“More than maybe.”
She nudged me and we continued up the mountain, barely being able to see the top of it. My heart sank because she wanted to ride the cable car down, which meant less time with her, and truthfully I wanted every second she was willing to give me.
“So, tell me about you. What did you go to school for? Because in all this time of working together, I’ve actually never learned anything about you.”
I watched as she laughed at herself and I thought back to when we were together. I had always wanted to know about her, but it had never occurred to me to tell her about myself.
“I went to Georgia State with the guys, majoring in Creative Writing.”
“Should have known.”
“I actually came back here to go to school, hoping I would get a chance at seeing you.”
She stopped us both in our tracks and stared me down.
“And I left. You came back to me and I left you.”
“Don’t do that, peaches. Please don’t beat yourself up about this. None of it was your fault. I promise. It was by chance. All of it.”
“You say that, but I saw you that day.”
“What?” I questioned her, not because I didn’t know what she was talking about, but because I hadn’t known she had seen me that ill-fated day in the Atlanta airport coming to town.
But in this, she had no idea that I had watched her for hours, seeing her get on that plane.
Leaving me.
Erica
“I have photos of you getting off the plane and walking out of the terminal,” I confessed to him. In all the times we had seen each other, it was the only time he hadn’t known I had seen him. It had been my secret over the years. Those photos lining the walls of my bedroom like a monument, reminding me each day of the man I loved and the man I couldn’t wait to get back to one day.
“You do?” His face lit up and the worry I felt became confusion.
“Why don’t you look upset?”
“Why would I be upset?” The confusion I felt warped onto Chase’s face.
“Because it was just another point in time in our life that I could have said something and I didn’t.” I looked down at my foot, grinding the tips into the hard sand beneath me. If only I could dig a hole to bury myself in the shame I felt.
“Well, if you’re going to beat yourself up about it, then I guess I should too.”
“What?” I looked back up at him, a smile finally gracing his face again.
“I saw you that day too.”
“You did?” My voice rose an octave and comfort filled me.
“I did.” Chase reached out to me and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “I got off that plane and saw you instantly.”
I remembered the picture of him getting off the plane and how it had seemed that he was looking directly at me. The photo that was mounted above my bed felt so much more personal now.
“I found a seat behind a column, where you wouldn’t have been able to see me, and watched you for hours working on your laptop, until you got on the plane to North Carolina.”
“You know what?” I asked him. Thinking about all this and the events that led up to us being here today, knowing just how stupid we both were with not speaking up, I wanted to move on from them. I wanted to start this life with Chase right now, and not dwell on the past and what-ifs and what could have been, based on decisions we hadn’t made. Because now we were in each other’s arms and I never wanted to be away from him again. “It doesn’t matter.”
“No?” Chase smirked at me and then leaned down toward me. “Then what does?”
“Us.” I poked at his chest. “This. Being together is what matters.”
