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He shook his head. “Well it’s been seven years, Kayla. You didn’t expect the town to sit here waiting for you to come back?”
“Actually, I guess I did.” The streets rolled by, looking strange and foreign to my tired eyes. I let out a short, acid laugh. “It would’ve been nice, anyway.”
“Yeah, well it doesn’t work like that.”
Through the rain we drove, neither of us willing to talk about Elizabeth… or about the other elephant in the room.
Luke.
When it came down to it there were a thousand questions I wanted to ask Warren, but we had plenty of time. To save on airfare, I’d arrived two whole days before the funeral.
“So whatcha been up to?” I asked casually.
“Work, mostly.”
“Still fixing cars?”
“Fixing up hot rods now,” he acknowledged, “but yeah.”
I hesitated for a moment, which created an awkward silence. “Are you still at Tommy’s?”
“Uh huh,” Warren nodded. “Only now it’s a different place, a different name.”
I looked over at my handsome ex, admiring all the things that had made him attractive in the first place. The years had agreed with him. Rather than age him, they’d made him stronger, more mature. It made him sexier, if anything.
“I guess nothing stays the same, does it?”
His knuckles went white as he turned the wheel again, guiding us through the far side of town. A warmth stole over me, and I started remembering what it was like to kiss him. To just slide my arms over his shoulders, and recall the feel of those calloused hands on my body.
“Is that thedrive-in?” I squinted.
“It was.”
The big marquee eventually emerged, through the sheets of rain and the slicing of wiper-blades. The old sign was broken and empty. Shrouded in darkness.
“Shit,” I breathed. “I mean, I figuredthatat least would be able to—”
“Business dropped off not long after you left,” Warren cut in. “The place lasted a few more years, maybe three or four, and then they built a giant multiplex with stadium seating about ten minutes outside of town.”
I lowered my head sadly. “That sucks.”
“Yeah. Netflix and movie-streaming were hurting it bad enough, but the multiplex was the nail in the coffin.”
He turned again, this time into the old drive-in. The little ticket booth was empty, the gate long-since snapped off. We rolled past it and continued onward, the muscle car plunging into the darkness. Bits of gravel and debris were strewn everywhere. Grass grew from a thousand cracks in the asphalt.
“Where are we—”
Warren rolled forward in answer, past the partially-collapsed remains of what would’ve been the concessions building. The nose of the car rose and fell as he cruised through the parking spots, growing closer and closer to what I knew loomed ahead: the giant, shattered screen.
“Damn.”
The movie screen loomed over the parking field, staring down as if hurt or even betrayed. The rain obscured almost everything. It was coming down even harder, as we finally rolled to a stop.
“So what are we seeing?” I joked, turning the knob that I remembered would bring up the heat.
“Something old,” said Warren.
I raised an eyebrow. “A repeat, huh?”
