The Air He Breathes

I pulled up to Mr. Henson’s shop and hurried inside. He’d called me the day before and had sounded very distressed, telling me the shop was closing due to issues with the town asshole. I knew Tanner had something to do with it, and I knew Mr. Henson was probably falling apart. I had to check on him to see how I could help—after all, he had been one of the first to be there for me when I was completely lost.

When I walked into Needful Things, my eyes widened when I saw Mr. Henson packing up the store. It was as if everything magical about the place was gone. All the shelves emptied. All the mysterious items boxed away.

“What the heck is going on?” I said, moving toward Mr. Henson.

“Tanner is getting his wish. I’m closing down shop.”

“What? I thought you called me here to try to figure this out.” My fingers ran though my hair. “You can’t close up shop. Did he do this at the town hall meeting? He can’t do this!”

“It doesn’t matter, Tristan. I already sold the shop.”

“To who? I’ll get it back. Whatever it takes. Who did you sell it to?”

“The town asshole.”

“Tanner can’t have this shop. You can’t let him win.”

“I wasn’t talking about Tanner.”

“Then who were you talking about?”

He turned my way and took my hand, placing a set of keys in my grasp. “You.”

“What?”

“It’s yours, every inch, every square,” Mr. Henson sang.

“What are you talking about?”

“Well,” he said, sitting on top of one of the boxes. “I’ve lived my dream. I’ve seen the magic this place can create. Now it’s time I give it to someone else who needs a little magic in their life. Someone who needs a little dreaming.”

“I’m not taking your shop.”

“Oh, but see, that’s the beauty in all of it. You are taking it. It’s already yours. I set up all of the paperwork. All you have to do is cross a few t’s and dot a few i’s.”

“What would I even do with it?” I asked.

“You have a dream, Tristan. The furniture that your father and you create would get a ton more people into this space than my old crystals ever did. Don’t let anyone ever kill your dreams, my boy.” He pushed himself up from his box, moved over to the counter, and picked up his hat. Placing it on his head, he began walking toward the front door.

“What about you? What are you going to do?” I asked, watching him open the front door, sounding the bell overhead.

“As for me, well, I’m going to go find a new dream, because you’re never too old to dream a little dream, to discover a little magic. I hear there are rumors going around that the town might need some repairs, and I have a few dollars lying around. We’ll chat through the details later on, but for now, I’ll be seeing you.” He winked, walking out the door.

I moved to the store door and opened it fast, glancing in the direction Mr. Henson had disappeared in.

My mind started to wonder if he was some kind of weird hallucination, but when I looked down at the keys in my hands, I knew he was real.

“What are you doing here?”

I turned around to see Elizabeth standing behind me, her arms crossed. “Lizzie,” I muttered, almost stunned to see her standing so close. “Hi.”

“Hi?” She huffed, barging into the store. I followed her inside. “Hi?!” she shouted. “You disappear for months, not giving me a chance to explain myself, and then randomly show up in town, and all you can say is ‘hi’? You’re a…you’re a…a DICK!”

“Lizzie,” I said with narrowed eyes, stepping toward her. She stepped back.

“No. Don’t come near me.”

“Why not?”

“Because whenever you’re near me, I can’t think straight, and I need to think straight right now to say what I need to say.” She stopped talking and took a moment to look around the store. “Oh my gosh. Where is everything? Why is it all boxed away?”

I placed my thumb between my teeth and studied her features. Her hair was longer, lighter too. She was makeup free, and her eyes still had the ability to make me fall in love with her. “You stayed with her.”

“What?” she asked with her back leaning against the counter.

I walked closer to her, boxing her in as my hands rested against the countertop. “You stayed with Jamie.”

Her breathing pattern became uneven, and she stared at my lips as I stared at hers. “Tristan, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The day of the accident, my mom was in the waiting room by herself because Dad and I were still flying back from Detroit. You saw her, and you held her.”

“That was your mom?” she asked, her eyes narrowed.

I nodded. “And she said when Jamie and Charlie were out of surgery, you sat with Jamie. You held her hand.” My lips hovered over hers, and I could feel the small exhales leaving her mouth. “What happened when you went into that room with Jamie?”

Her voice shook, and she blinked a few times before tilting her head back slightly to meet my stare. “I sat down beside her bed, held her hand, and told her she wasn’t alone.” My fingers rubbed against my forehead, taking in her words. “She wasn’t in pain, Tristan. When she passed away, the doctors said there wasn’t any pain.”

“Thank you,” I said. I needed to know that.

My left hand moved to her lower back, and I pulled her closer to me. “Tristan, don’t.”

“Tell me not to kiss you,” I begged. “Tell me not to do it.”

She didn’t say a word, but her body shook in mine. My lips brushed against hers and I kissed her hard and deep, apologizing for everything I’d done, every mistake I’d made. When our mouths pulled away, she kept shaking against my hold.

“I love you,” I said.

“No. You don’t.”

“I do.”

“You left me!” she cried, yanking herself away from me. She crossed the room, ran her hands against her lips, and stood strong. “You left me without giving me a chance to explain.”

“I didn’t know how to handle everything that was happening. Jesus, Lizzie. Everything in the past months happened so fast.”

“Don’t you think I know that? I was living the same nightmares as you, but I wanted to explain to you what happened. I wanted to make it work.”

“I still want to make it work.”

She snickered with sarcasm. “Is that why you kept leaving the Post-It notes? Was that your sign of wanting to make it work? Because it only confused me more. It only hurt me more.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The Post-It notes. The ones you left every week on my bedroom window for the past five months with your initials. The same notes we used to write to each other.”

My eyes narrowed. “Lizzie, I didn’t leave you any messages.”

“Stop with the mind games.”

“No, seriously. I haven’t been back to town until today.”

She looked at me as if she hadn’t a clue who I was. I stepped near her, and she moved back. “Stop. Just—I don’t want to play anymore, Tristan. I don’t want to play your games anymore. Maybe if you had shown up two months ago, I would’ve forgiven you. Or maybe one month ago, but not today. Stop with the notes, and stop playing with my heart, with my daughter’s heart.” She turned and left the store, leaving me extremely confused. When I stepped outside, she was already walking back into the café across the street.

My stomach was in knots as I walked back into Needful Things. When the bell above the door rang, my body whipped around, hoping to see Elizabeth staring my way. Instead, I turned and saw Tanner standing in my doorway. “What are you doing back here?” he asked, urgency in his voice.

“Not now, Tanner. I’m really not in the mood.”

“No, no, no. You can’t be here. You can’t be back here.” He started pacing back and forth, rubbing his hands against the back of his neck. “You’re going to ruin everything. She was coming back to me. She was warming up to me again.”

“What?” The look on his face made my stomach turn. “What did you do?”

He huffed. “It’s really kind of ridiculous. I mean, you storm off, leaving her for months and months, and the second you come back, she’s already falling all over you. Kissing you as if you’re her fucking Prince Charming. Well, hell, congratulations.” He rolled his eyes and turned to leave. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he muttered to himself as I followed him out of the store and across the street to his auto shop.

“Have you been leaving notes at Elizabeth’s house?”

“What, I’m sorry, were you the only one allowed to do that?”

“You signed my initials.”

“Come on, Sherlock. You can’t really think that you are the only one with T and C as their initials.” He went to one of the cars, opened the hood, and started tinkering with things.

“But you knew she would think they were from me. How did you even know that we gave each other notes?”

“Take it easy. It’s not like I had little cameras spying on the two of you.” He looked up toward me with an unsettling grin.

I charged toward him, gripping his shirt and slamming him against the car. “Are you fucking psycho? What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“What’s wrong with me?!” he shouted. “What’s wrong with me?! I won the coin toss!” he hissed. “And he took her from me! I called heads, he called tails, and the coin said heads! But he thought he could just take her and make her love him. He messed up our lives. She was mine. And he mocked me over and over again about it for years. Asking me to be his best man. Begging for me to be the godfather to their kid. Years and years of throwing it in my face when Elizabeth should’ve been mine. So I handled it.”

“What?” I said, loosening my grip on his shirt. His eyes were wide, crazed, and he couldn’t stop smiling. “Handled what?”

“He said his car was acting up. He asked me to check under the hood because he and Emma were going on a trip out of town for the day. I knew him coming to me that day was a sign—he wanted me to do it.”

“Do what?”

“Cut the brake cord under his hood. He was giving Elizabeth back to me. Because I won the coin toss. And everything went great, except when he took the car onto the freeway, Emma wasn’t in the backseat. She was home sick.”

I couldn’t comprehend his words. I couldn’t believe what he was saying. “You tried to kill them? You rigged his car?”

“I WON THE COIN TOSS!” he cried, as if he were actually making sense.

“You’re a lunatic.”

He released a breath of air. “I’m a lunatic? You’re sitting here in love with a woman whose husband killed your family!”

“He didn’t kill them. You did. You killed my family.”

He waved his finger back and forth. “No, Steven was behind the wheel driving the car. He was the one driving. I was just the mere mechanic under the hood.”

I slammed him against the car over and over again. “This isn’t some kind of game, Tanner. These are people’s lives you’re playing with!”

“Life is a game, Tristan. And I advise you to back off. Because I won her. It’s now time for me to collect my prize, and the last thing I need is someone else to get in my way.”

“You’re sick,” I said, walking away from him. “And if you come anywhere near Elizabeth I will kill you myself.”

Tanner laughed again. “Come on, buddy. You would kill me? When it comes to killing, I’m pretty sure I have you beat three times over. Four if you count later tonight.”

“What?”

“Come on. You didn’t think I could have Elizabeth with a little girl always reminding her of her dead husband, did you?”

“If you touch Emma,” I warned, seconds away from slamming my fist into his face.

“What? What are you going to do? Kill me?”

I didn’t even remember hitting him.

But I did remember him collapsing to the ground.

***

“Lizzie!” I shouted, entering the café. “We need to talk.”

She hardly glanced my way, giving me the cold shoulder. “Tristan, I’m working. And I’m pretty sure we’ve already spoken enough.”

I wrapped my hand around her forearm and slightly pulled her. “Lizzie, seriously.”

“Let her go,” Faye said, marching in front of us. “Now!”

“Faye, you don’t understand. Lizzie, it was Tanner. All of this was him. He was behind the notes, the accident, he was behind all of it.”

“What are you talking about?” Elizabeth asked, confusion floating in her eyes.

“I’ll explain it all later, but for now I need to know where Emma is. She’s in trouble, Lizzie.”

“What?”

Faye gasped lightly. “What did you do to Tanner?” she asked, staring across the street. Two police officers were talking to him, and Tanner was pointing my way. Fuck.

“He’s insane. He said he was going to hurt Emma.”

Elizabeth was shaking, nerves taking her over. “Why would you say such a thing? I know Tanner has his moments, but he would never…”

She was interrupted as the cops came into the café. “Tristan Cole, you are under arrest for the attack on Tanner Chase.”

“What?” Elizabeth gasped, running her hands through her hair, confusion in her eyes. “What’s going on?”

The cop kept speaking as they went to handcuff me. “It turns out this guy was caught on Tanner Chase’s auto shop security cameras attacking him.” He began to speak to me. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney and if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you.”

They dragged me out of the shop, and Elizabeth hurried outside to follow us. “Wait, this is a misunderstanding. Tristan, tell them. Tell them it’s a mistake,” she begged.

“Lizzie. Check on Emma. Okay? Just make sure she’s okay.” I really hoped she would believe me. I really hoped she would make sure Emma was all right.

***

“I leave the shop with you for three hours and come back to find you locked behind bars,” Mr. Henson joked.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, confused.

He cocked an eyebrow as a cop unlocked my cell door. “I think I’m paying your bail.”

“How did you know I was in here?”

“Oh. I did a tarot card reading.” I narrowed my eyes and he laughed. “Tristan, this is the most gossiping town of all towns. I overheard people talking about it. Plus,” he said as we rounded the corner of the hallway. “This little birdie dropped me a line.”

Elizabeth stood up from the bench in the front lobby and rushed over to me. “Tristan, what’s going on?”

“Is Emma safe?”

She nodded. “She’s with her grandparents.”

“Did you tell them what’s going on?”

“Not yet, I just asked them to watch her. I honestly don’t even know what’s happening, Tristan.”

“Tanner did this, Lizzie. All of this is Tanner. He left you the notes these past five months, not me. He’s the one who caused the accident with Steven’s car. He told me it was him, Lizzie. You have to believe me. He thinks all of this is some kind of sick game, and I’m certain he’s not going to stop until he gets the prize.”

“What’s the prize?”

“You are.”

She swallowed hard. “What do we do? How do we prove that he’s behind all of this?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know what the next step is, but we need to talk to Sam and get a few cops over to your place.”

“What? Why?”

“Tanner said something about cameras. I think he might have put some around your house.” Her hands started trembling, and I took hold of her. “It’s okay. We’re going to figure this out. Everything is going to be okay.”