Jack pulled himself to the present.
His stomach fluttered and he shifted out of the bed, momentarily pushing aside thoughts of the phone and unanswered texts. "Come in!" He called out. She entered with a tray in hand, and the delicious smell of eggs and sausage wafted towards him. Suddenly he was hungry. He felt like he could devour the entire building at that moment.
"Good morning," she said with a bright smile. "I hoped you would be awake. I brought us breakfast." She set the tray on the reading table and sat on the chair.
"Why?" Jack said without thinking. "I would have come outside soon enough to have something."
"Nah." She gave a dismissive wave of her hand. "You worked so hard yesterday. I wanted to thank you specially before you get going. The mechanic is almost done working on your car."
"Oh, good!" Jack was happy to hear such wonderful news. "And it's so thoughtful of you to have brought breakfast. Also, I am mighty glad to have been able to help yesterday. You don't have to mention it."
"Oh, but I will. My parents taught me to be grateful." She stood and moved the table and her chair toward him so they could eat together.
He saw that the tray had two loaded plates of food. Golden hash browns, perfectly toasted buttered bread, sausages, and fried eggs with glistening yolks. The rich aroma of coffee filled his nostrils, mingling with the sweet scent of freshly squeezed juice. His stomach rumbled in anticipation.
"Your parents..." Jack commented as she handed him a fork. He took up some eggs. "You must miss them very much."
"I miss them a whole lot," she admitted. Her voice lacked any hint of sadness as she continued to calmly eat her food. "I treasured their presence and the joy they brought to this place every day that I managed it. I am always amazed when I see the same people who have been coming to this place for years still filled with joy and satisfaction, just like they were on their first visit. It has been a wonderful thing to behold at times."
Jack nodded solemnly. "I agree."
A brief moment of silence followed as he took a sip of coffee, only to be interrupted by the sound of a notification on his phone. He flinched and knew that Sarah had noticed. He quickly grabbed another mouthful of food to distract himself from the awkwardness.
He glanced down at the phone beside him on the bed. It was Demi with yet another message.
He hadn't even read it before another notification sounded and another and another.
He couldn't imagine how fast she typed. He guessed the day's dose of pleas, threats, and plea-threats had officially begun.
Another notification came in.
He stared at the phone, his entire body frozen. His heart was palpitating again.
"You should switch that off before a call comes in."
Jack looked up at Sarah. She wasn't even looking at him. She was focused on dissecting the sausage on her plate.
"What?"
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Did he imagine her voice, or did she actually speak? Was it her words or just his own thoughts?
"Let me guess..." She held up a forked piece of the meat to her mouth. "That's your manager... What's her name? Demi? It's 'Demi', right? The very attractive one with the killer body and amazing dress sense? The one who got the deals for you and bagged them so quickly like it was magic and not perfume she wore on her outfits?"
His mouth dropped open, and he gaped at her.
Who the heck was this down-to-earth, low-key rural woman? Or... Who wasn't she?
"It sounds like you have met her." Jack had to swallow a mouthful of breakfast before continuing. "You said you didn't even know who I was. How…"
She looked at him and smiled mischievously. "I don’t think I ever said that exactly.”
His throat was suddenly dry. "I don't understand."
She nodded like he had asked a question. "Did you leave all that? All the glory of 'Jack Harper' to race down here?" she pointed a fork holding eggs at him with a serious face.
Jack didn't know whether to look at her face or the fork when he nodded in affirmation slowly.
"Do you want to go back to everything you left?"
He paused. This one was harder to answer. He looked to the v-neck of the floral dress Sarah was wearing as if asking it for help. It was beautiful but it was not going to offer him any help on this.
"I... I don't know. I just turned on my phone and Demi is... Demi has been..." He stopped again, at a loss, and just held the phone in his hand, looking at it.
"Demi is just doing her job," she reminded him as she placed her hand over his, as it tightly gripped the phone. Their gazes met and locked, and the warmth of her touch felt comforting, like a hug. "You hired her to do a job and she is a professional. It's understandable that she needed to know where you are because there is always work to be done for someone in your position. The moment work stops, the downward spiral begins. That's just how it goes in the glamorous but chaotic life of a celebrity."
He couldn't tear his gaze away from her large, hazel eyes. It was as if he was under a spell, but instead of falling deeper into it, he was rising. He felt like he was flying... in eyes that not only looked beautiful, but also held a sense of purity. They were peering into him, and he didn't feel exposed or ashamed. He wanted her to keep looking, to uncover every part of him until there was nothing left hidden.
"Now, Jack," she continued, her voice soft and soothing, the kind of tone that made every word feel like a gentle push, "you knew the life you chose, how it worked. And yet, you left without a word... you drove all this way and ended up in Lily Corner. A small town, a place where you hoped no one would recognize you. Was that it, Jack? Were you looking for a connection—something outside of the world you’ve always known?"
She paused, letting the question linger in the air before speaking again. "Think about it, Jack. You didn’t make this kind of decision lightly. What you’ve done—leaving everything behind, walking away from the life you’ve built—it is a sacrifice. A huge one. Are you really going to turn back now, before you even understand what it’s for? Before you discover what this sacrifice might lead to? Will you walk away from it before you’ve given it the chance to show you its purpose?"
Jack felt the weight of her words pressing down on him, his voice faltering as he asked, "What do you want me to do?" He sounded lost, and he felt it too—completely adrift.
She shook her head, her gaze steady. "This isn’t about me, Jack. Or anyone else. It’s time to stop thinking about what everyone else expects from you. What do you want? What do you really want, Jack?"
"I want to be free." He didn't need to think too much or at all. "Christ! I just want to be freaking free."
She leaned back in her chair and retrieved her hand from his. He felt a sense of loss.
"Then let your sacrifice be complete. Let it find its purpose," she said, her voice steady. When Jack still didn’t move, still just stared at her, she tilted her chin toward the phone in his hand. "Turn the bloody phone off, Jack."
He didn't argue. Silently, he powered it down, watching the screen fade to black.
In that instant, the pull of his old life—the pressure, the expectations—finally loosened its grip. The spell was broken.