Her Big Neighbor

“Hello,” he says, smiling. “Ready?”

“Hell yes.”

Edward opens the door to his car and I slip down into the passenger seat. When he gets in, I turn to him. “So where are we going?”

“Ken’s. I thought it might be fun.”

“Oh my God I haven’t been to Ken’s in ages.” Ken’s is a retro burger joint on the other side of town. It’s got an insane arcade attached to it and was the place that all the kids in high school hung out. It was one of the places that I saw Edward fairly often—even if we didn’t really interact. And their food is delicious. “That’s a great choice.”

“I’m glad you think so.” He reaches across the car and takes my hand in his, and it’s a simple gesture that makes butterflies start fluttering in my gut. It feels like what could have been when were both younger. A first date at Ken’s was something a lot of people took for granted. I’m glad that we can have that together, even if we skipped a few steps first.

It doesn’t look like it’s changed all that much. Ken’s is bright and vibrant and there’s a bunch of people inside eating and playing games. It occurs to me that I’ve barely been out since I got home. All of my friends are still in school or have moved to other cities for jobs and internships. We text sometimes, but they’re busy. So I don’t have a reason to get out of the house unless it’s for something mundane like grocery shopping.

So seeing Ken’s is like a breath of fresh air. It’s easy to fall into something like that, just going on without even realizing that you’ve kind of isolated yourself. “I haven’t been out in a while. Hadn’t even noticed, really.”

Edward gets out, walks around the car, and opens the door for me. “I thought that might have been the case. That’s why I didn’t want to take you somewhere fancy. At least not tonight. I want you to have fun and I want us to get to know each other better without being around stuffy waiters.” He wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me close as we walk toward the doors. “Though I’m very much looking forward to seeing you in a dress that I can peel off.”

“We don’t even need the stuffy waiters for that,” I say.

He laughs and opens the door to Ken’s. It’s not a place where you have to wait to be seated, so we slip into one of the only open booths together. “The last time I came here was after graduation,” I say. “We had our party here.”

“Good place for it.”

We look at the menu, and when the waitress comes over, I’m ready. My stomach is already growling. “I’ll take the double cheeseburger, please.”

“Same,” Edward says. “And a Pepsi, please.”

“So tell me,” I say. “What’s actually happening with you. You know that I’m out of school for now, and the glittering parade that is my current life of cleaning, but I don’t know about you.”

He stretches, and looks uncomfortable for a moment. “It’s sometimes strange to talk about, because people often think that I don’t deserve it or that I didn’t want it, or even that I don’t work hard. But I took over at Werlin Venture. My parents decided they wanted to see as much of the world as they could, and being CEO didn’t exactly factor into those plans. So he gave it to me.”

My eyebrows rise into my hairline. I hadn’t realized that happened. “When?”

“Pretty shortly after you left for school.”

“Holy shit. Edward, that’s amazing.”

He smiles. “Thanks.”

“Do you like it?”

“I love it. We get to choose who to work with, and we get to support projects that I’m passionate about, and that other people at the company are passionate about. It’s the best of both worlds, really.

“And speaking of, I really do think your mom’s charity is a great idea. I would like to hear more about it at the gala. I’m sure we can come to some kind of arrangement.”

“I’m sure she’d like that,” I say.

“And what would you like?”

I stare at him. “What do you mean?”

“You said you wanted to maybe be involved in the creative part of business, but not what. Do you have any ideas for what you might want to do? There’s no pressure, I’m just curious.”

That same niggling anxiety rises in my gut. “I’m honestly not sure at the moment. When Mom asked me to move back and help, I said yes because I wasn’t happy, and it was the perfect opportunity. It is a good idea, and I’m happy to help with it. But now that I’m here…I know that it isn’t what I really want. So I’m trying to figure out what exactly it is that I want while also helping Mom and figuring out a way to tell her that I don’t want to stay with the charity long term. And don’t even get me started on telling her about you.” I stop talking, suddenly realizing that that all slipped out at once. That was unintentional, but it had all been building up and it’s good to have it out there to someone.