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Rainey
I laughed. “That is such a lie, Zack.”
His gray eyes were bright as he watched me, a soft grin on his lips. “No, seriously. I never thought you were a nerd. I was secretly jealous that everything was so easy for you.”
“Easy for me?” I barked out the words as my laughter stopped, and I leaned on the railing and stared out over the water. “Nothing was easy for me, Zack.”
“How is that possible?” He leaned next to me, pressing his shoulder into mine just enough for me to notice. “You got straight A’s on everything. You were always happy and trying to make others that way.”
“I got good grades because I worked hard.” I thought for a moment and then sighed. “I didn’t have anything else to do other than study or work. I don’t know if you remember or not, but I didn’t really have any friends. My mom was never home, and school was all I had. I was lonely and bored.”
“You had friends.”
I turned to him. “Name one.”
After a moment, he said softly, “Me. I was your friend.”
“Oh, Zack.” I leaned back from the rail and shook my head with a dry laugh. “I was not your friend. I helped you with your studies, but we weren’t friends. I wasn’t anywhere in your league, and I knew that. I was alright with that.”
“No, Rainey, I believed that you were my friend.”
“Why? Because I helped with homework? Because I laughed at your jokes?”
“No, because you listened to me when other people didn’t.”
I pursed my lips as I locked eyes with him. Maybe that was true. I did remember listening with bated breath as he went on about the frustration of picking the right college and the stress from his coaches. I shrugged as I looked away from him.
“Well, like I said, I was bored and lonely. That’s why I listened. Besides, I wasn’t going to tell you to go away. You were the most popular boy in school.”
“No, I wasn’t.” He chuckled.
I turned back to him, hiking a brow. “Yes, you were. There wasn’t a girl in that school that didn’t have a crush on you.”
He lifted his chin, his eyes a little daring as he asked, “Does that include you?”
“Me? No!” I laughed as I felt my cheeks begin to heat, and I turned as far from him as I could. “Not me.”
“Liar!” he joked and pushed against my shoulder, but I remained looking away from him. “Look at me, Rainey.”
I refused to do as he asked, and he reached over and took hold of my chin, turning it so that I was facing him. “Tell me the truth; did you have a crush on me too?”
That was twenty years ago. What difference did it make if he knew I did. “I might have.”
“Oh, so there is hope for me now.”
“Hope for you now?” I laughed and shifted away from his touch, putting a couple of feet between us as I moved away. He caught up, and we resumed our walk along the deck.
“What? You don’t like me?”
“I don’t know you, Zack. It’s been years since we’ve seen each other. That’s a lot of life to live, and it changes a person. Maybe I had a crush on you in high school, but that doesn’t mean anything now. We’re adults with careers and lives. We aren’t teenagers anymore.”
“That’s true, but it is nice to know you liked me back then.”
“Whatever,” I told him as I reached for the door that would take us back into the interior of the ship. Zack stepped in front of me so that I couldn’t pull it open. “What?”
“I liked you, too, Rainey.”
“You did not.” I shook my head. Were we really having this conversation?
