Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 101168 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101168 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
“I’m gonna come,” Jamie said. It sounded like a threat. Like Jamie was giving him a chance to change his mind. But Edgar hoped it was a promise.
6
Jamie
Jamie drummed on the steering wheel to the rhythm of the new Garden Gate single, and Amelia tossed boiled peanut shells out the window while they drove out of town in Jamie’s trusty truck. Well, trusty-ish.
“It’s clearly meant to be,” Amelia was saying through a mouthful of peanut. “Everyone knows when you run into someone again, that means it’s fate.”
“Is that how you ended up dating Cassandra for three months, or—?”
“Shuddup. But actually, kinda.”
Amelia’s lazy, appreciative grin meant she was fondly remembering the hurricane of a woman that that had left her heart—and her apartment—in a state of ruin the year before. Jamie admired Amelia’s ability to extract the positive from even the worst situations. It had been one of the things that drew Jamie to her. And now, more than a decade after Amelia sauntered into Jamie’s second-period AP chemistry class and slid into the empty seat beside them, it was still something Jamie appreciated.
Jamie squinted into the sun as their phone indicated the turn.
“This should be it.”
Jamie and Amelia got out of the truck, and Amelia spat a peanut shell into the drain with admirable precision. Before them loomed an old textile factory. What was once a clanking ode to modern innovation was now still, abandoned to elements both human and natural. Windows had been cracked by branches and bricks, doors wrenched open by vines and crowbars.
Jamie grabbed the flashlight they kept in the glove compartment for explorations such as these.
The friend of an acquaintance who’d given Amelia the tip about this place had mentioned a broken first floor window hidden by a copse of trees, and Amelia crowed with excitement when she found it. Despite the oppressive heat, they both wore long pants and sleeves for protection against everything from broken glass to the flesh-eating parasites that it amused Amelia to pretend she’d contracted, so they made it through the window without incident.
The smell of mildew, decaying wood, and the strangely sweet scent of rot hit Jamie immediately.
“You’re lucky I love you,” Jamie muttered, but they were vibrating with excitement. They loved exploring. Jamie and Amelia’s friendship had solidified in abandoned places like this, after all.
This was no lark though. This time, they weren’t just exploring, as they’d done so many times; they were scouting locations for a scene in Amelia’s film. The space needed to look dilapidated, be big enough for fifteen actors, and be free—hence the abandoned part.
Once inside, they moved slowly and quietly, making sure they didn’t disturb anyone. Just because buildings had been abandoned by the people who once owned them didn’t mean they weren’t inhabited. And Jamie never wanted to intrude on someone’s home.
Jamie shone the flashlight around the room. A rat ran from the light, skittering along the wall to disappear into another dark corner. “Jesus, ick.”
A massive tangle of machine parts was covered in tarps that had fallen to tatters, draping the machines like skin stretched over a metal skeleton. It was eerily beautiful, and Jamie snapped a picture with their phone.
“Are you gonna see him again?” Amelia prompted.
Finding out that Edgar had left the Never Lounge because he hadn’t felt well and not because he’d been avoiding Jamie had made Jamie’s hope that there might be something between them bloom again. He was as awkward as he was handsome, but Jamie had approached him at the bar because he’d seemed interesting. Out of place. There had been something about him that struck Jamie as deep loneliness, even though he had been at the club with friends.
“Yeah, I’m gonna go to the cat café where he works.”
“Oh, shit, that’s so cute,” Amelia said.
Jamie wholeheartedly agreed. “He just seems…”
Jamie found they couldn’t finish the sentence, but Amelia had been Jamie’s best friend long enough that she raised her eyebrows and finished it for them.
“In need of saving?”
“What? No!” Jamie said immediately.
No more savior shit! they’d promised themself after they finally broke up with Jason.
“Mm-hmm,” Amelia said doubtfully.
Jamie searched for how to explain the combination of uncertainty, intrigue, and surprise that had animated Edgar.
“He seems like a time traveler who’s ended up here and doesn’t want people to know that he’s from another time.”
Amelia paused her scouting in corners, intrigued. “Hmm. Time traveler from the future or the past?”
Jamie laughed. “The past. He looks around like everything about the world shocks him.”
“I kinda like a time traveler for you, actually,” Amelia said. “Such chance for interesting conversation. You can explain our modern customs to him.”
“You know who I’d like to explain modernity to? Emma, who asked me to be her maid of fucking honor.”
Jamie’s words hung in the air. They hadn’t texted Amelia about this before because they were embarrassed they hadn’t stuck up for themself more at brunch.