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The day drags on even though I have plenty of things to keep me busy. But by the time I get home and tell my mom what happened, reality starts to sink in.
“You know, I always wondered if you two were really dating,” my mother says, sipping on her glass of hot tea. I made a kettle for the two of us as I wait until I need to leave to meet Charlotte.
“I guess we weren’t fooling you huh, Mom?”
She shakes her head. “No, not recently. I mean when you were kids.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I always watched the way you looked at her. I wondered if you had a little crush, and that’s why you two were always at each other’s throats. Now I know that it was more your dad’s fault, but I still think there were some feelings there.”
I smile over at her. “Now that I look back, I think there were too. I was just too distracted to realize.” She starts to cry and I rush over to console her. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m just so sorry that I didn’t see what was happening back then, Damien. I could have spared us so much pain and grief.”
“It’s okay, Mom. You were being manipulated. It’s much easier to see it once you’re not surrounded by it anymore.”
She hugs me tightly and whispers in my ear. “Go get your girl, Damien, and keep being the man every woman deserves. Lord, knows we need more of them in this world.”
While driving to Griffith Park, I keep replaying memories of Charlotte and me, particularly the last one while we were here on our date, as my nerves bounce around in my veins.
I know her note sounded promising, but what if I misread it? What if wishful thinking has me believing that this night is going to end one way while it might end in another?
With determination, though, I park my car and head toward the outcome, whatever that may be. I need to know how this ends so I can move on either way, with or without her.
I purposely arrived a few minutes late to keep Charlotte guessing, tapping into that natural instinct to keep her on her toes and make her sweat a little bit. Old habits die hard.
But the sight of her standing before me in a yellow sundress steals the breath from my lungs, and I know that will never change when it comes to her.
“You’re late,” she says as I stride up to her standing just outside the gate to the carousel. The sun is setting in the distance, the sky full of pink and orange hues, and only a handful of people are milling about around the park, preparing to leave. But the carousel is empty, and I wonder how she managed that.
“Were you getting worried?”
“A little,” she admits as I arrive just a few feet away from her. “Hi,” she says timidly, her smile and features soft despite the threatening tone of her earlier comment.
“Hi, gorgeous.”
“Thank you for coming.”
“Well, I want to know how this story ends. Spaghetti and meatballs are always a great way to convince me to do something, by the way, in case you need that for use in the future.”
“Good to know.” She smirks. “Care to join me for a ride?” She gestures behind us to the carousel.
“Do we have tickets?”
She pulls two from her bag I see slung on her shoulder. “Purchased and ready.”
“Then after you,” I say, waving my hand in front of me for her to lead the way. It also gives me a view of her ass that I’ve missed way too fucking much, so I make sure to take full advantage of the view.
I follow Charlotte around the ride until she locates the bench we sat in last time, and we take a seat next to each other, waiting for the ride to start.
“I’m more nervous than I thought I’d be,” she says, rubbing her palms over the front of her dress.
“Nerves are part of the gig. After you do this a couple of times, you get used to it.”
But she shakes her head at me. “Well, I only plan on making this type of pitch once in my life, so if you’re ready, I’d like to begin.”
“I’m all ears.”
She clears her throat. “Well, you see? I need to sell this idea to someone, and I figured I would try to speak his language in order to do so.”
“Is that right?”
“Are you gonna let me speak?” She narrows her eyes at me playfully, and I return her sass with a smirk.
“I guess. But it better be worth my time.”
“I think you’ll like it,” she says, handing me something from her bag. And as I peer down and see what it is, my breath hitches.
“Is this your journal?”
She nods. “Yes. And if you’ll turn to the page that’s been earmarked, there’s something I’d like for you to read.”
I flip to the page of the well-worn book that she marked and notice her elegant handwriting, followed by the date. “This is the day…”
“Yes. The day we last spoke before we left for college and then didn’t see each other for twelve years.”
“And you want me to read what you wrote?”
“Uh huh. Just please remember, I used to hate you, okay? So take what I said with a grain of salt.”
I chuckle and then look down at the page, being transported back in time by her words.
Dear Journal,
I came out here to get some peace and quiet, you know, how I normally do… but of course tonight Damien Shaw had to ruin it. I swear, any time I get a moment when I feel like I can just breathe, Damien is there to ruin it with his ingratiating smile and cocky attitude.
I wonder if he even knows how much I hate him, how much the sight of him makes my blood boil and my hands curl into fists, how I’m sure he gets off on competing against me just because I’m a girl and it feeds his ego when I lose to him.
It’s easy to accept defeat when I know that the person who beats me is better than me—but Damien Shaw is not. Nope. He’s a kiss ass, a prick with a capital P, and the person I can’t wait to leave behind the most in this Godforsaken town, even though I know he’s leaving for California too—a decision I’m convinced he made because I did the same. I swear, he’s obsessed with me or something.
And tonight, after being bulldozed by my mother again for my choice to go to college in California, I just needed to get away—to remind myself of what life will be like without her opinions hitting me from every direction.
But no…I couldn’t even have that. Damien showed up in my park, at my carousel, and during my time.
