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Chase gasps. “Hey! That only happened once …!”
“Besides, even if Finn wasn’t with Theo, his family is well-off, he’s basically the unofficial prince of Dreamwood if you think about it, and his dad owns Hopewell Harbor and Fair. He can have any guy he wants.”
“You’re just jaded about lovers because you don’t have anyone either,” says Chase.
“No, I’m not.”
“Hell yeah, you are. You’re lonely and taking it out on all us innocent people around you.”
“You don’t think I get hit on? Gay women exist, too, y’know, and—”
The two keep bickering back and forth as I, yet again, find myself pondering on Mars’s words. Half to myself, I quietly ask, “So … what exactly does a happy guy in a happy relationship look like?”
Perhaps it was the somber tone of my voice, but both Mars and Chase go quiet, their argument ended at once. It seems like no one is sure what to say to that.
Then Mars lets out a sigh. “I wasn’t talking about you and Sean. Y’all are adorable.”
“Really adorable,” agrees Chase.
Adrian sucks in his bottom lip in thought, then leans over the counter. “This is where you’re probably expecting me to make a dumb ‘daddy-son’ joke about you guys, but if I’m being honest here, fuck, even my heart’s warmed by the sight of you two. Where the hell is he, anyway? Has he been a bad boy? Did you send him home on timeout?” He chortles at himself. “Okay, there’s the joke.”
Mars, knowing the situation, lets out a sigh. “Shut up, Adrian, you’re such an idiot.”
He squints questioningly at her, then looks at me with alarm. “Wait … Is there trouble in paradise? Did y’all get into a fight or something?”
Before I can answer, the doors to the bar swing wide open. Everyone turns.
Sean steps inside, hands in his pockets.
My heart soars into the sky the moment I see him.
Then Drake walks in right behind.
And my heart crashes down through the floor.
Adrian and Mars stare at them, saying nothing. Sean and Drake stare back, the pair of them remaining at the door while my insides writhe around like restless snakes, trying (and failing) to produce a reason in the world why those two would arrive at my bar—together.
From the register, the ever so clueless Chase waves at them. “Don’t be shy, you guys! Come on in! We’re open!” The silence persists, during which Chase seems to slowly assess that something isn’t right.
I come around the counter and stop. Sean keeps his sullen, guarded eyes on me. “Hey, Coop,” he finally says after a while.
Hey, Coop?
After spending the last three hours thinking the worst?
Trying not to fathom that Sean vanished from my life?
Hey, Coop??
“Hey, Sean,” I return, suppressing my internal screams. I don’t acknowledge Drake. I don’t ask what they’re doing together. There’s only one damned thing that matters right now. “Are you alright?”
Sean averts his gaze.
That doesn’t make me feel good.
I finally turn my eyes to Drake. “Why are you here?”
Drake lifts a hand up for a pitiful little wave. “Hi.”
“The last time you walked out those doors, you said it would be the very last time.”
“I did,” he agrees. “And then … I realized I had some unfinished business.”
“And that’s me? I’m your unfinished business?”
“Well, frankly, yes.” Drake turns to Sean. “And thanks to this guy right here who was a second away from fleeing the island on foot, I finally have the courage to do it.” His voice turns soft as he faces me. “To do what’s right.”
Mars, Chase, and Adrian have been huddled at the bar watching all of this play out like a scandalous game show before their unblinking eyes.
Sean looks at Drake, then me, something clicking into place. “You guys know each other …?”
I make a face. “Dart-thrower.”
Sean sits with that for a second, then goes wide-eyed as he turns to Drake. “Wait, you’re his ex?”
“Yep. I’m his Ghost of Summer Past.” Drake strolls partway toward me, his eyes appearing wistful. “Y’know, after that night when I told you to meet me at Sunnyview to talk, and you didn’t show up, I decided it was going to be my fate to just live with the guilt and regret forever. Just like you wanted.” He shakes his head. “But something kept bugging me. You kept bugging me. If I’m being completely honest here, I was probably entertaining some insane idea that you and I might reunite, miraculously make up, and try our hand at a serious relationship again. I truly thought that could happen if I showed you how much I’d matured over the years.” He sucks on his tongue. “So … yes, I broke my promise. I came back here every weekend ever since. But I couldn’t bring myself to face you for some reason. It became this … very sad routine of sitting in an overpriced hotel room with a book wondering what the hell I’m doing, finding I’m yet again unable to muster up the courage to face you … then grabbing a sandwich on my way out of this town on another sad Sunday evening. It wasn’t until today—until I ran into this young fellow upon grabbing my last sad Sunday sandwich ever—that I realized a sobering fact: I don’t want you back. I think I never wanted you back.” He meets my eyes. “I just wanted you to be happy.”
