Come Back to Me

Chapter 15: Present Day

My brother was a beer and whiskey guy, always had been, so imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon a ridiculously large wine cooler while ransacking the kitchen in his stupidly gorgeous and perfect home. There had to be no less than fifty bottles filling the ceiling-high cooler, which took up an entire wall of the pantry. A pantry that was about the same size as my bedroom back home. I didn't know much about wine but I knew enough to tell which ones I was safe to open and the ones that were never meant to be enjoyed. I grabbed two bottles of chardonnay that had a familiar label, figuring it would pair okay with the grilled cheese I threw together.

Was Noah a wine guy? That didn't seem right, either. Remembering back to some of the parties we had gone to in high school, Noah had always been drinking beer. But, that's probably because it was high school and keggers usually didn't have a wine bar set up. If the jerk was around, I could have asked him.

Noah had unceremoniously dumped me at the garage entrance to this immaculate three-story brownstone my brother called home. He muttered something about an appointment and left me standing in the lower-level laundry room with my luggage. Obviously, I immediately started my self-guided tour of the multi-million dollar house that was now mine.

I loved it. 

I found it completely overwhelming. 

It terrified me.

The lower level held a laundry room, an impressive home gym, and a small guest suite with a full bathroom and kitchenette. There was no evidence that any of the guys stayed down there. I had hesitated for a few minutes, considering the possibility of hiding out in the guest suite and avoiding the rest of the house. Then the need to see, to touch, things that were my brother's took over and I hurriedly took the steps to the main level.

The place was gorgeous. Open floor plan, simple and elegant white and grey styling, massive kitchen - all things I may have paid more attention to under different circumstances. The study near the front door caught my eye and I did slow my walk as I went past but it wasn't enough to stop me completely.

I had to find Riley's room.

The third level was much more of what I would expect of Riley. A worn and very comfy-looking sectional framed in a huge television and wall full of gaming systems. A small bar was set up on the opposite wall with a variety of memorabilia decorating the walls. Some I recognized, a lot of it I didn't. The old door sign from Noah's family hardware store caught my eye, my fingers trailing lightly along the edges. Right next to it was a road sign from the waterpark.

"Blue Lagoon Falls" it originally read. Someone had used a black marker to color in the "F" so now it said "Balls".

Chuckling, I glanced down the hall and saw the double doors at the very end.

It was Riley's room. I just knew.

I ran towards it and burst into tears when I flung open the doors.

It was such a mess. Clothes were everywhere - on the bed, on the floor, piled on top of an old bean bag chair he had had since college. The bed wasn't made. The comforter hung almost all the way off, a corner of it waterlogged from the glass it rested in.

My knees gave out and I curled into a ball on the floor, hugging one of his shirts to me, desperate to absorb his scent into me so I'd never forget. Minutes, probably hours, passed while I hid in his room among the discarded remnants of him. When my tears had finally dried, the urge to tidy up became too strong to ignore. Until the discovery of his walk-in closet. Everything was hung in such an order that an infant could have picked out an outfit and dressed himself with no issue. His suits outnumbered my collection of clothes, which plunged me into another crying fit.