She stares above my head, toward the water. I notice her eyes are glassy, like she’s been crying. “Where was your date tonight?”
“Lauren wasn’t my date.” I kick at the grass, suddenly brave.
Or maybe overtired.
Or just too tired to care.
I look her straight in the eyes. “She was my distraction.”
A silence so long and thick falls between us, and I hold my breath. We look at each other, and without speaking, I have a whole conversation. I pour out all the thoughts in my head and tell her everything—how I love her, how I always have, and how I don’t think I will ever stop. I’ve tried to move on and failed. I compare everyone to her. No one will ever be her. I want to understand what happened, how we went from engaged and promising our futures to each other, to her just disappearing.
It's like she can hear my thoughts, because she spits back an argument. “Why didn’t you fight for me?”
Clenching my jaw, I struggle to keep my voice even. The question ignites my anger. She left on a plane without saying goodbye!I didn’t initiate the breakup. “You left on our wedding day. I got the message pretty clearly.”
“I ran away because I was humiliated.” Her voice rises a notch. “You forgot to mention our wedding in that interview, and your dad told me it was because you were embarrassed of me and wanted out.”
“When did you talk to my dad?” My head snaps back, nostrils flaring. “Why would you believe that?”
“I didn’t want to,” her voice cracks. “But you gave that interview, and when the reporter asked if you were single, you never mentioned me. We were literally getting married that week. It was a pretty big detail to just ‘forget.’”
My snort is the perfect blend of bitterness and disbelief. “Why didn’t you talk to me? Why didn’t you answer your phone and ask me why I didn’t say that?”
“Well, okay.” She squares her stance, like she’s been waiting for this. “Why didn’t you admit we were getting married if you weren’t embarrassed?”
“Because my dad had just spent the last hour filling my ear about how you were only using me for publicity. He pointed out that we’d known each other for years, and you only showed interest after I got signed. It was pretty sus, if you ask me,” My voice rises to a shout.
“What?” Hertis extra sharp with disbelief. “That is a lie. I was happy for you that you got on the team, but—"
“But what?” Shaking my head, my gaze falls to the ground with my sinking heart. I’ve thought this through so many times. I want to see her expression but stay rooted in the yard, heart hammering. “But what? You can’t think of another lie to cover it up?”
She doesn’t speak.
The silence between us is so loud, it crackles like lightning about to strike.
She finally speaks, voice thick. “Would it have mattered if I had talked to you? You seemed to move on so fast. There were social media posts of you with models within weeks.”
Anger flares hot in my gut. “What do you think?” My arms fly wide. “Of course, it would have mattered! It matters because I had chosen you. Those girls were literally just for promo for theteam. Do you know what it did to me, having you ghost me after all our promises?”
The old lady next door throws open her upstairs window and sticks her head out. Her curlers are pinned to the top of her head, and she has a night cap over them. “Do you mind keeping it down?” she hollers. “Some of us like to sleep!”
It’s not the first time she’s yelled at us. Although the last time, we weren’t exactly arguing.
The rain had started after midnight—soft at first, then shifting into a sharper pinging on the roof. I remember sitting up in bed, wondering if she’d hear it too. We’d talked about rain before. My heart was already racing. I didn’t look at my phone. I just knew.
I slipped on a T-shirt and crawled out of bed. I remember smelling the thick salt in the air from that night on the beach. It was one of those summer nights that embedded itself into my brain. Just as I stuck a leg out my window, there she was. Perfect timing.
She stood right below my window in her blue swimsuit. Her hair was curling into spirals from the rain. Man, I love it when it does that. Her eyes sparkled as she smiled at me, and I knew with all my heart I’d love her forever.
“I knew you’d remember,” she whispered.
I risked my life climbing down my mother’s trellis, my fingers slipping on the wet wood. The moment my bare toes touched the grass, she grabbed my hand, though, it felt like she was holding my heart.
We splashed through the puddles until the sand on the beach met our toes. Rain fell harder until it became a full storm with lightning crashing on the other side of the sky. We didn’t care. We were in love.
“Dance with me.” Her breath was warm against my skin as she wrapped her arms around my neck.
“There’s no music,” I said. Then added, “And it’s lightning.”
