I Signed Away Eight Million To Leave Him Chapter 08
I had seen him come home from school and drink water from the tap to fill his stomach.
The day my mother died, the staff cottage was crowded with people.
They offered condolences, told me to be strong, and speculated about what Beatrice would do with me.
I couldn’t hear any of it.
After dark, I sat alone on the steps outside.
Eli came out from the cottage next door and sat beside me.
He didn’t tell me not to cry. He didn’t say everything would be okay.
He simply stayed with me from sunset to sunrise.
Later, his father got a new job, and their family moved away from Palm Beach.
We exchanged a few letters, but eventually, we lost touch.
I never imagined we would meet again here, all these years later.
“I just moved back to Florida recently, too.” Eli helped me stack the handouts neatly in my arms. “I was working up north, but this school needed a counselor, so I applied.”
He didn’t ask why I had left Palm Beach.
He didn’t bring up Graham, and he didn’t offer a single word of pity about the news stories.
He only glanced at the badge pinned to my shirt.
“How’s the new job?”
“Better than I expected.”
“And your place?”
“The faucet leaks, and the AC sounds like it’s about to give out,” I said, then paused. “But I pay the rent myself, so it’s great.”
Eli understood.
He didn’t say I could have lived somewhere better. He just nodded.
“Then yeah. That is great.”
Someone called his name from across the gym.
He answered, then bent to pick up a pen I had dropped and handed it to me.
“I have to go. If you need anything after work, you can find me in the counseling office.”
He turned to leave, and I called out to him.
“Eli.”
He looked back.
I tightened my grip on the handouts. For the first time in a long time, I found myself trying to hold on to someone who had nothing to do with my past.
“Are you free this weekend? Let me buy you a coffee.”
Eli looked at me for a moment. The smile in his eyes was gentle, but he didn’t say yes right away.
“I’d really like that coffee.”
“But not now.”
I blinked, surprised.
He took a small step back, leaving the choice entirely with me.
“When you’re ready,” he said. “When you completely belong to yourself, I’ll be the one to ask you out, Mara.”