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Brittany burst into the speakeasy with the intensity of a sprinter at an Olympic race. On either side of the front door, people gathered and gawked, their jaws hanging open as they took in sight of two in-uniform police officers as they stood before the table of Conner, Elijah, and Angie. Angie remained at the table, still playing dumb, her lips wrapped around the tiny straw of her Manhattan drink. Elijah chewed the inside of his cheek nervously.
“What the hell?” A well-dressed man near the front door caught sight of Brittany, who probably looked like a crazy stalker. Her cheeks were chilly; all the blood had drained to her feet.
“It’s always so weird here after a certain time,” another onlooker muttered. “We should hit the road. Can you call an Uber?”
“No. My friend here doesn’t have to go anywhere with you. You have absolutely no evidence that he did anything wrong.” Elijah leaped up from his stool, wagging a finger toward the police officers.
“What makes you think we’re not going to arrest you as well, Mr. Snow?” one of the cops threatened in the politest way possible. Enough to make him squirm in his seat.
The corners of Elijah’s smile curved toward the ground dramatically. Conner’s lips parted with surprise. With Elijah by his side, Conner was accustomed to getting away with everything— even, probably, murder if he’d tried it.
Suddenly, a cop stepped around Conner and latched handcuffs around his wrist. Conner wailed out over the music from the speaker system, his eyes glowing with pain and surprise. His upper body smacked the table, and the sound was proof enough that it was painful. His eyes then lifted toward the front door of the speakeasy, where Brittany stood with her arms hanging slack at her sides.
The look Conner gave her at that moment was one she would never forget, not as long as she lived.
The look told her everything she needed to know.
It told her that Conner Radley was incapable of love in any capacity.
It told her that he hated her to her core— that maybe his hatred for her had grown steadily over the years, especially as her confidence and her business had grown.
It also told her that he knew she’d gotten the better of him. He didn’t know how. And maybe he never would.
“Come on.” The cop tugged Conner toward the front door just as Brad burst in, gasping for air. He stalled beside Brittany, wrapping an arm around her waist tenderly as Conner and the cop passed by.
Brittany was petrified as Conner and the cop stepped only two feet away from her. Her entire body shivered with sorrow and fear. But when he got close, Conner whispered something she would never have expected.
“Brittany. Why would you do this? Don’t you know how much I love you?”
The words rattled through her. For a horrible split-second, Brittany half-believed them. She half-wanted to tell the cops to call off the operation, to make peace.
But a split-second after that, Brittany remembered herself. She remembered all she’d been through. And she lifted her chin to say, “Conner. I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you never knew what love was. Not the day we met, not the day we married, not the day our children were born, and not now. I feel bad for you. But at the same time, I hope I never have to lay eyes on you again.”
“Come on! No more theatrics,” the cop cried, tugging a deflated Conner back down the staircase. Another cop appeared directly behind the other, bringing Elijah along with him. Elijah looked at a loss, like a little boy who’d just been told it was bedtime “or else.”
When they disappeared down the dark shadows of the staircase, Brittany turned back toward the shocked faces of the rest of the bar. They took her and Brad in, flabbergasted, then returned their attention to their drinks. Slowly, someone lifted the volume of the speaker system once more. Gossip bubbled around them. “What the hell just happened?” everyone demanded of everyone else.
Angie hustled up from her circular table, her eyes wide with shock. “I cannot believe that worked!” She flung her arms around Brittany just as Evan, Nicole, and Heather stepped into the speakeasy to join them in a group hug. They held one another in the walkway there by the entrance, blocking everyone else and forgetting to care.
“Angie. You were so brilliant tonight,” Brittany breathed, stepping back as her eyes filled with tears. As she swiped them away, she forced herself to say all she needed to say. “And the rest of you were so incredible to come tonight. It was truly one of the most spectacular nights of my life. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
As Evan rushed up to grab them all a round of celebratory drinks, a man in a suit and tie approached suddenly, his eyes alight with excitement. He turned toward Angie, cocked his head, and said, “Hey, I heard you play earlier. You were just fantastic. We really need more performers in the Portland area if you’re willing to make the drive. The pay is better than most.” He passed her his business card and offered a gentle smile.
As he walked away from the rest of them, Angie waved the card excitedly, making eye contact with Brittany. “Tonight, might have changed my life.”
“No reason you can’t take up work in the spy industry as well,” Nicole suggested with a laugh. “Maybe they’re hiring at the CIA?”
Angie laughed good-naturedly. “Do you think they’ll always let me wear a cocktail dress like this?”
“They’d better,” Heather affirmed. “You look like a knockout.”
A little more than an hour later, Evan, Nicole, and Heather sat upright passed out in the back seat of Brittany’s SUV while a sober Brad guided them gently toward Bar Harbor, toward home. Brittany was amazed at the silence of the night, at the resolution in her heart, at the ease with which she took Brad’s hand and held it lovingly, wanting no other touch but his.
In a way, she felt bad for Conner, felt bad that her children would have to decide whether or not they wanted to visit him in prison, and that he’d spend most of his life in a six by eight cell eating the same old bland food over and over again. In another way, she was so grateful for the freedom she now felt, and the assurance that soon, she would have her inventory back. Soon, her dream would become a reality once again.
“Thank you for all you’ve done for me, Brad,” Brittany breathed, not loud enough for the others in back to awaken. “The past few weeks have truly changed my life. And I wouldn’t take them back for anything.”
Brad cleared his throat as a look of sorrow passed over his face. Brittany squeezed his hand just the tiniest bit harder.
“I feel the same way,” Brad told her, his voice only a whisper.
Again, Brittany allowed silence to pass between them. How could she possibly describe the hope she felt for their future? How could she tell him that already, she’d envisioned Brad at the house she shared with Valerie, perhaps changing paint colors on the walls and reassembling furniture? How could she describe to him the density of her dreams?
Instead, she just said, “I know you’ve had love before, Brad. I know you’ve had real love, the kind that sticks to your bones and makes you feel bigger and better than you ever were before. But I haven’t had that. I don’t even know how to build it. If you feel up to it... If you really want to... I’d love to make something like that with you. It’ll be a journey, one with many ups and downs and in-betweens. But I’m ready to try.”
The highway at night was dense with springtime fog. Their headlights beamed out through it, illustrating only the shadows of the surrounding vehicles. The ever-responsible Brad drove a steady sixty-five miles per hour without even using the Cruise Control. And over the next seconds, Brittany half-prayed he wouldn’t answer her, as it would allow them to live in this in-between forever, both knowing and not-knowing at once.
Finally, Brad cleared his throat.
“One of the biggest gifts of my life was learning how to love,” he told her, his voice textured and deep. “And they tell you that all loves are different. That they show you different things about yourself. That they give you so many different stories and dreams.”
Brittany’s eyes welled with tears. She dropped her head against the headrest as they careened through the impossibility of this dark and scary night.
“It would be my privilege and my honor to know you,” Brad offered. “But I suppose we have to start with square one, don’t we?”
Brittany furrowed her brow. “What do you mean? Square one?”
The corners of Brad’s lips curved upward, proof of his playful smile.
“I reckon I have to take you out on a proper first date.”
Brittany nearly collapsed with giggles. Her laughter rolled out across the highway and tickled Heather, Nicole, and Evan’s tired ears.
“A proper date, huh?” Brittany echoed gently, careful to quiet herself down.
“I’ve lost my touch when it comes to dating,” Brad told her. “But I have a hunch we’ll be okay.”
Brittany marveled at the beauty of such a simple sentence. As the light of the moon flashed out from the fluttering clouds above them, she chose to repeat what he’d said, articulating the syllables firmly.
“You know what? I have a hunch we’ll be okay, too.”
**
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