by ML Michaels
Noah eased into a parallel parking space that would be meant for two regular sized cars in New York. They couldn’t afford to have parking spaces that would fit more than one truck. Noah turned off the ignition and looked at her.
“You remember this place?” he said.
“Well, yeah,” Lily said.
Downtown was the center of her social life in high school. Namely, Ray’s Diner, the only restaurant in town that would let kids sit and talk to each other for hours when they only ordered a two-dollar sundae and a dollar plate of fries to share between six people.
When Ray’s closed down, most kids would walk the few minutes over to the big bridge that connected the east side of the river to the west side and chill on the grassy banks or on the edge of the large footbridge and talk. When it was hot, they would take turns jumping in from the bridge or splashing down the banks to the water. Some people had even rigged up a few ropes from the trees on the edge so they could drop in with a scream and an extra splash.
“It looks exactly the same, right?” Noah said. He got out of the car and hurried around to her side. Lily wanted to agree but something was very different.
Noah was hanging out with her.
That was something that had never happened back then in high school. Lily remember one summer night when it was still balmy. All of the popular kids had decided to go skinny dipping in the lake. She watched Noah, lean and pale, strip down to his skivvies. It made her blush and feel something inside at the same time as she watched him run into the water laughing with his friends. She wasn’t invited though. She never was.
Until now.
“I just want to give you a little tour,” Noah said. He waited for her to get out of the car. Lily felt funny to be beside such a handsome guy in her lounging around clothes, but he didn’t seem to care.
“It’s changed,” Lily said, immediately noticing a store that was out of place. The old candy store was now a hardware store. She gave Noah an incredulous look before she could realize what she was doing.
“Yeah, I know, weird, right?” he said. “I don’t know what they were thinking.”
“Do you remember the chocolate frogs?” Lily said, excitedly, the memory coming back to her all of a sudden. “They had them before Harry Potter. They were all brightly colored like tree frogs. But they were chocolate. And there was a gummy version.”
“I know, right?” Noah laughed and she had to laugh with him. “Those were the best!”
“I can’t believe you remember them…” Lily said, mostly to herself. But she knew Noah heard her. He placed a finger over his lips with a small, amused smile.
“I have a secret,” he said. “Come on.”
He took her hand. Lily froze for a moment.
“Come on.” Noah nodded encouragingly and gave her hand a little squeeze.
Her heart jumped. It was really unexpected.
She followed him across the street. The hardware store was there, waiting for them. Noah open the door and it chimed just like it used to when she would arrive at the candy store, giggly and ready for a sugar high.
“Hey Noah,” said the old man behind the counter upfront. That was just like old times. Everyone knew Noah everywhere.
“Hi Mr. Morgan. Do you remember Lily?” He held up her hand like she was a two-year-old, but for some reason, it made Lily feel flush with pride.
“Lily!” Mr. Morgan exclaimed. She remembered him too. “How are you? It’s been way too long. I haven’t seen you in about ten years. You’ve really grown up. You’re beautiful!”
Lily felt her cheeks heat up. In any other circumstance, she’d probably make a comment about sexual harassment. But this was her hometown. She knew Mr. Morgan meant every word, innocently, enthusiastically.
“I’m going to show her the stash,” Noah said. He shared a little wink with Mr. Morgan, which made him laugh.
“Oh, Noah,” Mr. Morgan said. “That’s a big deal. He doesn’t share his stash.”
“Shhhhh…” Noah pressed a finger to his lips again and they laughed some more. Lily couldn’t help but admire how Noah was always making people laugh. That was something she remembered about him from high school, and it was still true today.
“Come on,” Noah said. He started to lead her to the back. They were still holding hands. She didn’t pull away.
“Mr. Morgan used to work at the candy store,” Lily said, hazy memories from her childhood still coming back to her.
“Yeah, he owned it. But now he owns this place.” Noah lead her all the way to the back and then through an entrance that said employees only. They were in the storage room of the small store. She watched him curiously as he went to a box stashed on a shelf in the cool room. He opened the box and showed it to her. Lily gasped, loudly.
“Chocolate frogs!” she cried out.
The box was full of chocolate frogs, wrapped in their colorful foil paper. She couldn’t believe that she was looking at them in the flesh. It had been so long.
“Chocolate frogs,” Noah said. She could hear the delight in his voice.
“You have these?” Lily said. She was amazed, sticking a finger in the box and poking one. They were perfectly preserved.
“Yeah, when Mr. Morgan shut the candy store down and converted it to a hardware store, I bought out the whole stash.” Noah picked up a chocolate frog and put the box back in it’s spot. “I bought the whole building.”
“What?” Lily asked, arching an eyebrow. She watched him unwrap the frog with nimble fingers.
“I’m a real estate developer,” Noah said. “And I’m looking to revitalize this whole town.”
Noah held the frog out to her. She knew that she could just take it and pop it into her mouth. But she did something totally unexpected.
She took a bite of the frog from right there between his fingers.
Noah laughed and for the first time, he seemed surprised. Almost flustered. Lily sat up and licked her lips, looking him in the eyes.
It almost felt like flirting.
“You own this place?” Lily asked. She was craving more of the chocolate. She didn’t let herself indulge in New York. She had black coffee and light yogurt.
Noah handed her another chocolate frog, wrapping intact.
“Yeah,” Noah said. “See, this building…and pretty much all the buildings in downtown were falling apart. And Mr. Morgan didn’t have the capital to make any repairs. So I decided to invest in this place. And when we had to gut it, Mr. Morgan said that he had always dreamed of owning a hardware store. He thought the community needed it. He sells a little bit of everything. Now we don’t have to go 30 miles out to Walmart anymore if we really need some extra washcloths for the night.”
Lily nodded. That was a smart idea. And now she could remember how the candy store was kind of falling apart. It was so nice that Noah stepped in to help like that.
“But my only condition was chocolate frogs,” Noah said. “I had to have them all. The warehouse is the perfect place to keep them too. You know what.” Noah gave her that charming smile again. The one that made her heart skip a beat. “You should have them.”
“No…” Lily said. Her mouth watered and betrayed her words.
“Yeah, they are yours now.” Noah patted the box and the way he looked at her, she knew he meant it. “But we’ll leave them in here for the time being. I still have more to show you, and they’ll melt”
For some reason, Lily felt excited. She hadn’t felt that way in a long time.
Like a kid again.
***
“Come on.”
They were on the move again. Noah had always had a lot of energy. She followed him out of the store as they said goodbye to Mr. Morgan. The breeze floated around them on Main Street as they stood in the middle of downtown. Noah pointed across the street.
“Do you have something like this in New York?”
Lily squinted for a moment. It said Barky’s Dog Cafe. Lily couldn’t help the little laugh that escaped her
.
“Wow,” she said. And she meant it. No, they didn’t have this in New York.
“You remember Clara from our class?” Noah said. Lily nodded. Clara was the president of their class in high school. She was always coming up with novel ideas that she wanted the class to execute with no debate or discussion.
“Well, she wanted to make a cafe for dogs and their owners. There are a lot of dogs here. So that’s how she came up with that. And the best part is that the dogs can roam around inside. Anyone can play with them or pet them. On certain days, all the dogs there are up for adoption. So she helps a lot of dogs that way.”
“Wow,” Lily said again. She had never really liked Clara back in high school. She had been really bossy. But it sounded like she was really doing something with her life.
“It’s really cute,” Noah said. “I knew that when I renovated that space, I wanted to do something revolutionary with it. Clara’s cafe really fit the bill. People come from other towns to hang out here. It’s really been a great investment.”
Lily widened her eyes a bit. People visiting their town was a big deal. Most people were fighting to leave and never look back.
Like she had.
And the other people stayed forever.
Like Noah. But… on the other hand, Noah wasn’t typical at all.
“I’m really working to make downtown vibrant,” Noah said. “In fact, I arranged for a festival to be held here this summer. It’s the Dairy Farmer Ice Cream Festival. It sounds lame, but…so many people come to these things. So downtown will really be booming. They’ll see our new businesses and hey! They might want to come back.”
Noah told her all of this with an earnest smile on his face. There was nothing disingenuous about what he was saying. She stared at him, feeling sucked in for a moment. All those butterflies in her stomach. It felt just like it did back in her senior year of high school.
Like she was in love.
But she knew how that had turned out. Lily took a deep breath. She would not let that happen again.
“That’s great,” Lily said, trying to keep her voice neutral. “You have a lot of ideas. But I should probably get back to my mother.”
“Wait,” Noah said. He placed a hand on her arm. Her heart jumped again. When would it stop betraying her?
“Just a little while longer?” Noah asked. “I have more things to show you.”
Lily nodded, following him reluctantly. They were walking down the main drag of Main Street downtown, and then there was nothing really. But this was a familiar path that led to the river and the bridge. The sun was setting down, dipping in the sky just a bit. Lily looked up. The sun looked so much different here in Ohio. It was so orange and red and full, hovering in the sky, going lower and looking liquid and juicy enough to touch. Not like in New York, when all of a sudden, she’d emerge from the office and it was dark. She followed Noah, staring up into the sky. Then Noah tapped her arm.
“Look,” he said.
Lily looked across the river.
She gasped.
The bridge was totally different.
It was beautiful. Shiny. The wood had totally been re-done. All of the old and broken slats were repaired. It had been given a paint job, all glossy and deep in a rich, golden wooden color. It definitely looked safer. There were flowers around the edges and twinkling lights strung all along the railing.
The tiny lights were already starting to glow.
“Oh my god,” Lily said. Her hands flew to her face. Really, it looked so beautiful and romantic. The bridge was like a fairy tale.
“I thought you’d like it,” Noah said, quietly, from behind her.
Lily laughed a little. Her heart was racing again. She wondered if he remembered too. When they were up there on that bridge together. She didn’t want to go there and think about the pain.
But Noah was moving. He was on the hill and then crossing onto the foot bridge. It was a suspension bridge so he swayed slightly under his weight. It swayed way less than it used to. She remembered one very dangerous sway during a storm. It felt like they were on a rollercoaster. Everyone laughed and laughed. It was crazy. That’s how her stomach felt now.
She followed him, her feet not even under her own power. The bridge felt solid under her feet. Just now, it occurred to her that it was stupid to spend so much time on this bridge when it was all rickety and broken down. No wonder the teenagers were the only people in town on that bridge.
But it was totally different now.
It felt all grown up.
“It’s been so long since we’ve been here,” Noah said. “Together.”
That’s when she knew he was thinking about the same thing she was.
Lily took a step back.
“I had this renovated, and I thought of you,” Noah said. “And…” Lily stood there, frozen, horrified, as he pulled out the letter.
“I kept this,” he said.
“I can’t do this.” Lily took off before she knew what she was doing. She turned, her feet moving all on their own.
She ran and ran.
***
“So,” Lily’s mother said. She had put out a spread of toast, bacon, pancakes, fruit and eggs. Lily had no idea how her mother did it all with one hand. But it didn’t really matter. Lily wasn’t hungry. She was ready to get down to business.
But her mom was ready to get down to gossip. She had managed to avoid her last night after she’d come home. She’d escaped to her room and spent the rest of the night holed up in there. She couldn’t turn off her mind. Old memories kept coming up, over and over again. Her mind was like a bad movie she just couldn’t turn off.
She would have avoided her mother forever but then again, she had things to do. They had to get out of there. She sat at the table, but not to eat. She pulled out her laptop.
“Mom,” she said. “You really shouldn’t be pushing yourself.”
“Nonsense,” her mom said. “This makes me happy. Don’t worry about me. Tell me about you.”
Lily shook her head. She wasn’t going to go there.
“Mom, have you thought about selling this place.”
Her mom gasped. “I’ll do no such thing,” she said. “You’re supposed to be telling me about your date.”
“There was no date, Mom,” Lily said. “I want to talk to you.”
“No, eat,” Her mom set the food in front of her, a plate full of carbs and sugar. “You are way too skinny, dear.”
“I’m not hungry,” Lily said. The cloying smell of the sugar was making her stomach turn.
“I won’t let you skip breakfast, not with me,” her mom said. Lily picked up a slice of cantaloupe and put it in her mouth. She chewed deliberately.
She suddenly remembered the chocolate frogs, and the food got stuck in her throat. Lily washed it down with some water.
“Are you okay, dear?” Her mom asked.
“Mom, you can’t stay here alone,” Lily said, getting back down to business. “It’s too big here all by yourself. You need a smaller place. You need to move.”
“Nonsense,” Cindy said. “Didn’t Noah tell you his plan?”
“No!” Lily shouted. She didn’t mean to be so loud. Her mom turned and gave her an incredulous look.
“Are you shouting at me?” she asked.
“No, no,” Lily backpedalled. “I just…he didn’t tell me his plan. Besides, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“How can you not think it’s a good idea if you don’t know the idea?” Cindy said.
“I just know,” Lily said through gritted teeth. “So let’s just drop it.”
“I’m not going to drop it. You don’t know the plan,” Cindy said. “He was supposed to tell you. I bet that you didn’t give him a chance. That’s why you came home in that cab. You need to give people a chance, Lily.”
“I’m not talking about this,” Lily said, through gritted teeth. “Please. I just… Mom you need to move out. I want you to live near me. Let’s sell th
e house. I’ll move you to New York. You can stay with me for a while.”
“I will do no such thing,” her mom said, in the iciest voice she had ever heard her use. “You chose to leave, not me. This is my home. So this is where I’m staying.”
“But it’s dangerous!” Lily said, raising her voice again.
Her mom stared at her for a long time. Lily felt herself wilting under her mom’s stare.
“You know, Lily,” her mom said. “I raised you to be courteous and kind. I wanted to raise you to think of others. Sometimes it’s not easy, putting yourself out there. But it’s always worth it. I have to say that right now, I’m disappointed. I’m sad at what the world has done to you. I’m really sad that you have become quite selfish.”
With that, her mom turned on her heel and left the room.
Lily stared down at her quickly cooling pancakes. Her eyes were slowly filling with tears.
What was she doing?
What was she doing here? What was she doing in New York? She didn’t know what was going on anymore.
And all she could think about was Noah on the bridge. With the letter in his hand.
Lily started when there was a knock on the screen door. Then she could hear a familiar voice calling into them.
“Hello?”
It was Noah.
Lily wiped her eyes quickly and put on her lawyer face. She could be cool, calm and collected when she needed to. She didn’t have to wear any emotions. She would drown out the world with this facade.
She would not let him get to her. Not again. Not ever.
Lily got up and went to the door. She didn’t open it. She stared at him from the other side of wire mesh.
“I don’t know what plan you have,” Lily said. “But my mom isn’t going to do it. We’re going to sell the house. She’s coming back to New York. That’s where I’m going. That’s where I live. New York.”
Noah held up the letter. She felt a kick punch to the gut.
“Lily,” he said. “Please, let’s talk.”
Lily bit her lip hard. So hard that she felt her teeth sink through. She could taste the blood. She didn’t want to cry. Not now.