One More Valentine by Katrina Jackson

Author:Katrina Jackson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Katrina Jackson

January 1, 2020

Dear Mei⁠—

I know you know what’s happening with Candace and Ezra right now.

As soon as I got the first text from him, I knew this was it. This was the day we’d all been waiting for. This was the day you and I used to talk about.

Today’s about Candace and Ezra, but knowing they’re finally happy and together only makes me think of you.

Always,

Miles

Twelve

Miles slept hard for four hours. He would have preferred more, he needed more, but four hours was all he got. He took the hottest shower he could stand and then spent way more time getting dressed, steaming his pants, ironing his shirt. By the time Miles was dressed, he looked good and he smelled better. Mei had always loved his cologne.

The phone in his room rang, scaring the shit out of him. His heart was racing as he walked to the bedside table. “Hello?”

“You dressed?” Ezra asked.

“Depends on what you want me to do,” Miles said.

Ezra sighed. “I realize that we’ve been best friends for twenty years. Sometimes, I’m just not sure how.”

Miles smiled against the receiver. “At this point, it’s just inertia.”

Ezra grunted unhappily.

“And I guess years of mutual love, affection, and the realization that if we tried to stop talking, our parents would hold an intervention,” Miles added.

Ezra laughed. “Especially after…”

He stopped himself, and Miles was grateful, but Miles’s brain had already made that association. He didn’t know the particulars, but he knew that his and Mei’s divorce had been all over the parent group chat or however else they stayed in near-constant contact. Still, he was happy not to be reminded of the sure possibility that Ezra and Candace probably talked about him and Mei the same way he and Mei had talked about them.

“I’m dressed,” Miles said. “What’s up?”

“You wanna get a drink before dinner?”

“Oh, definitely. I’ma head out now.”

“Alright, me too.”

“For real, Ezra,” Miles said.

“What’s that supposed to mean? I’m coming right now.”

Miles pursed his lips. “Where’s Candace?”

He laughed nervously. “In the shower. She’s running late. She told me to leave before we were both late.”

“Of course,” Miles said. “Meet you in the lobby.”

He took one last look at himself in the floor-length mirror attached to the wall. Normally, he wouldn’t bring a suit on such a short trip unless it was for work, but Ezra was taking them to an members-only supper club because Candace had read about it in a magazine. He and Ezra weren’t generally into restaurants with dress codes, but Miles knew better than most that if Candace wanted something, Ezra would bend over backwards to make it happen, so he’d dragged his favorite suit across the Atlantic and tracked down an iron to make it look as presentable as possible. Ezra had waited half his life to be with Candace, so Miles wouldn’t complain. He did, however, wonder if Mei would see him and remember when they bought this suit together, because everything reminded him of her.

And it didn’t matter that those memories hurt.

Giving himself a mental shake, he grabbed his jacket, his cell phone, and his room key.

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