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“That’s young.” I couldn’t imagine being tied down when I was twenty-four. I was still getting drunk and high almost every night after surfing.
“Yeah, but they met when she was sixteen. Neither of them had eyes for anyone else after that. They were destined to be together.” Her voice dropped at that last part.
Charlee had been with Bridger longer than she hadn’t been.
“You said her parents died?”
“Yeah. Her dad died just after we graduated high school and her mom a few years later. Charlee has been through some shit, and she doesn’t deserve it. I mean, no one deserves to lose people they love, but Charlee especially. She’s the best person I’ve ever known. She had always put others first and went out of her way to make sure everyone felt seen and heard.” Genesis looked out into the ocean, lost in her thoughts for a moment.
I didn’t know what to say. Hearing how hard Charlee has had it made me sick to my stomach. How does someone continue moving forward tragedy after tragedy?
“I shouldn’t have left her all those years ago. It wasn’t right. I realize how wrong I was now.” She stood up suddenly. “I should get back to her. It was nice meeting you, Levi. I hope I see you again.”
“It was nice meeting you, too,” I replied as she left me to ponder the whirlwind interaction that left me spinning.
I pulled up the article Genesis had shown me. I still couldn’t believe I was in the same place at the same time as Charlee and didn’t notice her.
Genesis insisted it was fate that brought us here to Beach Break Campground at this exact moment, and it was hard to argue under the circumstances, especially with that nagging feeling I had that Charlee was familiar when I first saw her. I wasn’t a spiritual person by any means, but this whole scenario was starting to seem more supernatural by the minute.
Charlee
When I drew that broken heart on the calendar, I had questioned how a vital organ like a heart could be so broken and still work. Every day I wondered if today was the day my heart would finally realize it couldn’t function under these circumstances and just stop working. But it didn’t stop. It kept pumping blood like a machine on autopilot day after day. Like me.
The only thing I had marked on the whole damn calendar was that heart around Bridger’s death day. It was the only thing that kept me going this long because it gave me an end goal. We would have been married fifteen years now. Another Hallmark milestone, but instead, I was mourning his death.
“We almost made it,” I whispered aloud.
When we got married, we had planned out all of our decade wedding anniversaries. For our ten-year, we went to Hawaii for two weeks. It was paid for by his sponsorship because he made an appearance at a few events while we were there. For our twentieth, we had planned on traveling Europe for a month. It was lavish and seemed crazy, but I knew Bridger would make it happen. For our thirtieth, we were going to take a cruise. We tossed around ideas like Alaska and the South Pacific. We were going to buy a motorhome for our fortieth, sell our house, and travel the US for however long we wanted. We never talked about anything past that, but we were confident we would still be alive and mobile.
How wrong we were.
I startled when Genesis opened the door, spinning away from the calendar and quickly sitting on the couch next to Midnight.
“Hey, you’re awake,” she said as she closed the door behind her.
“Yeah.” I wasn’t actually sleeping, but I had told her I was because I didn’t want her to see me have a breakdown.
“How old is she?” She watched as I scratched Midnight’s back.
“She just turned four in June.”
“She still has a long life to live.” She smiled warmly.
“Yeah,” I agreed softly.
Genesis sat down at the table. The couch was barely big enough for two people.
“I met that young, extremely delicious young man a few trailers down.” She licked her lips dramatically.
I froze. Had he mentioned me? Us?
Genesis continued, “His name is Levi and he seems like a really genuine guy. Not a douche like some surfers. Definitely more clean-cut than surfer brah.” She waved a hang ten sign in the air.
My eyes darted down to Midnight, and I nervously chewed on the inside of my lip.
When I still didn’t say anything, she continued, “Have you met him? You have to meet him. He knew Bridger.”
Instantly, my whole body stiffened and I could swear my heart stopped pumping. Maybe this was the moment my heart said enough was enough. But after a moment it kicked right up again and I caught my breath. “What?”
