Halcyon by C L Donley

Author:C L Donley [Donley, C L]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2020-01-09T16:00:00+00:00

Cliff

An hour or two after we left the diner, there’s a knock on my hotel room door. My heart floods.

I slowly walk to the door and linger there for just a moment. It’s not every day that I open a door and Lyric is just standing there. And I don’t know how many more times I’ll have. She gives me the cordial grin of a stranger when the door opens and she makes her way in, as though I’m in her way.

“You came.”

“Told you I would.”

“Sorry if I got a little… comfortable back there, by the way.”

“What do you mean?”

“At the diner. I didn’t mean to be so… forward. Being around you again just—”

“I get it.”

“You do?”

“I do. So, um… Cliff the highway patrolman, huh?” she says my name like it’s as foreign on her tongue as it is to my ears.

“That’s me.”

“That’s you. Where you from?”

“Uh, Chicago, more or less.”

“Windy City.”

“Yeah.”

“What brings you to Texas?”

“You, of course.”

“Of course. How long are you here for?”

“I… actually live here.”

“You live here. In Dallas?”

“Houston.”

A stunned cache of questions builds behind her eyes.

“That’s where I live…” she replied, a bit stunned.

“Really?” I deadpan. I don’t pretend to be shocked.

“For how long?”

“About a year now.”

More stunned silence.

“The answer is yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“I came out here to find you.” A second burden lifts off me as I confess to her. “I was sorta hoping it would happen organically. Looking for a sign, I guess. That you would take me back. A sign to tell me to go after you no matter what.”

“And then I joined a band.”

“And then you joined a band.”

Bria shakes her head and laughs.

“But I knew about you before the band.”

“You did?”

I nod. “You weren’t exactly a needle in a haystack.”

“No,” she laughs, looking at the family picture displayed on my phone laying on the side table. She picks it up. “Is this your parents?”

“Yes.”

“Still living?”

“Yes.”

“You look like your dad,” she says before launching into more questions. “How long have you known?”

“Known what?”

“Who I was.”

“…Few years.”

“Must be nice. Finding you was next to impossible.”

“You tried to find me?”

“Of course. In a futile kind of way. When I had the urge to torture myself. I didn’t get very far, as you can imagine. Pathetically pointless.”

Cliff lowered his head. “I, uh… wow. That’s… wow.”

“What?”

“I just… never considered that you would… do that.”

“Well. Closure on my end was pretty much non-existent, so.”

“Right.” I swallow as I launch right in. “Lyric, I want you to know th—”

“Bria.”

“What?”

“It’s Bria. You called me Lyric.”

“Sorry. I’m probably gonna do that a lot,” I laugh, but I instantly want to take the words back. Presumptuous much? Bria’s look confirms my suspicion.

“You live here but you haven’t been to any other shows before,” she blurts. “Why?”

“How do you know?”

“Trust me, I know.”

I run nervous fingers through my hair. “You’re right. I was still hoping for that organic meeting, I guess. Bumping into you at the grocery store, or something I guess. I got cold feet. Once the possibility became real.”

“So what changed?”

“Started hearing your name around town.

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