It's the Little Things: A sweet romantic comedy novella Read online

  It’s the

  Little Things

  © Johanna Rae 2021

  This is a work of fiction. All scenes plot-points and locations within this book are derived from the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual people and events is unintentional. It is not recommended that anyone attempt to recreate any of the situations in the book for safety reasons. No part of this book may be reproduced in any way, digital or print, without written consent from the author.

  Date of publication: November 2021.

  Cover – by Lauren at The Cover Collection

  Formatting – by Johanna Rae

  Editing – Kassondra Marucci

  Author pic – legitimately sourced from Deposit Photos database.

  Facebook – @WaverlyWynter

  Waverly Wynter is a pen name of author Johanna Rae. You can learn more about both Johanna and Waverly at www.johannamraeauthor.com

  This book was published by Lonely Goat Press.

  www.lonelygoatpress.weebly.com

  Because of you

  I can feel myself

  slowly but surely

  becoming the me

  I have always

  dreamed of being.

  Tyler Knott Gregson

  For Stacey B

  Someone I can relate to

  in all the ways

  that make me a writer.

  Author’s Note

  This story originally featured in the Ages of Pages charity anthology entitled – Serendipity. “It’s the Little Things” has been given a slight makeover.

  One

  I didn’t mean to get arrested. I don’t suppose anyone ever does. Especially not, when all they were trying to do was spice up their relationship. I never imagined I would find myself naked in a cell, at the police station, waiting for my dad to come bail me out.

  That was a fun phone call, let me tell you. My dad is a composed sort of man, who takes everything in his stride. My phone call rendered him speechless. I think he thought I was joking. I wasn’t. Maybe, I should start at the beginning…

  Chad and I had been dating for almost a year. Long enough we’d grown to know each other quite well. Also long enough, things had started to get a bit stale. I cared about him a lot, but I didn’t know how to fix what was starting to break.

  I asked my sister Chrissy for advice, which turned out to be the beginning of a downhill slide. Picture one of those long steep ski jumps you see in movies. Then, imagine me hurtling down it at breakneck speed and flying off the end with no contingency plan. Where would end up? How would I land? I couldn’t see a favourable outcome and I didn’t know how I felt about that.

  “You just need to spice things up a little,” Chrissy said, as we sat at my kitchen table with coffee. “Remind him why you got together in the first place.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “But, I don’t actually know why we got together. I was quite shocked at the time.”

  “For goodness sake, Leona, would you focus?”

  “I’m serious. He’s attractive, successful, popular… I don’t know what he sees in me. Maybe, that’s why things aren’t working.”

  Chrissy paused with the cup halfway to her mouth and subjected me to the ‘sister stare’. “Leona, there is nothing wrong with you. You’re beautiful and talented, with the biggest heart of anyone I know. You don’t need a man to be someone, you’re already someone pretty special all by yourself. If he can’t see you for who you are, then this isn’t meant to be. To be honest, I’ve always thought you could do better.”

  I made a face at her.

  Chrissy groaned and set the cup back down on the table. “Fine. Just think of a way to show him you care. Do something special - I don’t know - surprise him?”

  Surprise him? I could do that. Chad was always commenting on how I was the least spontaneous person he’d met. Surprising him would definitely score brownie points. From then on, conversation went in one ear and out the other. The coffee ran dry and Chrissy left to pick up her kids from our parents’ house, where they’d spent the night.

  I sat at the table for another ten minutes, thinking about spontaneous people. I didn’t know any personally, which led my train of thought out of the station and into Hollywood territory. An idea began to grow in my mind. One, which I didn’t think all the way through before I acted upon it.

  Chad and I had planned to get together for dinner, though we hadn’t decided what we were doing. Images of a cosy night in, flooded my mind. A fire burning in the hearth, candlelit dinner for two, you know – straight out of Hollywood.

  I decided to go for it. I also decided to spice things up the way Chrissy had suggested, by stripping nude and putting on only a trench coat and heels. When I arrived, he would ask to take my coat, and voila – cue intimate encounter. Guys loved that sort of thing. Well, according to what I’d seen in the movies.

  Once I’d fluffed at my hair a little, and grabbed my purse and keys, I drove to Chad’s place. He liked to be what he called ‘current’. This meant living in a sought after – and somewhat expensive – neighbourhood.

  The large brick and tile home, nestled in a brand new subdivision, didn’t stand out from the others on the street. They all stood one after the other, on postage-stamp-sized sections of land, like counters on a checkerboard. It did nothing for me. I liked a home to have character and personality. Nevertheless, I was not here to ooh and ahh over my boyfriend’s real estate decisions. I was on an intimate adventure. Oh God…

  Suddenly, a ton of nerves kicked in. I felt lightheaded as I abandoned my car and headed for the land of spontaneity. My foot made contact with the first front step – what if Chad thinks this is stupid? The second step – What was I thinking? This is a bad idea! The last step – Oh, crap… I didn’t bring anything else to wear. Abort!

  The doorbell startled me. I was so lost in panic-mode, I had no recollection of pressing the button.

  “Be there in a sec!” Chad called from inside.

  Heat raced through my body, flooding my face with colour. Why, oh why, did I do this? I fanned my face with both hands and tried to concentrate on breathing normally. Chad threw open the door.

  “Hey!”

  His lips stretched into an automatic smile; the one that made me swoon. I sucked in a breath, ready to say something sultry and suggestive, but no words came out. He stood there looking sexy as hell, ash-blonde hair swept back from his forehead and green eyes reeling me in. The simple white T-shirt and jeans combo made him look like he belonged in a Calvin Klein advertisement.

  “You’re earlier than I expected, come on in.”

  “Oh!” I blinked. Wasn’t the whole idea of being spontaneous to not do what you usually did? I began to doubt the entire plan but it was too late to back out now.

  “It’s fine. It’s good to see you.” Chad leaned forward, buried a hand in my long black hair, and brushed his lips against mine.

  My heart thundered in my chest. “Yeah, I missed you.” A nervous laugh burbled out of my throat.

  “Are you all right? You seem a bit weird.”

  “I’m great. I have a surprise for you.” There. Now, I’d gone and done it.

  “What sort of surprise?” Chad grabbed my hand and led me into the house. “By the way, my brother is in town. He’ll be joining us for dinner.”

  “What?” My eyes widened.

  Chad stopped. He turned slowly, before subjecting me to an unimpressed look. “Jeez Leona, you don’t have to be rude about it.”

  “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I’d just planned a nice romantic evening. It’s okay. It will be fine.”

  “O
f course it will be fine.” Chad’s smile had disappeared. His fingers slipped away from mine and he strode off toward the living room.

  Two

  Sucking in a breath, I followed, wearing what I hoped was a pleasant smile. Chad’s brother awaited us on the couch, both feet propped up on the coffee table and a beer in one hand.

  “Hi Darren,” I said.

  Darren glanced up from the fishing show on Chad’s sixty-five-inch TV, and saluted me military-style. “Hey.”

  “What do you guys want for dinner?” I asked. “I’ll cook.”

  Chad fussed about with his cell-phone, distracted, and not really paying attention. “There isn’t much in the house. You and I are going to have to go to the supermarket.”

  I swear, my heart stopped beating for a good three seconds. Two choices lay in front of me. Go to the supermarket wearing nothing more than a trench coat, or stay in the house with Darren while in the same predicament.

  I couldn’t stay. If Chad found out later that I wasn’t wearing anything underneath, it would look really suspicious. Bile rose up the back of my throat as I tried to psyche myself up for the excursion. When I didn’t say anything, Chad finally glanced up.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” He asked for the second time.

  “Mmm hmm.” I forced a smile and adjusted my purse strap. “I’m good, we should go do this now, so we’re not all night getting dinner started.”

  “Sure.” Chad didn’t seem fooled by my pretense, but he let the matter slide.

  We made small talk in Chad’s car on the way to the supermarket, but we might as well have been discussing how to put elephants on the moon. Everything had a weird vibe. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d somehow offended him, in a bigger way than my reaction to Darren being at the house. In all honestly, I wanted to go back home, crawl under the bedcovers, and pretend none of this had happened.

  The meaningless surface conversation continued in the supermarket. By the time we reached the checkout, I was ready to explode. Not in anger, but out of frustration. My desperation over the status of our relationship weighed upon me. I’d tried so damned hard to make the evening special and it had backfired.

  I shouldn’t have been upset with Chad, because he didn’t know I was at the supermarket naked under my coat. He was perfectly entitled to have his brother come visit. This was just bad timing. I needed to calm down before I said something I couldn’t retract. We’d look back on this and laugh, right?

  Chad pushed the shopping cart as we left the supermarket and walked through the mall toward the escalator. I wished he would say something. Anything, to end this uncomfortable silence.

  “Leona, I think we need to talk.”

  I whirled to face Chad with both brows arched and my lips parted in shock. Oh, no. I didn’t mean that. Please don’t let this be that talk. Not, here. Not at the mall! A lump formed in my throat as I waited for him to say the line I’d been hoping to avoid.

  “Things haven’t been right between us for a while now. I’d hoped it was just a phase, but I’m starting to think it’s not. We’ve drifted apart.”

  “No, we haven’t!” The high-pitched words came rushing out, leaking my desperation all over everyone in the near vicinity. I could sense the train wreck forming; I just couldn’t stop myself from making it worse. “I love you!” I cried.

  “Leona, we’re at the mall,” Chad hissed through gritted teeth.

  I placed my hand on his arm, imploring him to think this through. Hoping he might reconsider. I didn’t want this to be over. “Please Chad, don’t do this.”

  He shrugged my arm aside. He brushed me off as though I was something unpleasant he wanted to be rid of. Like, the crud on the bottom of someone’s shoe. My heart hurt and I didn’t know what to do about it. I stumbled backward in an attempt to place space between us. Unbeknown to me, someone else stood nearby with their own shopping cart.

  Smacking into their cart brought me to a swift stop, I flailed with both arms, then lost my footing. The escalators were only a couple of metres away. As I fell, I latched my fingers around the wire mesh that made up the side of the shopping cart, taking it down with me. I crashed to the ground with the shopping cart on top of me, and a stranger’s groceries spilling out everywhere.

  Humiliation hit like a smack in the face. Chad stood frozen to the spot, staring at me as though I’d sprouted another head. A multitude of shoppers had turned to look, and nobody seemed willing to go about their business and leave me alone. That’s when I saw it. The little saw-toothed edge, where the escalator conveyor disappears beneath the floor. The part your parents always told you to be careful of. And, it was eating the hem of my wide coat-sleeve.

  “Chad! My coat! Help me!” I cried. My arm shrank back into the armhole as the fabric disappeared into the machinery, awkwardly popping back into the body of the coat.

  “Just take it off!” He shouted.

  “I can’t!” I said, with my sleeve getting smaller and smaller. The buttons started to pull against the buttonholes, so I scrambled closer to the escalator.

  “Why not? Don’t be so stupid.”

  Chad rushed over and started unbuttoning the coat. My ability to speak actual words disintegrated after that. In his haste to be helpful, Chad had the coat half open before he understood my predicament. I frantically covered my chest with one arm as the garment slid free.

  “Oh my God Leona!” He yelled, backing away.

  Nearby, someone snickered. Another person laughed. The escalator had jammed, but the damage was already done. A gentleman would have offered me his shirt, or helped me cover myself from the prying eyes of more shoppers than I cared to count. Apparently, Chad was not a gentleman. He took off down the other side of the stopped escalator, the one I wasn’t blocking, and disappeared into the parking garage. He didn’t even take the groceries.

  My hysteria got the better of me. I didn’t see a stranger to my left, offering to help. I didn’t hear someone call that they had a baby blanket in their stroller. All I could comprehend was the judgment from those who’d laughed, and worst of all, Chad.

  This was a world away from the humiliation of a break up. So, in my moment of insanity, I fled. Naked. I didn’t have a plan; didn’t know where I was going. I just ran. That’s right, I streaked through the mall with an arm across my chest and a hand splayed over my nether region.

  The person who called security probably had no idea that my coat was stuck in the escalator, nor did it matter. I got arrested for public indecency and had to call my father to come bail me out, because, my car was still at Chad’s house, and my purse at the mall. I sat in the police cell, wrapped in a blanket but essentially, still naked. If this was where spontaneity got me, I never wanted to have any part of it again.

  Three

  I sat huddled in the corner of the cell, clutching the blanket closed, and mentally beating myself up over the choices that led to my predicament. I rehearsed over and over, what I would say to my father when he arrived. The shame of this was going to eat him alive.

  Hot angry tears slid down my cheeks and splashed onto the blanket. The words how did this happen kept pulsing through my subconscious like a neon sign, even though I knew the answer. The question I should have been asking myself was, why had I ever thought this was a good idea?

  “Miss Leona Stevens?”

  Mortified that any person might be talking to me right now, I jerked my head around to face the speaker, my eyes wild and panicked.

  “Relax, I just came to see how you were doing.”

  The voice belonged to a handsome police officer. Not the one who’d arrested me, though I bore no disillusions regarding his knowledge of my case. The evidence was right there in the scratchy wool blanket I clung to. So, like a frightened mouse, I sat there in silence, just staring at him.

  “My name is Officer Reid,” he said, chocolate-brown eyes filled with concern. “Mind if I sit?”

  I didn’t offer a response. I couldn’t seem to make
any part of my body move. It didn’t matter, as Officer Reid sat down on the bench outside the cell and rested both forearms on his knees.

  “I know you didn’t intend to streak through the mall. Some shoppers told us what happened. Whether or not you chose to wear anything under the coat is your business, it wasn’t your fault.”

  “Who does that?” I squeaked, before squeezing my eyes shut.

  “Who does what? Walk around in public, naked under a trench coat? You’d probably be surprised. Anyway, I know a lot of people have already judged you. Some, have laughed. It can’t have been easy for you. I thought, maybe, you could use a friend.”

  A friend? Oh, God. The last thing I needed was the pity of an on-duty police officer. I felt more tears welling up and couldn’t decide whether to swipe them away, or try to pretend they weren’t there.

  Officer Reid continued speaking, as if my behaviour was completely normal. “I’m about to go on a break. There’s a café across the road from the station; do you want anything?”

  “Um, I don’t know.”

  “How about a BLT Panini? Everyone loves those, right?”

  He gave me a charming smile that probably made women go weak at the knees. Well, women who hadn’t just been arrested. I didn’t know if I could stomach eating anything, but he was being so kind. “Okay. Thanks.”

  The Panini turned out to be the best thing I’d ever tasted, winning Officer Reid serious brownie points. He’d bought one for himself as well, giving him an excuse to chat with me until Dad turned up. After a while, I concluded Officer Reid wasn’t throwing me a pity party. He was actually a regular nice guy. Who knew they still existed?

  Dad didn’t say anything to me until I was safely ensconced in his truck where nobody could hear the content of our conversation. “What the hell were you thinking, Leona?”

  My vision blurred with fresh tears. God, I needed to stop crying and get a hold of myself. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled, as I blinked the tears away before they could fall.