I turn to Shayne, shaking my head. “He bought a car.”
“And there was another check cut to another dealership, here.” She taps again, bringing up the details. “This one is to Toyota for twenty thousand dollars.”
“He bought two cars, not just one, with my damn money,” I say to Shayne. Shayne’s not saying anything, just shaking her head. I turn back to the teller and say, “I’ll withdraw everything in that account and have my name taken off it.”
“I’ll have to get a manager to do that,” she says. “I’ll be back in a moment.” She locks her window, and leaves Shayne and myself standing their dumbfounded and speechless.
“This is unbelievable,” I say as I look around the bank about to cry again. Can this day get any worse?
An older man, who’s soft around the center with no hair on his head comes and introduces himself. He leads me to a private office, and we sit for fifteen minutes taking my name off that account and opening another in just my name. When we’re done, I walk out with just over three thousand dollars in my new bank account and the clothes on my back. I go back into work, and quickly speak to Dale, giving him my new bank details then leave with Shayne and Liam.
I’m going to start my life over again.
“Hey, I made hot chocolates,” Shayne says, as she comes into the guest room and sits on the bed I’ve been occupying for the last three days. “Why don’t you come have some with us?”
I look over at the clock and see just how late it is. “It’s nearly eleven; I just want to sleep,” I say as I turn over in the bed. I went into work and spoke with Dale and Peter, and they both agreed I’m too valuable to the company to be on the floor. I’ve been given a pay raise of five thousand a year, and the position of Peter’s personal assistant. Peter told me he’d review my performance in six months, and will adjust my pay accordingly.
“Too bad. This is the first time in, I don’t know how many years, I have my best friend back,” she says as she pushes on my body. “I’m not going to waste the opportunity.”
I smile because Shayne is, if nothing else, tenacious. “Okay, get me my…I mean your slippers.” I point to the bottom of the bed.
She chuckles, gets up and throws them at my head. “Here’s your slippers.” She’s laughing, and I can’t help but laugh, too. “Now, get your butt out of bed, or I’ll sit on your head and fart.” Again, she makes me laugh, and she leaves the room, laughing too.
I get up and walk out to their kitchen. Liam is sitting on one of the stools sipping his hot chocolate, and Shayne sits and picks her mug up too. “Why does this feel like an intervention?” I ask as I sit and look into my mug. “If it is, then I think I should at least get a couple of marshmallows in my mug.”
“Oh good idea, and tomorrow night, we’re having s’mores. Can you get the fire pit going?” she asks Liam.
“Yeah I should be able to, unless it snows.”
“It hasn’t snowed yet, so it probably won’t tomorrow night either.”
Liam goes to the cupboard and gets the marshmallows, putting them down in front of us. I pick two up and pop them into my hot chocolate.
“You know we love you, right?” Shayne starts saying.
It’s never good when someone starts the conversation off with a statement like that, then adds, ‘right?’ on the end of it. “Yeah,” I say, drawing out the word. “But…?” I include, “there’s always a ‘but’.”
“Well, Liam and I have been talking…”
“No, sweetheart, you’ve been talking and I’ve been listening,” Liam butts in.
“Yes, that too.” Shayne pokes her tongue out Liam playfully. “Liam and I have been talking,” she emphasizes his name. “And we think you should go back to the university. You always wanted to become an English teacher. Now I think you should do it.”
“It’s all her, not me, I had nothing to do with this,” Liam says throwing his hands up in mock surrender.
“It’s okay. It’s a great idea. But I can’t. I need to work, and my scholarship became void once I dropped out.”
“You can work part time at the supermarket, and maybe do some proofreading to supplement your wages and take a course or two,” Shayne excitedly says, as she bounces in her seat.
“You’ve put a lot of thought into this,” I say, watching her enthusiasm as she beams toward me.
“Oh my God, have I! I think you can do it, Lily. Really, I think you can. You’re the smartest person I know. And even though it’ll mean you’ll be super busy, if there’s anyone who can do it, it’s you.” She takes a deep breath and smiles at me. “I know you can do it.” She points at herself. “He knows you can do it.” She points to Liam, and Liam’s nodding with a goofy smile on his face. “And you know you can do it.” She points to me. “You’ve lived your entire life in hell. Now, it’s time to move to heaven.” She smiles at me.