by Eric Walters
“I guess I deserve that,” Luke said. “I said some things that weren’t that nice.”
“That nice?”
“Okay, maybe they were more than just not nice. But you have to remember that I also said you were smart and kind and beautiful…and you are all of those.”
He flashed me a smile. That smile that had always worked so effectively in the past.
“Look, Soph, I know what I did was wrong and that the way I did it, the timing, well, it was even more wrong.”
“I guess we can both agree on that.”
“And I’d like to make it up to you. I’d like to change that.” He paused and took a deep breath. “I was just thinking…this is hard to say. I’ve been so impressed, so amazed, by all the things you did this summer. Do you think…that maybe you and I could, well…?”
I was almost too stunned to complete his sentence. He couldn’t really mean that, could he?
He shrugged his shoulders and turned the smile up another notch.
“You want us to get back together?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yeah. Sophie, do you think you could forgive me, that we could start over again, that we could be a couple again?”
In my head I ran through all the things I’d thought about saying to him over the past few months. I thought about the clever “ad-lib” lines I’d practiced. None of them fit, because I hadn’t expected this.
“Well, Sophie, what do you think?” Luke asked.
And then I knew exactly what to say. “I’ve already done this,” I said, gesturing toward him. “I’m going to do something different.”
I turned and walked away to take the first step in my next different.
Recently named a member of the Order of Canada, ERIC WALTERS began writing in 1993 as a way to get his grade-five students interested in reading and writing. Eric has published almost a hundred novels and picture books. He is a tireless presenter, speaking to over 100,000 students per year in schools across the country. One of his most common themes involves the Canadian heroes featured in his novels and helping students to become aware of the greatness of their country. Eric is the co-founder of The Creation of Hope (www.creationofhope.com) an organization that provides for orphans and impoverished children in the Mbooni District of Kenya. He lives in Guelph, Ontario. For more information, visit www.ericwalters.net.