Rise - Part Three (Rise #3)(6)

My eyes well with tears as my thumb stops and the picture I coerced my father into posing for comes into view. I took it when he was saying goodbye to me at LAX the last time I saw him. My hair is pulled tightly into a bun on my head. I look almost identical to the way I did when we took a picture together at my high school graduation.

I gaze at my father. He's beaming. His eyes lit with joy and his smile a reflection of the happiness he feels. I touch my fingers to my lips before I hold them to the screen, over his face.

My dad, the man proudly holding his arm around my shoulders in the picture, would never let me fight a battle alone. He'd push through his own pain to stand tall next to me. I owe him the same.

As I feel the tug of sleep overtake me, I hold my phone to my chest. Tomorrow I'm going to do whatever it takes to help my father. He needs me. Nothing else matters.





Chapter 5


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The piercing ring of my smartphone wrenches me from a forgettable dream. I'd silenced my phone before I fell asleep, hoping that it would give me the break I needed to rest my body and my mind.

I'd woken with a start in the middle of the night, worried that my mother would finally ring me back only to have the call go to my voicemail. After checking my phone's screen and realizing that the only thing I'd missed was a lengthy text message from Ansel asking if I needed him, I blocked his number, turned up the volume, rolled over and fell back asleep.

I run my fingers over my eyes trying to chase away the trails of sleep that are still there, coaxing me to fall back onto the pillow. I try to focus on the number but I can't. I close my eyes as I swipe my finger over the screen, before I clear my throat.

"Hello?" I whisper into the darkness knowing that I'm not trying to shelter anyone from my voice. I live alone. I sleep alone.

"Tess?" His voice is deep and melodic. "Are you at home?"

I squint as I pull the phone from my face, staring down at the corner of the screen I take note of the time. "Landon, it's six. What time is it there?"

"It's six," he repeats back. "Are you at home?"

I swing my bare legs over the side of my bed. I reach forward to grab hold of the water bottle I placed on my bedside table when I was undressing last night. My plan was to take one of the ibuprofen tablets that I kept in the top drawer but the headache I had then, hadn't kept me from sleeping. I prop the bottle against my side as I try to wrestle the lid off.

"Are you home, Tess?" he repeats. "Where are you?"

I push the unopened bottle to the floor as my frustration rises. It's mid-day in Athens and he decides that now is the best time to call me? He's a pilot. His life revolves around time. He must have known there was a good chance that he'd wake me. "Why do you keep asking me that? I'm at home. Where else would I be?"

"Let me up," he says gruffly. "I've been in the lobby for ten minutes trying to buzz you."

I bolt to my bedroom window, arching my neck to try and catch a glimpse of the front of the building. It's futile. The only thing in my view is the street, which is already filled with cars and a few scant pedestrians as dawn breaks over the city. I take a step back, my eyes searching the room for my robe.

"Are you still there?" His voice is impatient. "I need to see you. Please, let me up."

"The buzzer doesn't always work," I offer, not because it matters. It's a buffer to give me more time to absorb what is happening. "I need to get dressed."

There's a pause before he speaks. "I'll wait down here until you're ready. Call me when I can come up."

I end the call. He's here. He wasn't supposed to be back until Wednesday but he's here now and before he leaves this building, he's going to explain to me everything he knows about my father.

***

"It was your birthday?" I run my hand through my damp hair. I'd showered quickly after he called me to tell me he was in the lobby. It was selfish on my part to make him wait but I needed to wash yesterday from my skin. I'd pulled off my clothes when I got home last night and slid between the cool sheets on my bed.

There was no pull towards the shower then. I wanted sleep and nothing more but this morning I wanted to face Landon without any trace of the hell I'd been through after hearing about my dad.

"That day. It was the day you saw my dad in the elevator." His eyes skim over the pale jeans and black blouse I'm wearing. "I didn't tell you because I don't celebrate it."

That's a far cry from how I've lived my life. When I was a youngster, my parents made certain that each of their children had an experience to remember when it was their birthday. There weren't parties with schoolmates or cakes formed into the shape of princesses or rocket ships. It was more precious than that.

My father would drive us to school on our special day so we could avoid the crowded bus filled with our classmates. He'd always have a treat hidden in the outside pocket of his suit jacket. On my seventh birthday there were a pair of tickets to the circus in Boston and on my twelfth birthday it was an invitation to accompany him to the ballet in New York.

My mother cooked the dinner of my choice and baked the same chocolate cake she did each and every year. Even when I was in college, she'd surprise me after class, cake in hand, and a twenty dollar bill tucked into a handmade birthday card. I've kept each of those cards, along with each gift that I found in my father's pocket.