Tallulah handed Meridian her phone before she got out of the car. Tallulah then drove off, and Meridian made her way into the department store where she was to meet Stephanie. As she waited on Stephanie, she looked at her messages and saw that she had two more messages show up. The last one she read was from Raina, and then Raina sent another message saying it was important that they talk. The last message was from Eric asking if she wanted to come to the Christmas party and offering to pick her up. Meridian didn’t respond to any of the messages, and instead, she chose to go on into the store and wait for Stephanie to arrive.
Aiden had forgotten to turn his cell phone back on, and he had been busy with his grandpa helping him fix the old tractor that truly needed to be replaced. Their work was interrupted when his grandma came into the barn. “Aiden, Chris is on the phone. He said that he called your phone and it is shut off.”