After the Storm

Lizbet stood at the door with her suitcase at her feet and a backpack filled with cherished mementos from her brief marriage slung over her shoulder.

“Where are you going?” Jamie asked, his face a mixture of confusion and concern.

Lizbet hesitated, asking herself if this was really what she wanted. Once she took this step, there was no going back. “Home. To Charleston.”

The bottom dropped out of his stomach. “But this is your home now,” he said, spreading his arms wide.

“You know what I mean. Tradd Street is where I grew up. It will always be my first home.”

“But why do you have to go now? In the middle of a tropical storm?”

Lizbet stared down at the floor, unable to meet his dark eyes. “I need to leave while I have the nerve.”

She sensed him moving toward her and saw the toe of his Xtratuf boot when he drew near.

“The nerve for what, Liz? What’re you saying?”

She inhaled an unsteady breath as she raised her gaze. “I need some time to myself, Jamie. I’m having a personal crisis.”

Emotions marched across his face—bewilderment, anger, and fear. “How long will you be gone?”

“I’m not sure. Indefinitely.”

He shook his head, as though baffled. “I don’t understand. Are we separating?”

Lizbet bit down on her quivering lower lip. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? Where is this coming from? We’ve built a life together.”

A beautiful life. Her dream life. “I realize that, Jamie. I’m confused about some stuff right now, and I need to get my head straight.”

“What about your job? Are you just gonna walk out on Annie?” Jamie’s voice was tight, and she could tell he was close to tears.

“She’ll find someone else.” Lizbet fidgeted with the zipper on her yellow raincoat. “Business is way down, anyway. Annie should close the Garden Cafe and let your mom use the space for the wine shop she’s always talking about.”

“Where will you work when you come back?”

If I come back, Lizbet thought. “I’ll find something more challenging. I have a degree from the finest culinary school in the country. I’m overqualified to manage a sandwich shop.”

Jamie took her hands in his to stop the fidgeting. “So, this is about your career?”

Lizbet shrugged. “It’s about a lot of things.”

Outside, a tree branch cracked and dropped to the ground with a loud thud. “I should go before the storm worsens,” Lizbet said, reaching for the doorknob. When she turned the knob, the wind blew the door out of her hand, banging it against the wall. She grabbed her suitcase and darted down the sidewalk to her car before Jamie could stop her.

Tears blurred her vision as she drove away from the small house she and Jamie had so lovingly renovated. She smiled through her tears at the memory of them refinishing the floors and painting the kitchen cabinets. They’d put down new tile in the bathrooms and hung fresh wallpaper in the master bedroom. They’d turned the second bedroom into a home office, but she’d had such big plans for the third bedroom.

Lizbet let out a loud sigh as she merged onto the highway, heading for Charleston. Jamie’s happiness was all that mattered to her. If she couldn’t give him what he wanted, she would step aside so someone else could.