‘Maybe we can be honest and talk about how awkward I made it when I pretended we hadn’t been friends before this?’
WHAT?
My mouth hung open. My mind went blank, and I just stared at his face in the moonlight. I didn’t know what to say. Then it came to me.
‘Yourememberedme?’
He bit his lip. ‘Yeah. Sorry. And I know you did, too, because I saw it on your face when I “introduced” myself.’
I crossed my arms, my cheeks burning. ‘What an ass! And you just let me be mortified.’
‘Iwas mortified, too!’ He put a hand on his chest, and I could see he was trying not to laugh. ‘I just … assumed you wouldn’t remember me, so I pretended I didn’t remember you, and you weresupposedto tell me we knew each other—’
‘Oh, so it’s my fault you manipulated me into thinking you completely forgot about me.’
He laughed. ‘You could have said something!’
‘And add a whole new flaky layer of mortification to my awkward croissant? No, thank you!’ I gave him a playful shove, still pretending to be angry when I was actually burning with excitement. He did remember me! ‘So tell me what happened to you. You went away for a two-week vacation that turned into forever.’
He motioned back at the house behind him. ‘This happened. My grandfather died in the middle of the vacation.’
‘Oh no. I’m sorry.’
‘It’s fine. We came home to help my grandmother take care of his estate, and family came in from out of town for the funeral, and afterward it ended up being this whole big thing.’
‘I pretended a shark ate you,’ I said, without realizing how it sounded.
He chuckled and his eyes went wide. ‘We did buy a bigger boat after my grandfather died!’ Then, seeing my shocked face, he said, ‘Kidding. I’ll explain the joke to you another time. But three weeks ago wasn’t the first time we’ve seen each other since day camp – you know that, right?’
Huh? My mind raced, trying to figure out what he could be talking about. When did we cross paths? I tried playing soccer for a season in middle school, but quickly realized it wasn’t fun when the other guys on my team threw hissy fits and started screaming and crying when we lost a game. But the public schools and the parochial schools never played each other, so that couldn’t have been it.
‘You were at a party maybe a year ago. I was there too and we saw each other, but you didn’t seem to recognize me.’
‘What? When? What party?’
‘It was one of Amber’s.’
My cheeks burned a bit more. If I didn’t recognize him, maybe it was Ava’s turn to be DD and I’d had too much to drink. Shit, what if it was the night Brad and I first hooked up? What must he think of me if he saw me sneaking away with a closeted hockey player?
‘So you just assumed I didn’t remember you?’ I asked. He nodded. He was trying to pretend he didn’t recognize me when he first started because … because why? Because he would be embarrassed if I didn’t remember him?
Or because, like me, it would crush him?
‘Do you want to call me when you’re home?’ he asked, shaking me from my thoughts. ‘We can sync up something on Netflix.’
I did, but I sighed. ‘I have brunch shift tomorrow morning. And I’m doing setup and sick trays, so I have to be there at ten.’
‘Maybe tomorrow night.’
‘Okay.’
I leaned against my car, wringing my hands behind my back. My heartbeat quickened in my chest. The longer we stood in silence, the more nervous I got. Should I lean forward and kiss him? Or was he just showing me a movie because we were friends? Telling me he remembered me from day camp as a friend?
Everything felt more confusing than it had been just a few hours ago, when I told him his friends were assholes.
But he’d showed me his movie, the movie that was most important to him, and it was about love and two charactersnotdoing what they really wanted and not realizing it until it was too late.
I tried not to smile for a few seconds before realizing it was too dark for him to really see it. I could barely make out his face in the light of the moon, but I could see his eyes on me. I shivered and my teeth chattered, but I wasn’t sure if it was the cold. He put his hands on my arms, rubbing them to try to warm me up.
