“Fine. But I’ll still stretch it out; you don’t need everything at once. But for example, I got rejected by all the Bama sororities. I graduated salutatorian of my high school class with a 4.3 GPA, had extracurricular activities out the wazoo, and I’m pretty friendly and open. But nope—they have a strict ‘whites only’ policy. At the time I was pretty bummed about it, but I later realized it was for my own good. The girls would have probably hazed me to death or outright smothered me in my sleep and then come up with some cover story that no one would have questioned, so they definitely did me a favor.”
“I’m really sorry to hear this, Mari.”
“I warned you.”
“I don’t mean that I want you to stop sharing these hardships with me. I’m in your life now, and I’m here to protect you. Beyond supplementing your lack of street smarts, I’ve got your back. Things like that happen, you let me know. As you like to throw in my face, I’ve got lots of money and power; I can make people pay for hurting you.”
Maribel’s heart began to melt, so she quickly tried to change the subject, unable to deal with the emotions flooding her.
“Your turn. I’m almost afraid to ask, but where’s your mom in this whole thing? You haven’t mentioned her.”
He briefly looked away.
“When I was twenty-one and Judy was sixteen, my mom died of ovarian cancer. It was terrible losing her, but I felt even worse for my sister Judy; it broke my heart to see her lose her at such a crucial time. It’s been about five years since then, and it turns out I had nothing to worry about—Judy’s strong, a soldier. She’s more like my dad than I’ve ever been, so she’s hardy and focused. She knows exactly what she wants and goes for it. Well, except in one area.”
He grinned.
“She has this massive crush on my best friend Scott, but it’s like she refuses to acknowledge it to herself or decided not to do anything about it for whatever reason. Maybe she has a deal with herself, like you.”
He shrugged and she shoved him playfully.
“Either way, I wish my mom could have seen how she turned out. I think Judy is both my mom and dad’s favorite kid and I don’t blame ‘em. She’s pretty awesome. Can’t wait to introduce you two. Speaking of sisters, what about yours? What happened?”
“She and I were pretty close growing up, but once we hit our teens, everything changed. She’s two years older than me and maybe I wasn’t cool enough to be around her friends—fine, I get it; younger siblings are never cool unless they’re famous or something—but it was so abrupt. She no longer confided in me, she partied all the time, despite my parents giving her curfews and chastising her and warning her of the dangers of whatever she was into, and then one day, she left with some guy and we haven’t heard hide nor hair from her since.”
“Wait, are you sure she’s okay? She might need help…”
Mari shook her head.
“That would be one hell of a Weekend at Bernie’s trick by someone, because I see updates on her Facebook with new profile pics of her smiling and having fun. She’s alive, she’s…healthy, I suppose, and she’s an adult, so my parents can’t do anything. She’s just…gone. I just hope she’s as happy as she looks in her profile photo. She hasn’t blocked me, but I can tell she’s got me in some kind of limited setting.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, as I don’t use Facebook. Anyway, I’m sorry you and your sister are no longer close—what a shame.”
She shrugged.
“Sometimes people just move on—whatever needs they had were met, so they have no other reason to keep someone around. I’ve thought about the whole thing a lot, and I’ve been watching other people’s relationships, and death is certainly the worst—things unsaid, things that can never be said haunt people and there’s not much they can do about it—but people have this huge capacity to forget others they were once inseparable from while both parties are still alive.
“My parents are super close and they’re best friends and everything, so it’s harder for me to see it happen to them, but my friend, Annie—her parents divorced, and they might not have grown up together, but they married young and grew together, shared all sorts of intimacy. They were super close too, and the most important things in each other’s lives for a long time. And then one day, they weren’t anymore; all that bonding severed. Of course, it probably didn’t help that her dad had eventually found a job that required him to go away every now and then, and I can only imagine the problems that sprung from that. The point is, for a lot of people, proximity is essential to fostering a bond—no matter how close and inseparable they once were.”
“Except in the case of true love, it seems0—no matter the distance, hearts bonded by true love don’t forget.”
Mari stared at him in wonder.
“You’re saying you believe in that stuff now?”
“I’ve seen the one-sided version of it with my mom, and there was at least one sickening couple I witnessed in college that seemed to have the real thing. I’d have to look it up and see how things went. But I’ve heard about this true love phenomenon here and there. As far as I can tell, you can grow to love almost anyone, and that’s the kind that needs to be fed. But I do believe there are game-changing people out there—those you couldn’t stop loving if you tried. We just don’t all get to meet them, hence the non-believers. In the case of true love—romantic or familial, you can run, but you can’t hide. No matter what you put between yourself and the one your heart chose or your soul connected with, that love goes nowhere. So if your sister truly loved you, I guarantee she still thinks about you. She might have even taken off with you in mind—to make sure she had no bad influence on you.”
Mari almost halted her steps.
“Holy cow. I never even thought of that.”
“Maybe someday she’ll be ready to talk to you again. She might even be embarrassed, dreading the words I told you so from the family if things didn’t work out as she thought. Anyway, don’t be too hard on her. Give her a chance if she ever asks for it—directly or indirectly.”
Mari stared at Jim as if seeing him for the first time.
“You are not at all like what I initially thought. You’re not what I’d expect some multimillionaire to be. You actually have a heart. Compassion.”
His eyebrows raised, then he chuckled.
“Yeah, I suppose I don’t have an Apple watch for a heart, Mari. Spoiler alert: my blood’s not actually blue.”
She laughed while his hand went to his stomach as it growled.
“Also, I eat real food, not diamonds. You hungry yet? There’s this place I’d like you to try. Anything that catches your eye, really—I need to feed the beast.”
* * *
Maribel still felt sort of bathed in a golden glow as they sat waiting for their dessert.
She felt like she had learned so much more about Jim—like her brain was still catching up with her heart.
He worried her tremendously because he felt exactly like the thing he’d mentioned earlier: a game-changer.
“Stay right here,” he suddenly said, getting up and disappearing out of the restaurant’s doors.
She watched him go, wondering what the heck he was up to.
Five minutes later, he returned, smiling.
“What on earth was that? They have a bathroom in here, don’t they?”
“You’ll see,” he said, looking incredibly proud of himself.
Once they were done eating and left, he led the way to a florist.
Maribel smiled when she saw it, figuring out what he was up to.
He let her hand go as he said, “be right back,” before darting into the shop.
He emerged with a gorgeous bouquet, dominated by peaches and cream.
“Oh, my god,” she almost whispered, her voice choked.
She was too touched by the gesture to be embarrassed that her eyes had watered as she took in the beautiful bouquet.
She couldn’t remember the last time s
he’d gotten flowers—probably a corsage for the prom.
“They’re beautiful,” she said, finally aware enough to be mildly ashamed that she was practically in tears over such a simple thing.
“These are my favorite colors—how did you know?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t. Just guessed. Somehow I knew exactly what I wanted the bouquet to look like, and when the florist was done with it, it was better than I imagined. To be honest, I think I saw something like it somewhere—can’t remember where—but it came to mind while I had the arrangement made. The colors seem to suit you. Anyway, I’m so glad you like it.”
“I love it. I can’t wait to take them home and have them brighten up my place a bit. I wish I could keep them for months and months.”
She saddened at the thought of them dying—sometime after Jim came to his senses and was long gone.
“I’ll send you new ones if you’d like—every week, fresh flowers to decorate your home.”
Her heart squeezed, her throat tightening again to the point that she couldn’t respond.
Finally, she got a hold of herself.
She looked up at him, emotions still swirling about, but her throat had slackened enough for her to talk again.
“Thank you,” she said.
“My pleasure,” he replied, looking at her warmly before bending to kiss her lightly on the lips.
* * *
JIM
Jim knew he’d do anything to see Mari smile, to see that joyous look on her face over and over again.
Mari’s joy made him feel happy—like he had earned a gold star.
As they headed back to her apartment in a taxi, it hit him—he’d seen a bouquet like the one he’d gotten her in a dream—the dream he had the night before he was supposed to walk down the aisle.
He chuckled, and Mari immediately inquired what he was laughing about.
“I just remembered where I saw the bouquet,” he said. “In that dream I told you about.”
Her brows came together but she was still smiling, silently enquiring him to tell her more.
He shook his head.