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“Yes,” I said, uncomfortably turned on. And then I remembered Ryan, and was just plain uncomfortable. “Derek – ”
“Relax, I just needed to come back here to see where it all began. Where I saw you first. Do you remember when I walked in with Shanna?”
“Yeah,” I murmured, feeling better that we were moving away from the overtly sexual.
“What did you think when you first saw me?”
I blushed. “I don’t remember.”
He laughed. “Bullshit. You remember. You know what I remember?”
“What?”
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, she’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.’”
As soon as he said it, my heart ached inside me. I wished so much that I could go back and live those two weeks all over again.
“You were cool, too,” Derek continued. “Cool, calm, and collected. I threw a whole bunch of stuff at you, and you were completely unruffled.”
“Yeah, well…”
“Until I tried to kiss you goodnight,” he grinned. “You kind of lost it when I did that.”
“I had a boyfriend!” I protested.
And a voice inside me thought,
I have a boyfriend now!
“I know,” he said, then looked at me. “I’m sorry about that. I should have left you alone. I know that the whole thing caused you a lot of pain, and… well, I just couldn’t help myself. I wanted you too much. I apologize for what I did. But, honestly, if I had to go back and do it all over again… I would do it exactly the same. Maybe I’m not supposed to say that, but it’s the truth.”
I stared at him in silence for a long moment.
Got lost in his emerald eyes, just like I had four years ago.
“Okay,” he said abruptly. “I’m ready. You ready?”
“…yeah. Yeah, I’m ready,” I said, coming out of the spell.
“Good. ‘Cause we’ve got a few more places to go,” he said as he opened the stairwell doors and started down the steps.
78
We drove downtown and parked in front of the gyro shop.
“We’re going in there?” I asked, surprised.
“I was planning on it. Why?”
“I don’t know – aren’t you afraid you’re going to get to mobbed by people?”
“Naah, I hang out downtown all the time. I get asked for pictures and stuff, but people in Athens are used to seeing me, so it’s no big deal.”
“If you say so,” I muttered dubiously.
We walked into the gyro shop. The restaurant was just the way I remembered it: grease-smudged wallpaper, rickety tables, the smell of roasting meat in the air. It felt like not a moment had passed in over four years – especially when the shaggy-haired alterna-dudes behind the counter immediately shouted out welcomes.
“Derek! What’s up!”
“Hey man, how’s it goin’!”
“D – good to see you, dude!”
The guys were different from four years ago – at least I think they were – but otherwise it was complete déjà vu.
Derek walked over to the counter and shook hands all around. “How’s it goin’, Bennie? Dwight, my man! Zeke, what’s up!”
“Dude, we read you were in a car wreck! You okay?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine.”
“That’s cool – you went to rehab, too?”
“Yep. Just got out. In fact… as part of my recovery, I’m kind of taking a stroll down memory lane with my friend here, and I was wondering if you could maybe close down the place for the next couple of hours? Kind of make it a private party?”
“We don’t need to do that!” I whispered fiercely.
“I’d rather we not get interrupted,” Derek replied in a normal tone of voice.
“I thought people were used to you around here.”
“Not enough that they’ll ignore me completely.”
Zeke’s face fell. “Dude, I’d totally do it, but… Armin, he’d be
pissed
.”
Derek pulled a bunch of hundreds out of his pocket and started pulling them off one by one. “I’d be happy to double whatever he’d normally make off the till. And I’d triple whatever you guys normally get.”
The three guys stared at the wad of bills.
“I think we can make that happen,” Zeke finally spoke up.
“Cool – call Armin and ask if he’s okay with it. Don’t throw anybody out… just, you know, lock the door with a ‘Closed’ sign and let people out as they finish.”
I looked around. It was only 4:50 PM, so the dinner crowd was just barely getting started. The place was maybe a tenth full, if that.
Derek put down six hundred-dollar bills on the counter. “Will that cover Armin’s end for the next couple of hours?”
“Hell yeah, that’ll cover it,” Zeke said.
“What are you doing?” I hissed.
“Buying some time on memory lane.” He turned back to the alterna-dudes and laid out another six Benjamins – $200 for each of them. “Okay, this is for you guys. Thanks for going to all the trouble.”
My eyes bugged out.
Twelve hundred dollars just to have dinner at a rundown gyro place.
“Hey, man, that’s awesome of you, but – it’s too much!” one of the shaggy dudes protested.
