As we stood there in the fading light of the quickly turning winter evening in front of a house from my childhood, I realized that maybe Gina’s matchmaking wasn’t so terrible after all. Perhaps this unexpected reunion with Brenden was exactly what I needed to face the unresolved feelings from our past and finally find closure.
Maybe it would help me get over Josh. Or at least forget about him for a few hours.
Josh, Josh, Josh.
Bah!
“Ready for our blind date?” He chuckled.
I couldn’t help but laugh with him. “Yes. Let’s do this.”
What was happening with my life?
twenty-five
Holiday lights twinkledalong Main Street, their soft glow reflecting off the crisp snow that had started to fall.
I tucked my hands into my coat pockets, my breath puffing out in little clouds in front of me as I walked beside Brenden, my childhood best friend turned high-school boyfriend turned … well, not quite a stranger, but something in that general vicinity.
It had been years since we’d seen each other. We were no longer teenagers, but still with a history between us, and that history was heavy with memories of first love and first heartbreaks.
Or something like that.
Brenden, always the easygoing type, cracked jokes like he used to. His deep laugh was infectious in the quiet winter night as we walked.
I smiled, glancing at him from the corner of my eye.
“I swear, this town has never changed,” I said, keeping my voice light. Though there was still hesitancy as I looked around as we walked.
The town was just about the same as I remembered it, and it wasn’t as if I’d never visited home with Gina when we were on school breaks, but now it felt different. I felt different.
“I mean, look at this. Snow is falling on the same slightly run-down shops.”
Brenden grinned. “It’s strange to think, but I think I missed this place a little.”
“You haven’t been back recently?”
He shook his head as his hand reached down and brushed against mine. “Busy. But this year I promised my mom that I’d be home for the holidays.”
“That’s nice of you to find the time,” I said.
“Come on,” he said. “This is your first time back here in a while, isn’t it?”
I shrugged, looking down at our feet and back up to Brenden’s face. He sniffed, jostling the bridge of his glasses that tipped slightly to the side. It was as if I was back in high school walking outside when we had no money and nowhere really to go.
It was easy to fall into our old rhythm. Almost carefree.
Or maybe, lately, I had just gotten too used to struggling all the time.
“I’m probably going to be around more often though for my mom, so don’t go feeling bad for her,” said Brenden. “I’m actually planning to move into the city soon.”
I whipped to look at him. “You are?”
“Yeah, I got a job offer. Seemed like a good option. When I get there you’ll have to show me all the cool places around.” He nudged me playfully with his shoulder.
It was impossible not to feel the chemistry. Maybe the young, vibrant attraction we had between us in high school could never go away. Did that kind of thing just disappear? Even buried under all the years of other friends and relationships and distance?
There were moments—when our hands brushed, when our familiar gazes lingered for just a second too long—that made mequestion whether I could just slip back into the past and pick up where we’d left off, probably just like Gina had thought.
