "That’s the spirit." Erik nodded his approval. "So, did she get fat?" He asked idly.
         "Erik!"
         "Well did she?" He turned toward her, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper.
         "No." Paige sighed, deflated.
         "Shoot."
         "But her butt is still bigger than mine." She winked, the comment getting an uproarious laugh from her friend.
         "Good for you sweetie."
         "Yeah." She grinned before turning serious again. "She said something else, Erik. About Guy. Did he really fall apart after I left?"
         "You mean after he tried to beat me up for stealing you away from him?" He snorted. "I never saw him again after that. Why?"
         "Hailey said he was pretty torn up is all."
         "If he was I never heard about it."
         "Why don’t you ask me yourself?"
    Paige and Erik both jumped, startled at the sound of his voice.
         "Guy?"
         "Hello