When Love's Tide Recedes, I Turn Away and Won't Wait

Grandma Swanson was gravely ill, and there were no train tickets left.

It was over a thousand miles home. I'd only just gotten my license and didn't dare drive that far alone, so I begged Zion Stephens to make the drive with me.

Instead, he pulled up a navigation app and said, frowning,

I'm swamped at work. Stop leaning on me for everything. What could possibly go wrong if you just follow the GPS?

So I steeled myself and set out for home alone.

Then a downpour caught me on the road, and the car stalled out and sank into a mud pit.

I called Zion a few dozen times. Every one of them rang busy.

By the time the rescue crew pulled me out and I made it home, all I found was a memorial hall full of chrysanthemums.

I didn't even get to see Grandma one last time.

But right then, Zion's girl buddy posted to her feed.

"What would I ever do without my puppy boy?"

"I said once that I wanted to do a road trip, and he spent over twenty hours on a call with me mapping the whole thing out."

The photo attached showed Zion's sharp handwriting.

He'd laid out her GPS route, her hotels, backup roads, even the weather for the next fourteen days, right down to what she should wear.

I looked at the black-and-white photo in Grandma's memorial hall, then back at Zion's comment, and all at once I let go.

...

"Mattie, that boy Zion didn't come back with you?"

"You two are getting married any day now. Your grandmother fell ill and passed. He should be here with you."

Seeing me fixed on my phone, Mom came over and took my arm, her voice careful, testing.

I turned to her with red eyes, not knowing how to explain.

Grandma's memorial portrait and her urn sat right in the center of the front room.

I'd fought my way home through everything, and I still hadn't gotten to see her one last time.

And the man I'd loved for seven years was getting ready to go on a road trip with another woman.

It was more than I could take in, and I had no idea how to put it into words. In the end I just shook my head and said to Mom,

"I'm not going to marry Zion."

Mom must have guessed something had gone wrong between us. She knew how close Grandma and I were, so she didn't press. She only gripped my hand tighter.

Then my phone rang.

It was Zion.

I answered, and before I could say a word I heard Virginia Barnes's voice on the other end.

"Hey, so Zion and I are heading out on a road trip. We're ending up near your hometown, so we figured we'd just stay at your place."

"I mean, Zion's my puppy boy, and he's covering the whole cost of this trip, so as his daddy I should save him a little money, right?"

Listening to her call him her puppy boy over and over, I tightened my grip on the phone. My voice came out cold. "Put Zion on."

Last year, before Zion and I were engaged, we went on a trip too.

He didn't want to drive. Said driving wore him out.

We split every cost down the middle the whole way.

The only thing he treated me to was a single iced coffee.

But now, in front of Virginia, driving didn't wear him out anymore, and there was no more splitting the bill.

Did he really think Virginia was some queen to wait on hand and foot?

Hearing how serious I sounded, Virginia muttered something in a wounded little voice.

Zion took the phone, a trace of impatience in his tone.

"Get a room ready for Ginny. The sheets and duvet cover, ideally, should be"

"Zion."

I cut him off. My chest felt like someone had it in a fist.

I'd called him dozens of times and he hadn't picked up.

And when he finally reached me, he never asked if I'd made it safely, never asked how Grandma was.

There was only Virginia in his heart.

I gave a cold laugh.

"Don't bother coming. My grandmother's dead."

"You're not welcome here."

On the other end of the line, Zion went quiet for a few seconds.

Then he scoffed.

"Are you out of your mind? Your grandmother isn't even seventy."

"Wasn't she perfectly healthy a few months ago?"

"I know you've always had a thing about Ginny, but do you have to be this nasty? Using a reason like that to shut us out."

"And even if your grandmother really did pass, what's the harm in us staying at your place for a few days?"

Hearing how little Zion cared, tears slid past the corners of my eyes before I could stop them, and I forced my voice steady.

"Let's break up, Zion."

"Is it really that serious? Are you mad because I didn't go back to your hometown with you?"

There was an edge of irritation in his voice. "We're about to get married. Do you have to pick a fight right now?"

"Besides, I'm already on a road trip with Ginny. We just want to crash at your place for a few days. Does that really call for a breakup?"

"That's right!" Virginia's voice cut in from the side. "We're about to head out. Him not driving you back was just to toughen you up! Don't you worry. On this whole road trip, I promise, I promise I'll keep an eye on him for you!"

"No checking out pretty girls on the road, no chatting up other women! No fooling around!"

"And if he's got any needs down there, I can always cover for you."

Virginia's words turned my stomach.

Virginia was the loud, breezy type, and she'd always cast herself as one of Zion's guy friends.

She'd made plenty of crude jokes with him before, and I hated it. But Zion just told me to treat her like she was one of the guys.

The moment Virginia finished that line about covering for me, the two of them burst out laughing together.

When I didn't make a sound on my end, Virginia turned careful. "You're not upset, are you?"

"I was just joking. Relax, I wouldn't want a mangy dog like Zion!"

"After all these years, if anything was going to happen it would've happened already. You've got nothing to worry about!"

The same lines again.

Seven years with Zion, and Virginia had said this to me more than a hundred times.

If I pushed back, I was the petty, paranoid one.

"All right, why can't you take a joke?"

Hearing Zion's voice, I was shaking all over, and I couldn't stand it a second longer.

"Zion, I said we're through."

"My grandmother's funeral is going on, and I don't want to see the two of you, you disgusting pair!"

Standing not far off, Mom saw that something was wrong and came over to steady me.

I'd mentioned a little about Virginia to her before, so she'd probably guessed at some of it.

She took the phone straight out of my hand.

"Zion? You're planning to come over? It's not a good time for our family right now."

"Mattie's grandmother has passed, and Mattie's told you she wants to break up. It's better if you don't come make trouble."

At that, Zion let out a cold laugh. "Ma'am, so you're playing along with Matilda too?"

"What's wrong with you two? Talking about breaking up. This is playing hard to get, isn't it? I'm setting out right now. I'll be there tonight, and then I'll smooth things over with Matilda, all right?"

"Oh, and Ma'am, could you get a silk bedding set ready for Ginny? Her skin's on the sensitive side."

And with that, Zion hung up.

Mom stared at the phone in disbelief after the call cut off.

She looked up at me, her eyes going red.

"Mattie, Zion, he..."

"That bastard! How could he do this!"

"My poor Mattie. You've suffered so much."

Mom pulled me into her arms.

Held there against her, my gaze fell on Grandma's memorial portrait.

Grandma was still smiling, gentle the way she always was.

I never got to see her one last time because of that storm.

But it was that same storm that let me finally see Zion clearly.

Grandma's passing had given me one clear moment of waking up.

Zion arrived in the small hours of that night.

When he walked in and saw Grandma's memorial hall, he visibly flinched.

I looked at him, thinking surely now he would believe it, and then Virginia spoke up.

"How come there's nobody here to pay respects? Just your family?"

She turned to me. "You didn't set up this whole memorial hall on purpose, did you, to scare Zion and me off?"

Then she tugged at Zion's sleeve. "Come on, you silly boy, let's go. She put on this whole act just so we wouldn't stay at her place!"

Zion looked over our courtyard.

Grandma had gone suddenly. She'd loved peace and quiet her whole life, and before she passed she told my father not to make a fuss over it, so we'd simply set up a memorial hall at home and kept watch over her as a family.

"That's what I figured too."

Zion let out a cold laugh and looked at me. "Grandma was video-calling you just the other day, perfectly healthy. How does someone suddenly get sick and die?"

"If you didn't want us staying here, you didn't have to go this far faking it."

I clenched my fists and was about to speak when my father shot to his feet.

That afternoon I'd told my parents everything, start to finish.

They stood together in supporting me leaving that piece of trash Zion.

"My daughter already broke up with you. What are you even doing here?"

"It's bad enough you have no manners. Now you show up dragging some other woman along and spouting nonsense at Grandma's memorial hall. What is it you want?"

Watching my father stand up for me like that, I felt a hot sting behind my eyes.

I thought surely now Zion would believe it, but instead he spread his hands and laughed out loud.

"Sir, you two just spoil Mattie too much. She throws a fit and you play right along, is that it?"

"And Ginny isn't some other woman. Ginny's my buddy."

"Even after Mattie and I are married, I'll still keep in touch with Ginny. You're a man, sir. Surely you understand how that goes?"

"No offense, but for us men, our buddies are the ones who stay by our side for life."

Hearing all this, the rage rushed straight to my father's head.

He snatched up the broom beside him, pointed it at Zion, his voice hoarse.

"I told you to get out and you won't? Marriage? You think you're fit to marry my daughter?"

"What kind of nothing are you! Take this woman and get out of here, now!"

My father swung hard at Zion, and Zion dodged and bolted on instinct, running toward Grandma's memorial portrait, and the next second came the sound of something hitting the floor.

Grandma's memorial portrait crashed to the ground, the pane of glass over it shattering into pieces.

The air went dead still.

I couldn't hold back another second, and my hand cracked across Zion's face.

"Zion! Are you done with this circus?"

"I told you weeks ago Grandma was gravely ill! I begged you to come back with me and you wouldn't!"

"Same destination, and you said you were swamped with work, but now here you are, road-tripping your way here with Ginny!"

"My car sank into the mud, I called you dozens of times, and you know what you were doing? Helping Ginny plan out her road trip route!"

"And now you've knocked over my grandmother's portrait! Zion, we're done!"

His face was a wreck, going white, then flushing, then white again.

Just when I thought he'd turn and walk out, he grabbed my wrist.

"All this fuss, and it's still just because Ginny got you jealous, isn't it?"

"Jealous that I went on a road trip with Ginny instead of you? But I still came, didn't I?"

"Enough with the act, okay? Whoever heard of a funeral this empty?"

He pointed at the portrait lying on the floor. "Not a single guest. You just set up a picture to scare me and Ginny."

"So I'll humor you, fine? Ginny and I really are just buddies. No matter what, I'm still going to marry you."

Watching him stand there like none of it mattered, my father was shaking with rage.

His trembling finger came up and pointed at Zion.

"Get out!"

The word tore out of him, and then his body pitched backward.

His own mother's funeral, and his daughter's boyfriend had barged in to pull a stunt like this. The rush of blood and fury was too much, and his legs gave out under him.

Zion looked at my father's face, at the way he'd crumpled, and panic flickered through him.

"Sir"

He'd barely gotten the word out before Ginny cut him off. She jabbed a finger at my father, her mouth dropping open in exaggerated shock.

"Is this that scam thing I keep hearing about? Faking an injury to shake you down?"

"Zion, how can his wife and her family act like this? Even if they won't let us stay here, they don't have to pull this!"

"I came because I thought highly of her. And it's not like you're broke. You could book me a five-star hotel in a heartbeat!"

"I came all the way out to this backwater for your sake. Otherwise I'd never agree to stay in the sticks!"

Hearing her, something seemed to click for Zion.

He looked at my father and me with open contempt.

I kept rubbing my father's chest. "I'm sorry, Dad. Please be okay"

"I'm the one who couldn't see people for what they are. I picked the wrong man"

Crying, I pulled out my phone to call an ambulance.

Zion knocked it out of my hand and onto the floor.

"Is all this really necessary? Your whole family, putting on a show for me together?"

Ginny twisted the knife. "Zion, I heard you only gave his wife eighty-eight hundred for the bride price. But I asked around, and out here they all do a hundred and eighty-eight hundred. Don't you think her whole family staged this just to squeeze more out of you?"

Zion's face changed in an instant when he looked at me.

"Matilda, is Ginny right? Your family didn't put on this whole production just to force more bride price out of me, did they?"

I was shaking with fury, pointing at the door, screaming at him to get out.

"Me, get out? If I walk out, who else would ever want you?"

"Matilda, you've been with me seven years! Who besides me would take you?"

"You'd lie to me like this over bride price now, so once we're married, what, your whole family's going to bleed me dry like a pack of vampires?"

He strode over to the altar table and gave a cold laugh.

"Set up an urn and a wake room and think you can con me, is that it?"

"Let me tell you, there is no way I'm giving you a cent more."

Then, without warning, he raised his hand and swiped it across my grandmother's urn.

The second it hit the floor, I screamed.

"Grandma!"

And when the grayish-white ash spilled out of the urn, Zion froze too.