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“Sort of. He’s a hard man to forget.”
“Then maybe he’s not worth forgetting. You have his number. Call him.”
“I can’t.”
“You won’t. I dig your whole self-journey, but if he put a real smile on that pretty face of yours, don’t you think maybe, just maybe, he was thrown in your path for a reason?”
“Now you sound like Kristen.”
“Great minds think alike. Listen, Bean, I have to go. I’m being summoned into a meeting. Love you.”
“Love you. Talk to you soon.”
I met Kellan Jones at the yacht club when were thirteen years old. His family had just moved to Seattle when his father took the CFO position for one of the biggest hotel chains in the country. It was love at first sight. We created a bond that day and have been best friends ever since. My parents initially disapproved because he was a boy, and they feared some romance was brewing. They couldn’t grasp the concept that a boy and a girl could be nothing more than friends. There was a period of time when my parents tried to stop me from seeing Kellan, but that quickly dissipated when they found out he was gay and no longer a threat.
* * *
I wheeled Kristen to The Lake in Central Park. Since receiving her chemo and radiation treatments, she tired easily, and walking would have been too much for her. I found a spot on the grass under a big tree near the lake. After helping me spread out the blanket we had brought, we both kicked off our shoes and sat down.
“God, it’s so beautiful here,” I spoke.
“It’s one of my and Noah’s favorite spots.”
It was a beautiful June day. The sun was shining brightly, and there wasn’t a trace of wind anywhere. Despite all the people that were around, I found comfort and peace here.
“Tell me you have pictures of Hawaii.” Kristin smiled.
“Of course, I do,” I spoke as I pulled my phone from my pocket.
Opening up my pictures, I began to show her the serenity and beautiful world of Hawaii.
“These are the dolphins I swam with.” I smiled.
“Wow. They are adorable. I’d love to do that.”
“You will. As soon as you get better, I’m taking you there, and we’ll swim with them.”
She gave me a small, unconvincing smile. I knew exactly what that smile meant, and it scared the hell out of me.
“Is this him?” she asked as she stopped on the picture of me and Drew.
My heart started to ache at the sight of him.
“Yes. That’s Drew. I took that picture of us on our last night there.”
“He’s hot.” She grinned.
The corners of my mouth curved slightly upward. “Yeah. In more ways than one.”
“Why did you take this picture?” she asked. “I mean, you knew you were never going to see him again, and you have no plans of ever contacting him.”
“I guess for a memory,” I spoke in a mere whisper as I looked down at my hands.
“It’s okay to like him, Jillian. You’re human, just like everyone else.”
“If only I had met him a little later in life.” I stared straight at the lake.
She reached over and took hold of my hand. “Sometimes life is too short to worry about the small stuff.”
