by Dori Lavelle
“No.” I smile. “I just happen to love water.”
“Well, all right then.” He orders himself a glass of white wine.
“How’s your head?” he asks when the waitress goes to get our drinks. “You still don’t want to have it checked out by a doctor?”
“Nope. It doesn’t hurt anymore.” The bump is still tender, but it should heal in no time.
“I’m glad to hear that.” Silence falls between us as Brax continues to stare at me.
I drop my gaze and twist my braid around my hand, in need of something to do. “You’re staring,” I say finally.
“I can’t help it,” he says in a low voice. “It’s a while since I came across a woman as beautiful as you.”
I look up at him then, confusion swirling in my mind. “You’re kidding.”
“Why? You don’t think you’re beautiful?”
“I don’t think I’m ugly, but—”
“You don’t think you’re beautiful,” he repeats. Before he can say anything more, our drinks are brought to our table and he waits until we’re alone again. “You really are, Maggie,” he says, lifting his glass to his lips. “You’re very beautiful.”
“Thank you.” I look away again, my cheeks burning. I’m not good with compliments, which is not a surprise since I hardly get them. I need to say something to get his attention off me. “You don’t look so bad yourself,” I say and he only smiles. He probably knows he looks good.
“Can I ask you a question?” He takes another swig of wine, then shifts his chair closer to the table. His eyes pierce through mine, reaching me at the very core of my being.
“Sure.” I frown.
“Why do you need a date?”
I narrow my eyes. “I don’t understand.”
“Back at the scene of the accident, you mentioned that you could use a date.”
“I didn’t.” I shake my head and suddenly the memory hits me. “Oh my God. You heard me?”
“I did.” His face is serious now.
“You were not meant to hear that.” I let out a nervous laugh and shrug. “It was a joke.”
“You know what I’ve learned in my thirty-eight years? Jokes are usually truth wrapped in humor.”
“That’s interesting.” I blow out a breath. What the heck. Why not just tell him? It’s not as if I’ll ever see him again after today. “Well, I received an invitation to my high school reunion and guests can bring a date.” Contrary to what my mother had told me when she brought me the invitation, bringing a significant other is optional.
“And you don’t have one? You’re not dating anyone?”
I shake my head. “Not at the moment, no.”
“That’s surprising. How is it possible that a woman like you is single?”
I shrug. “Because life has a nasty sense of humor, I guess.” I smooth the checkered tablecloth with my palms. “It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m not going to the reunion.”
“Why not? Because you don’t have a date?”
“It’s more complicated than that.” I reach for my glass and wrap my hands around it, enjoying the cooling sensation. “School was never fun for me. I have no good memories to celebrate. And there’s really no one I would like to reunite with.”
“What happened in high school?”
The man is just full of questions, isn’t he? No one has ever shown this much interest in what I have to say.
“A lot of things happened. I don’t want to bore you.”
“Not at all.” He drinks more wine and leans in to listen to me as though I’m the only person in the world. “I have time and I am a good listener.”
I swallow hard. It’s been years since I spoke about what happened to me as a teen. But there’s something about this man that makes me want to tell him...everything. “I used to be that girl.”
“What kind of girl would that be?”
“The one everyone picked on.” I smile even though deep down inside my chest, an ache is starting to bloom. “I was the girl who was bullied every single day of high school.”
Brax is silent for a very long time, and when he speaks his voice is so low, I almost don’t hear it. “I used to be that guy too.”
His words almost knock me off my chair. “You were bullied? But who would bully a guy like you?”
“You don’t know how I looked back in high school. I was the guy with the thick glasses and secondhand clothes. And I had a terrible stutter.”
“I don’t believe you.” No wonder I feel so comfortable with him. We experienced the same things. “You’re not just saying that to make me feel better, are you?”
“I wish I was. But, no. It’s the truth.” He chuckles. “High school was hell for me.”
“Did you attend high school here in Misty Cove?” I tilt my head to the side. “Are you even from around here?”
“No. I’m only here on business. I grew up in Boston, but my mother was from here. We visited quite a lot in my childhood.”
“Oh,” I say. “Anyway, I’m sorry about what happened to you in high school. I know firsthand how painful it is.”
“Don’t be sorry. It all worked out for the best.” He places his hands flat on the table and I admire his long, elegant fingers. “You know what the best type of revenge is?” he asks.
“I have a feeling you’re about to tell me.” Now that he has revealed to me something so personal, I feel much more at ease around him, like I can actually be myself.
“The best revenge is to prove them all wrong. I think you should go to that reunion. Go and show them how amazing you turned out.”
“The problem is, I didn’t turn out amazing.”
“You seem pretty amazing from where I’m sitting.” He clears his throat. “All right, tell me your story, then I can decide just how far from amazing you think you are.”
“Very far, trust me.” I laugh out loud. “But okay, here it goes.”
My eyes are back to focusing on his fingers as I tell him how my life didn’t quite work out the way I planned. How I didn’t go to college because my mother threatened to kill herself. How I feel like a total failure. By the time I’m done, I’m blinking away tears. I hate that I feel extremely vulnerable.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I’m so sorry you had to go through all that crap, especially with your mother. That’s just messed up.” He shakes his head. “I was lucky to grow up with a loving, supportive mother. She was the person I could go to when the world was unkind. I can’t even imagine how it would feel not to have had that love and support.” He lets out a harsh breath. “She died the year I started college...car accident. I had no one after that. My father left when I was one year old.”
I lay a hand on my chest, pushing aside my own troubles. “I’m so sorry about your mom. It must have been painful to lose her.”
“Thanks. Her death changed me. Without her to run to, I knew I had to stand up for myself, to face the world alone.” His face takes on a faraway look, but he soon snaps back to the present. “I stopped caring what others thought of me, reinvented myself, and built a life I wake up excited to live.”
“You’re stronger than I’ll ever be.” I reach for a napkin and press it on my damp eyes. “I just feel like if I go to the reunion, old wounds will be ripped open. They will all be rubbing their successes in my face and I’d feel even worse.”
“You don’t know for sure if their lives are as perfect as you think.”
“True.” I purse my lips and say nothing more.
He folds his hands on the table. “Look, you might not want to hear this, but by not going to the reunion, you are letting them win yet again. Why don’t you just go show them how stunning you are?”
“I’m not.” I wrap my braid tight around my hand. “You don’t have to say all those nice things, you know.”
“I’m only telling the truth.” He reaches for his glass and takes another drink before he continues. “And the fact that you don’t see that you are stunning makes you even more
so.”
“Are you always this charming?” His words are hard to believe, but after hearing negativity for so long, they light up my heart.
“Only when I need to be.” He runs a hand through his hair. “You should go, Maggie. Not for them, but for you. Prove to yourself that they no longer have power over you. I can come with you, if you like.”
“As my date?” A flush of adrenaline sweeps through my body. “You can’t do that.”
“Why not?” A smile curls his full lips. “Am I not good enough for you?”
“Quite the opposite,” I say, breathless. “You might be too good for me.” I clasp my hands in my lap, unable to believe that a man as handsome as him is pretty much asking me out.
“You’re worth more than you give yourself credit for.” When someone at a nearby table laughs, Brax glances at him, then back at me. “The truth is, I also want to be on the frontline so I can see their faces when they see you enter. I bet most of them are not expecting you to show up.” My heart almost stops when he puts his hand over mine. “The only way you can heal is by facing the monsters again. That’s how it was for me anyway. I decided I’m no longer afraid of them.”
“Why are you really doing this?” I ask. “Why are you so nice to me? You don’t even know me.”
“You don’t need to know someone to like them. I kind of like you...a lot. And I want to spend a little more time with you. We could call it a second date.”
In the silence that follows, I finish my water and turn his words over and over in my mind. Then I nod. “Okay, I would like it if you accompany me to the reunion.” As soon as I say the words, butterflies come to life inside my belly.
The rest of the time we spend together, I feel like I’m in a different world from the one I live in.
Brax is giving me all the attention and we are laughing and exchanging stories from high school. Some of them had been so painful at the time, but now I find myself laughing about them. I even tell him about the time some guy peed into my apple juice—in the cafeteria—and he and his friends only told me after I drank it.
After sharing our humiliating stories, our conversation moves to books and I find myself telling him about my novel.
“Can I read it?” he asks.
I hesitate for only a moment before digging into my bag and pulling out the thick envelope.
“Can I return it to you the day of the reunion?”
“You don’t have to. I’ll print out another copy.” It feels uncomfortable to have someone else reading my book since I have never shared it with anyone before, but I also feel flattered that he’s willing to spend his precious time reading something that I created.
“Great. Thanks. I look forward to reading this.” He peers into the envelope, but doesn’t remove the manuscript.
Not long after I give him my book, we leave the bar and stand outside staring at each other, saying nothing. Before I know it, Brax takes a step closer and his lips meet mine. The kiss is fleeting, but beautiful and life-changing.
“I’ll see you on Saturday at eight. I would have loved to see you again sooner, but I’m crazy busy.” He tucks a flyaway strand of my hair behind my ear. “Be good to yourself.”
“I promise.” Waiting three days to see him will be one of the hardest things I have ever done.
After I give him my address, he walks away and I stare after him, my head spinning with emotions.
Before we left the bar, he offered to drop me off, but I don’t want my mother to see him and ruin this beautiful day for me.
Now I’m standing on the pavement, watching the most handsome man I’ve ever met in real life walking away with my number and address in his pocket and the promise to see me again. I hope fate knows what it’s doing.
My good mood dissipates when I reach home to find my mother waiting for me at the door, her face twisted in an ugly expression. “It’s two hours since you were supposed to be home. Where the fuck were you? And where did you get that bike from? Have you been keeping money from me or did you steal it?”
“It’s really none of your business, mother,” I say between clenched teeth. If she sees the bruise on my cheek, she doesn’t say. She doesn’t care.
She waits until I put the bike away in the shed and then she charges for me, grabbing me by the clothes. “Don’t you dare speak to me that way, you little slut.” Her cigarette- and booze-tainted spit hits my face with each word.
I push her away from me and she stumbles back. I don’t have to push hard because the alcohol in her system does most of the work.
Her bloodshot eyes are wide with horror when they meet mine. I’ve never stood up to her before, but something has happened to me today, something that changed me. For the first time in my life, I see myself in another light. For once, I don’t feel like the worthless piece of garbage she says I am.
When I walk away from her, I feel both empowered and terrified to be stepping outside my comfort zone. And when night falls and I curl up in my bed, I allow myself to dream of the handsome stranger who changed me.
I wake up on Saturday morning with a huge grin on my face. It feels like I’ve been waiting forever for this day to arrive. I can hardly wait to see Brax again.
My mother is in the kitchen waiting for me to make breakfast. I make scrambled eggs and toast, enough for both of us. The past three days, I only cooked for myself because she continued to insult me in every way she could and still expected me to do stuff for her.
But today, I’m in a good mood. It will be hard for anything to come between me and my joy.
I’m still nervous about going to the reunion to face people who used to hate me, but with Brax by my side, maybe I can survive it. It’s only one evening after all.
“What’s that stupid smile on your face for?” My mother crushes her cigarette on a small plate in front of her.
“I’m excited, that’s all.” I start to eat my food, gazing out the window at the distant ocean, determined to keep her words from hurting me. “I’m going to the reunion tonight.”
She laughs, so hard and so long that I almost fall back into her trap. But I have prepared myself for this moment. I won’t give her back my power.
“So you’re going to make a fool of yourself?” she scoffs and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand.
I shoot her a look. “No, I’m going there to have a good time.”
“Is that so?” She bites into her toast. “And when they ask what you’ve been up to all these years, what will you say?”
“I’ll tell them the truth.” My eyes don’t leave hers as I speak. “I have nothing to hide.”
She has not expected my response because now she’s quiet. The only sound in the room is of her chewing. She finishes her toast before she says anything more. “You’ll look like a fool going without a date.”
“Oh, I forgot to mention that I do have a date.” My heart warms with pride.
The smile falls from my mother’s lips. Her face grows serious. “Who did you bribe to go with you? Not that you have the money to bribe anyone.”
“Of course not.” My nails bite into my palms. “You’ve been too busy gambling it all away.”
“What’s gotten into you?” Her fist hits the table so hard the plates and glasses shake and her many bracelets jingle. “What gives you the right to disrespect me under my own roof?”
“You expect me to respect you while you continue to treat me like a piece of garbage? I’m sorry, mom. I’m done. I can’t do it anymore.”
She folds her arms. “That’s what you are, what you’ve always been. You’re nothing but an ungrateful piece of garbage.”
“Then why can’t you live without me?” Having heard enough of her poison, I push myself out of my chair and take my food to the living room. Just as I’m about to start eating again, the bell rings. I get to the door before my mother does.
A thin woman carrying a huge bouquet of at least two dozen red and white roses is standing on our doorstep.
�
��Are you Miss Maggie Anderson?” she asks with a smile.
“I am.” Joy bubbles inside my heart. From behind me, I feel my mother’s gaze piercing me between the shoulder blades.
“These are for you,” the woman says. “May I have a signature?” She hands me the flowers and I sign.
When I close the door and turn around, there stands my mother glaring at me. “Who would send you flowers?”
“My date, I think.” It’s hard not to smile.
The shock on her face is worth it. She must have thought I was lying when I told her someone was going with me to the reunion.
I know she’s waiting for me to read the card that’s sticking out of the bouquet, but I don’t give her the satisfaction. Instead, I take the flowers with me to my bedroom and lock the door.
My heartbeat is racing with excitement as I sink onto the bed and open the card.
The words written inside hit me like a bucket of cold water.
Dear Maggie,
I’m so sorry, but I can’t make it tonight. Something urgent came up that needs my attention.
But please go without me. You deserve to have a good night. Taped to this bouquet you will find something that I hope will make your evening even more wonderful.
Have a great time.
Brax
I’m holding my breath as I pick up the flowers again and unpeel the envelope from the stem, my heart aching.
The reunion means nothing to me. I only agreed to go because I wanted to see Brax again. And now he has decided not to come with me. Maybe he realized that I’m not worth it after all.
The second envelope has two very generous gift certificates inside. One is for Maven, a designer clothing store, and the other is for a makeover at Sally’s Beauty Parlor.
I remain on my bed staring at the flowers and the gift certificates for a very long time, wondering if it’s worth it to go alone. Am I strong enough?
An hour later, I emerge from my room and without saying a word to my mother, I leave the house. My first stop is the beauty parlor. Maybe a makeover will make me feel better about myself and more confident to face the sharks tonight.
After a long wait, I finally lower myself into one of Sally’s chairs and tell her to chop off my long hair and give me a sleek bob. I also ask for just enough makeup to cover up the bruising left over from when I fell.