AllFreeNovel
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I smile and drink my soda, too. If I had more wine, I would stumble out to his car.Not sure where to begin.“Tell you everything? You mean, since before or after the clam bake?”
He chuckles. “Before.”
“So, from the end of high school to the Cargill’s party, huh?”
“The short version, the long version, whichever.” He twirls his pasta onto his fork in the most artless way possible. Not like Rowan at all. Neither are his clothes. Just a casual button up and jeans.
“Um, well, we broke up, and I went to Princeton. Met Mark. Married him. Started a photography business. Divorced Mark after I found another woman face down on his lap in our bed. Went to the clambake.”
He laughs. “Okay, maybe the long version.”
I shrug and smile. “I’m going to skip the long version to tell you I almost died today.”
“What? How? Are you okay?”
“Honestly, I do not know what I am at the moment, aside from enjoying the hell out of this lasagna.”
“What happened, Autumn?”
I regale him with the tale of the self-important influencer, the cliff, and Delia’s impending date. “…and now I’m here.”
“Damn. You are sure you didn’t hit your head or something? Should this date be happening in a hospital?”
I giggle. “No. Physically, I’m fine. It just…it shook me.”
“Understandably so.” He sips his soda again. “I had a near death experience once myself.”
He pauses for a bit and I wonder if he wants to go on.
“Do you want to share?”
“I didn’t use to. But I’m okay to talk about it now. Freshman year of college, I was freaking out about everything. After we broke up, I was…” he sort of smiles, but it’s hesitant, “I was really hung up on you for a while, Autumn. Not trying to make you feel bad or anything, just being honest. So, when finals came around, I was a basket case. My roommate had all these pills, swore they helped him stay up to study. And being the genius that I am, I thought, if one is good, ten must be better.”
“Oh, no.”
He nods. “I took ten of his mystery pills, and the next thing I really remember was waking up in a hospital bed with two broken legs and a dislocated shoulder, cuffed to the railing.”
I gasped, “Trevor, what did you do?”
He smiles. “Per the footage—
“Footage?”
“I broke into a petting zoo to liberate the animals.”
“Oh my goodness,” I say, giggling.
“It was all fun and games until I led my flock across a highway.”
“No!”
“Thankfully, the animals are all fine, or at least, they were the last I saw them. I had stolen a shovel and used it like a staff to lead the animals to the forest across the highway. The petting zoo cameras weren’t aimed that far out from there, so that was the last they captured. But the driver of the semi-truck filled in the rest. He didn’t see me until it was too late, and that was that.”
“Wow.”
“I am lucky that’s all that happened,” he says, shrugging. “Obviously, it could have been much, much worse. I could do most of my classwork from my hospital bed and managed to graduate on time, just barely. Haven’t touched a drug since my recovery was complete except for an Aspirin here and there. I’m just…I prefer to remain in complete control.”
“And now you’re a firefighter.”
