He's Inevitable || N.H.

F O R T Y - N I N E

"So am I going to get an explanation as to what this means, or are you just going to keep it to yourself?"

Janice asks as she drives on a relatively empty road. She waves around the map, laughingly.

"Well, if I give it away, I won't have much to put in a novel will I?"

"Are you really considering that?"

"Why not? I'm a good writer...right?"

She places her hand upon mine, keeping the other steady on the wheel, "I've only been waiting for this moment for the past five years."

"Five?"

"Emma, you realize you have shelves upon shelves of lined journals, a father who is quite possibly one of the geniuses of his time, and a way with words that leave people astounded....if you would let them read your writing."

"Baby steps." I mutter. "And how did you know about the journals?"

"You're always writing in the bloody things, I can see them on your top shelves."

I sigh, "Anyways..."

"Anyways?"

"Do you think we'll find him?"

"Ems, didn't you just five me a speech about the bloody clues?"

"Yeah, but..."

"But?"

"What if the clues get harder? What if I get stuck?"

"I'm pretty sure he'll be in Ireland, Ems. If anything else we have one other option..."

"And what would that be?"

"We could just look in every pub in the country."

I lean over and smack her arm, she simply laughs in response.

As soon as the laughter dies down though, she clears her throat and asks, "Do you really love him, Ems?"

"More than anything in the world, Jan."

"That's so fucking scary."

"Fucking right it is."

We both chuckle, but she continues, "We're going to find him."

"Yeah?"

"Of course we are. I don't think he'll be able to live the rest of his life without you."

"That goes both ways."

I could feel her eye on me, as she asks, "Ems...did you two..."

Oh, I forgot to tell Janice.

"Yeah...yeah we did."

She breaks, and I silently thank God that there was no one behind us.

"And you didn't tell me!?"

"Um, it's much worse than you think."

"Was it that bad? Was he not as great as you think?"

"Jan!"

"Well what is it then?"

I look up ahead of us and see there's a town coming up, "Why don't we stop for a bit and I can tell you what's happened."

–❈–

"How did I manage to miss all of that?" Janice says stirring her coffee with a small silver spoon.

"It happened unbelievably fast." I mutter, looking past her out the window. The sun was setting quickly, and we were still an hour away from Manchester.