Hopeless Romantic

by Francis Gideon

  “Yeah? That’s her study in negative.”

  Levi handed back the phone with a small nod. “Very cool. So she doesn’t have a passport? Because of the whole change?”

  “Yeah, more or less. I didn’t realize the wedding was in the US and I just . . . I fucked up big time by not even realizing that was an issue. I mean, isn’t everyone a little scared to go over the border?”

  “Yeah, it’s not exactly a thrilling experience.”

  “Totally. But our fears aren’t the same. I’m scared I’m gonna be delayed or maybe the border will want to look in my trunk. That’s it. She’s scared they’re going to interrogate her for hours and never let her leave because of an M marker. So she couldn’t come over the border, but I had to be here . . . so I left her in our hotel. In a huge room. How could I leave her in a hotel like that?”

  “Because you had to, like you said. Because you made a promise to your friend that you’d be his groomsman, and now you’re here.”

  “Yeah. I know,” Nick said weakly. He looked around at the conservatory and saw the sun setting outside. As it got darker, the butterflies seemed to grow more lethargic. From Erin’s spot across the room, a few more landed on her bare arms. Alex seemed to have a small collection of butterflies as well. They were still doing photographs with people’s parents, siblings, and a few with Alex’s cousins too.

  “But we’re done with the wedding now, Nick. Your part is basically over,” Levi added.

  “Hmmm?” Nick eyed Levi skeptically. “There’s dinner. A toast.”

  “And a first dance, and probably someone is going to cry tonight who hasn’t yet already. Someone will also drink too much, and someone’s uncle will dance badly in front of everyone. But those happen at every wedding, so you won’t miss them here. And anything else you need to take part in, we can speed along. Most people are only here to eat and get drunk now. They aren’t gonna notice a random guy slip out—especially after you say a quick and really memorable speech, right?”

  Nick laughed. “You didn’t write anything, did you?”

  “Shhh. I have something prepared.” Levi cleared his throat and began to recite the voice-over narration in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Nick could barely hold back his laughter.

  “Hey, if all else fails,” Levi said, breaking character again, “I can just grab a trench coat and hold up a boom box, right? As a best man’s speech?”

  “Totally,” Nick said. The Lloyd Dobler reference made him pause, because suddenly, he realized how to solve his own dilemma with Katie. He didn’t need to blast Peter Gabriel for her; he had to blast “Pretty in Pink” and then dance with her, spin with her, like they had at the concert.

  “If I give the speech,” Nick began, “and say you helped, you’ll make sure I get out before midnight?”

  “Oh, before ten,” Levi said. “Easily. And no one will be the wiser.”

  “Oh God.” Nick felt his chest finally relax. “That’s . . . that’s perfect. Thank you.”

  “Not at all, Nick. Now.” Levi slid an arm around his shoulder and then pointed towards the crowd. “I think we have a few more photos to take.”

  Nick and Levi both ushered themselves over to the larger group photo happening at that moment. Nick stood side by side with Levi as a butterfly came and landed on his shoulder. She stayed there throughout the couple shots the professional photographer took, and then, as Nick passed Levi his phone, she stayed put for Levi taking a picture too.

  “Am I sending this picture to her?” Levi asked.

  “No,” Nick insisted. “It’s something I can do in person now. Soon enough.”

  By the time Nick left the wedding reception, Levi had already found someone to take Katie’s place at the table and have her meal. The woman was tall, blonde, and exactly Levi’s type. When not even Alex seemed to notice the added guest, Nick knew it would be easy enough for him to escape.

  The DJ put on “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer and Levi poked Nick’s side. “C’mon, man. As if you were waiting for a clearer sign, this is it. Go now.”

  Nick slipped out the back, where the bathroom area was, and drove across the border in a haze. When he arrived at the hotel, his heart stopped when Katie wasn’t in their room.

  “Katie?”

  He searched the bathroom and even the ice station at the other end of the hotel. When he noticed the last thing on the Netflix cue had been Runaway Bride, he grew worried. As he paced the hotel lobby, he noticed the directions for their indoor pool.

  He found her sitting in one of the poolside chairs, still in jeans and wearing the same Bouncing Souls T-shirt that had started it all. He stayed back for a while, watching as she flicked through her music and tapped away on her phone. Her long hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail, headphones dangling from her ears. She was completely overdressed for the pool, but no one—not even the gigantic family of six in the deep end—seemed to notice or care. Nick thought he’d been certain about how much he loved her before this moment, but now he knew. This was who he wanted to be with more than anyone else ever in his life. And this pool, where kids splashed without a care for the world with neon pool noodles, was where he needed to be.

  Nick approached her side slowly, not wanting to startle her. He sat down on the chair next to hers, and then casually nudged her knee with his own. Her eyes widened in surprise. She took out her headphones and regarded him suspiciously.

  “Hey,” he greeted. “I think my parents’ pool is a lot better. What do you think?”

  “Yeah, that one I can swim in,” she said. “What time is it?”

  “Only about ten.”

  “Why are you here so soon? I would have been in the room. I didn’t mean to . . .”

  “Shhh. Don’t worry.” Nick tugged the pool chair closer to hers, so their knees could brush even more. “I came early because I knew where I needed to be. Not in the States, but with you.”

  “Nick.” She tilted her head. “You had to be the best man.”

  “And the best man stuff is over now. Everyone else is getting drunk or picking up random people, and I could go. Because you were here. Hey,” he said, taking her hand in his own again. “You know I gave the speech? I didn’t have anything prepared—neither did Levi—but I was able to wing it without a problem. Do you know why?”

  She shook her head. Her eyes were still narrowed, but the way she gripped his hand made him feel welcomed and loved.

  “Because all I had to do was think of you. I talked about some of the things you—and Tucker, really—told me about expectations and choice. Love at first sight doesn’t exist. Marriage, like any relationship, platonic or not, is always a choice. It’s always hard work. But it’s good work, work that you should want to do because it’s right. I know everything still seems too soon for us, and it’s a cliché, but at heart, I know I’m a hopeless romantic. With you around, it comes out of me. But do you know what I love even more?”

  “What?” she asked, voice trembling.

  “That you’re a hopeless romantic too. You may express it in a different way, but I know you believe in the stuff that I do too. You changed your life so you could be who you are. You continue to amaze me with that story, but also the way in which you express yourself through art. Through music. You won me over with this shirt,” Nick said, tugging on her sleeve, “but you’re also something that defies categorization in this way. You know the songs that get stuck in my head, but you also force me into music and experiences that challenge me. You’re so determined that people will change and grow, even when most of society has shown you its ugly side. And you know, you make me want to believe in the better parts of the world too.”

  Katie looked down, her smile small, but there. “That’s . . . sweet. So sweet. I doubt that’s everything you said for the speech.”

  “That’s true,” Nick said. “I’m ad-libbing now and I spoke way more about some Romantic poets I study at school. Pretty sure I ripped off an entire verse from Keats, but no one�
��s ever gonna know.”

  Katie chuckled. “And what if they know you’re gone now? Won’t you be leaving them behind too?”

  “They won’t notice. And if they do, Levi has it covered.”

  “Really? Levi?”

  “Yeah, how’s that for character development? I did yell at him a bit, but I think he’s growing up a little. He likes you, by the way. I showed him your picture and I told him all about you after I told him to shut up.”

  “You told him to shut up?”

  “It was far more poetic, I assure you.” Nick winked. “But yes, I told him if he wanted to talk about you, then he needed to get to know the person that I knew. He was the one that told me to leave the wedding. If you go to a wedding and spend all the time looking at another woman other than the bride, then you’re wasting everyone’s time anyway. So I left.”

  “That’s nice, then. Nice words, nice grand gesture. But . . . what about tomorrow, you know? That’s the one thing that always upsets me about romantic comedies. I couldn’t finish Runaway Bride because of it, and I can’t stop thinking about those eighties films. They all end happily, but then you don’t know what happens. What about Duckie? Blaine? What’s next?”

  “Well, tomorrow, I’m going to get Levi and a bunch of other people to cross the damn border so they can meet you. Maybe we’ll have drinks at a bar, or go to Denny’s, or something in between. It doesn’t matter—because I know I want to spend the day with you. We’ll all go to the stupid butterfly conservatory I thought we were going to first.”

  “And after that?”

  “You, Katie.” Nick placed both his hands over hers now. “I’ll always choose you.”

  She was quiet for a long time. Then, to Nick’s surprise and delight, she pressed her lips against his. “I’ll always choose you too, you know. Sometimes . . .”

  “Sometimes, it just makes sense.”

  “Yeah. Exactly.” She shifted on the poolside chair, allowing them both to share it. The family in the pool didn’t seem to notice them or care, and so Nick let the time pass between them, occasionally kissing her forehead. It was so small, but nice. They had a lot ahead of them if they wanted to make it, but Nick was more determined than ever before. More than with Barry. More than even the depictions he’d seen on TV. He wanted this, so he would work towards it every day, like he’d promised in his speech.

  “So,” Katie asked. “I’m curious.”

  “Oh?”

  “The Goonies or Indiana Jones?”

  “Oh, easily The Goonies. They have Sloth.”

  Katie grinned and nudged his shoulder. “Now you ask me.”

  “Um, well . . .” Nick let his mind wander as she kissed his neck again. “I was wondering if you prefer Youngblood or Road House, but I think I already know the answer.”

  “Yeah,” she laughed. “You do.”

  One Year Later

  This is the night, Nick thought.

  The art gallery in Kitchener was packed. Dunja’s mixed media pieces hung in every corner, along with her sculptures, twisted out of stray metal parts and hodgepodged together. Katie’s paintings took up the spaces opposite Dunja’s pieces, adding a balance to their shared show, entitled Bulletproof. The logo for the show was a gun that Dunja had twisted in her metal-working area, repainted by Katie in bright fluorescent pink.

  Katie’s art started off as realist pieces, a genre she’d not done much in before. The first was an image of a girl peering into a camera, followed by a painting of someone who looked suspiciously like Levi with a butterfly on his shoulder, and several with Tucker in a civil war uniform. From these, each realist piece became a mix of real and fantasy, blending into images far more surreal. Some of the final paintings were of a boy and girl with butterfly wings carrying them over the Toronto skyline, bony women with flowers growing out of spine notches, and a cat that had been bisected to show it was full of scales like a dragon.

  Nick sauntered through the thick crowd of people, stopping to say hi to a few of them. Alex and Erin were here, now expecting their first child. Levi was supposed to attend as well, but when Nick scanned the crowd, he could only see Michael and a couple of coworkers from Levi’s office. Nick passed by some of his PhD colleagues in the English department and finally found Dunja talking to a short guy in a too-expensive suit.

  “Hey, Dunja,” Nick greeted. “Have you seen Katie? She was supposed to be here before me setting up, but I can’t seem to spot her.”

  “She’s here, don’t worry.”

  “I’m not. I just . . . need to ask her something.”

  “Try the back, sweetheart.” Dunja’s lingering stare went from his face to his jacket pocket, where he kept touching unconsciously. He moved away from it like he’d touched fire. Dunja merely smirked. She mouthed, “Good luck,” to him as he passed her by.

  When Nick found Katie, she was talking with one of Nick’s supervisors, gesturing wildly. He waited a moment, watching her without approaching. He hadn’t seen her in two days. The show had completely taken over her life, and she’d been sleeping on Dunja’s couch. Katie’s hair was tied back in a loose ponytail, some purple highlights she’d added to her locks completely new to Nick. She wore a long white dress and casual flip-flops. The octopus tattoo on her shoulder blade was visible, and so were a couple of others she’d gotten this past year. When she finally spotted him, she narrowed her eyes at him. She gave him the you’re staring again look he was well used to seeing now.

  Nick’s stomach dropped. It was now-or-never time.

  But she approached him before he could barely make out two words. “Hey, you. How have you been?”

  “Good. Where did Professor Anatol go?”

  “Oh, he said he wanted to get more wine from the venue. Figures for a professor. How are you?” Katie asked again, squeezing his arm. “You seem really nervous. And I thought I’d be the wreck for my show. Dunja’s done this too many times to be nervous, so I figured it was just me acting like a fawn. Are you okay, though? Do you want to sit?”

  “No, no, I’m fine. Really fine.” He clasped her hands and then grinned widely. She craned her head and then widened her eyes, as if finally understanding what was going on.

  And then, without another word, Nick dropped to one knee. “Katie . . .”

  “Oh my God.” She clasped a hand over her mouth, muffling her high-pitched cry. Her voice was higher than Nick had ever heard. He almost started to laugh, but he grabbed the ring from his jacket pocket. The ring his mother had given him the last time he’d visited her, because it was a family tradition, and well, it was about time. The ring had a hold over Nick, and his attitude changed. His fear turned to confidence and his vision narrowed. He opened the ring box and extended it forward.

  “Katherine Sheena Miller. May I ask you to marry me?”

  “Of course you can,” Katie said. “I just . . . Oh my God. Yes. Yes!”

  “It took you long enough,” Levi shouted from the back of the room. Some of the crowd laughed, including Nick, while most people just groaned. Levi let out a long whistle before he yelled again.

  “Wait,” Levi said. “What did she say? I didn’t hear.”

  “I said yes, Levi,” Katie shouted back at him. “Now shut up.”

  Nick rose to his feet again, holding the box out to Katie. “I know we’ll need to get it resized. But you say yes? Really?”

  “Yes, you hopeless fool.” Katie pulled Nick into her arms and kissed him quickly. “How could you think anything else?”

  Nick barely registered the cheers from the crowd or wolf whistles from Levi. He held Katie in his arms, kissing her several times before he understood it was all real. The ring was small, too small to fit on her ring finger, but she slid it on her pinky in the meantime.

  By the time Nick pulled away from her and regarded the crowd, he was zeroing in on all the people he cared about. Tucker sat with Levi by one of the sculptures, sharing a glass of champagne between them. Erin and Alex also held up their glasses, and s
o did some of Nick’s professors and friends from the English department.

  “To Nick and Katie,” Levi said, his voice dominating the room.

  “So.” Katie squeezed Nick’s shoulder. “We’ll have to pick a song to dance to.”

  “Already way ahead of you.” Nick gave the signal to Tucker, who rose from his seat and pressed a button on the speaker system. When “Pretty in Pink” began to play over the speakers, Nick held out his hand.

  “What do you think?”

  “This has got to be the most bizarre art show I’ve ever been to. Or had.” Katie placed her palm in Nick’s.

  “Is that okay?”

  “More than okay,” she said. “Just wait until the actual wedding. Now that will be bizarre. Because I hope you know, as traditional as I may seem, I require a few strange rituals.”

  “Oh, I’m looking forward to it,” Nick said. His stomach flipped. The wedding. It was real. It was going to happen. He tried not to let his thoughts overwhelm him, especially as Katie pulled him into another kiss. There would be time to figure it all out. For now, he focused on her and only her.

  “Spin me?” Katie asked.

  Nick did.

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for reading Francis Gideon’s Hopeless Romantic!

  We know your time is precious and you have many, many entertainment options, so it means a lot that you’ve chosen to spend your time reading. We really hope you enjoyed it.

  We’d be honored if you’d consider posting a review—good or bad—on sites like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Goodreads, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and your blog or website. We’d also be honored if you told your friends and family about this book. Word of mouth is a book’s lifeblood!

  For more information on upcoming releases, author interviews, blog tours, contests, giveaways, and more, please sign up for our weekly, spam-free newsletter and visit us around the web:

  Newsletter: tinyurl.com/RiptideSignup

  Twitter: twitter.com/RiptideBooks