Hold the Forevers

Cole ducked his head as if he hadn’t wanted Annabelle to admit that.

“You took photography?” I asked.

“What? He didn’t tell you? He was the best in our class.”

“Ah, don’t exaggerate,” he said.

“He has an eye for it,” she explained as we started out into the field. “If he didn’t sports balls all the time, he’d probably be even better.”

“Sports balls,” I said with a giggle.

“I’ll leave it up to the professionals,” he said.

“Aye, aye,” Annabelle said with an eye roll. “Now, go frolic.”

I caught Cole’s eye, and then together, we frolicked through the field of sunflowers. He twirled me in place, dipping me until my head was almost on the ground. I couldn’t stop smiling or laughing through the whole thing. At one point, he lifted me into his arms, one of my legs bent as he kissed me.

At the end, we flopped back into the flowers, our limbs tangled.

He pulled me closer and brushed a heated kiss against my lips. “I want it to always be like this.”

“Running around in a field of sunflowers?”

“That’s what it’s like to be with you, Lila.”

My heart thudded at the words.

“I always thought that rainbows and sunshine shit was fake. Just some Valentine’s Day–esque marketing objective to get people to watch shows and buy candy. I didn’t quite realize the truth until you.”

“Like you’re giddy and you can hardly breathe and everything feels right in the world?”

He plucked a sunflower and placed it behind my ear. “Like I’m finally living.”

The pictures came back a few days later.

Cole framed his favorite, us lying down and him tucking that sunflower behind my ear. He brought it over with another bouquet of flowers and a note.

Here’s to really living, sunflower.

—Cole

12

Athens

September 26, 2008

“Cole?” I asked as I slipped into his house.

“He’s out back, on the phone,” his roommate Tony told me.

“Thanks.”

I dropped my overnight bag at the bottom of the stairs and went to find my boyfriend. Cole was leaning against the back deck railing with his iPhone pressed to his ear. He smiled when he saw me. He pressed a kiss into my hair, and then held up one finger to say he’d be just a minute.

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t think that should be a problem.” He chuckled softly. “I know, and I do appreciate that. Sure, yeah, I’ll see you later. Bye.”

Cole hung up and then tugged me into him. “There you are!” He dropped his mouth onto mine. “I thought you were coming over right after class.”

“I would have come over earlier, but I had to pack first.”

“For what?”

“I’m staying the weekend, remember?”

But he clearly did not remember. His face was blank.

“I knew that you’d have people in town, but we didn’t discusse you staying here.”

I stayed here all the time. Most weekdays, I was here, locked away in his bed after classes, dance rehearsals, and football practices were over. I didn’t know why he was being so weird about it.

“Well, yeah. I figure the apartment is going to be packed. I’d rather stay with you.”

He ran a hand up the back of his neck. “Actually, Jess is coming back into town for the game, and I told her she could stay here.”

My eyes widened. “Jess … your ex-girlfriend?”

“Yeah.”

“And she’s coming by herself?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Is she still single?”

“It’s not like that. You know that we’re just friends.”

I did not know or believe that. Jess had graduated at the end of last year, but this wasn’t the first time that they’d hung out. I strongly suspected that Jess would do anything in her power to get her clutches back into my boyfriend.

“So, I’ll stay with you in your bed, and she can crash on the couch,” I said with a shrug.

He managed to look even more uncomfortable. “It’s actually her bed.”

“Excuse me?” My voice was low and grating, full of incomprehension.

“Well, when we were dating, she bought a new mattress. She left it with me. It belongs to her.”

I blinked at him. “Your ex bought you a bed while you were dating and is now claiming that the bed still belongs to her? Is that what you’re saying?”

“It does belong to her.”

Wasps had invaded my stomach. “Let me get this straight … Jess is going to be sleeping in your bed?”

“In her bed.”

“And where are you going to be sleeping?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

“On the couch, of course, Lila. It’s not like that at all.”

“Right. Sure. Not like that at all. Which, of course, you have to say out loud because it’s so damn obvious that she wants to fuck you this weekend.”

“That is not what is happening. And I don’t even know why you’re upset about this. How is this any different than your ex staying at your house?”

“My ex is staying on the couch with his girlfriend. Your ex is staying in your bed, and she’s single. There’s only one reason she’s doing this.”