7
Michelle
“Did you get this salsa at the Piggly Wiggly?” I asked Nicole.
“Yeah, but I got the good kind from the deli. Not a jar.”
“That explains it. It’s awesome,” I said, scooping more up with another chip.
“I liked it,” she said, taking a drink of her diet soda. “Mainly I like this. We used to do this all the time, you know, before I got married and had a kid.”
“Uh, you got that backward, girl,” I teased.
“It went just right as far as I’m concerned. I love that Noah put Coop to bed so we can hang out.”
“Where is he?”
“Noah? Man cave. He fixed up the basement months ago. It’s his retreat. So we’re free to finish While You Were Sleeping without cynical male commentary.”
“Good. I love this movie. I think I wouldn’t mind a little bit of a coma. Just a few weeks, to get some rest and maybe wake up and find the love of my life waiting patiently for me. Takes all the drama out of searching and giving up and getting cats and living alone.”
“She wasn’t the love of his life,” Nic said stubbornly. “She was in love with Jack, not Peter. Peter was in the coma.”
“Yeah, I know. But I have a point. I mean, Peter was a little snobby—"
“He was the Jared Fisk of this movie.”
“Don’t invoke Jared. He wasn’t a bad guy. He just wasn’t for me.”
“Obviously. And he wasn’t the one. He was just the other guy. So who’s Jack for you?”
“I don’t have a Jack Callahan. I think—I think it’s time I just accept that. You know, be happy with the life I’ve got, enjoy my friends and their kids.”
“You’re giving up? You’re not a hundred years old,” she protested.
“I feel like I am. I’ve felt off ever since the other night when I got my car back from being fixed.”
“When are you ever going to tell me that whole story? I mean, you told me you were together a long time ago and he dumped you and broke your heart. I mean the real story.”
“He had to follow me back to my house to get a check for the car repairs. First there was the part where he looked around and he hasn’t been in the house since we were teenagers, so he looks right at the corner where this ugly umbrella stand of my dad’s used to be. When we were together, I used to sneak him in at night after my dad was asleep and once time he tripped over that umbrella stand and we woke everyone up in the entire town, I think.”
“Wait. You snuck around with him?”
“Oh yeah. All the time. We were together for like four and a half years. My dad never thought he was good enough, so I fought with my dad all the time about him. And basically snuck around and did what I wanted.”
“You’re so quiet most of the time. I guess I can’t imagine you fighting with an authority figure or being secretive.”
“Oh, I have hidden depths. And I’m not quiet all the time. Not with you and Trixie, at least. But my dad was always on my case to break up with him, but I loved him so much. It was like the kind of thing you see in the movies.”
“Or the kind you read about all the time?” Nic teased.
“I like romance novels. They’re amazing, and there are so many ways to tell the story of how two people—or sometimes three people—find love and negotiate a relationship.”
“So was this in high school?”
“Yeah. All through high school. We first kissed on the Fourth of July before I started my freshman year.”
“Oh, under the fireworks?”
“Nope, it was before the fireworks. By the time the fireworks happened, we’d been making out and he asked me to be his girlfriend. I don’t know if I can explain to you how hot he was. He had his hair shoulder length then, this jet-black hair with soft waves. He kept it pulled back most of the time, but he let me take it down whenever I wanted to. Anyway, he dumped me the night before graduation, and said it was because he stopped loving me. I just couldn’t believe it. For a long time I was screwed up about it. Because I never loved or trusted anyone the way I did him, and it came out of nowhere. It just turned my whole life upside down. So I think the times I’ve gotten serious with somebody since then, I backed off and called it quits when it didn’t feel like it did when I was with Drew.”
“But you were kids. I’m sure first love is different, and you can’t measure everything against something that was so long ago that you’ve probably idealized it in your mind,” Nicole said. “I’m not saying it wasn’t amazing. I’m sure it was because you still look—like, your face transforms when you talk about him. It’s like something comes over you. So I know it was real, but you didn’t miss out on your only chance to be happy. Do you still have feelings for him?”