Her phone buzzed, and she snatched it off the nightstand to see another message from Ollie.
When can I see you again, Miranda?
She looked down at her sleeping sister. Julia was the whole reason Ollie was her friend now. If she hadn’t dialed Miranda’s cell phone number that day, none of this would have happened.
Tomorrow, I hope. When do I get my pictures back?
All in good time, my friend. All in good time.
*
When she woke in the morning, she showered and stood in the bathroom to blow dry her hair. She couldn’t stop smiling at herself in the mirror. Ollie had told her the truth about everything. At least, it seemed like he had. He was so genuine and open. Was it possible things could happen with him? A real relationship that wouldn’t end up breaking her heart?
“You’re certainly happy today,” Miranda’s mother said as she came into the bathroom and started applying her makeup. “What’s going on?”
Miranda grinned. “Oh, nothing. Just got your camera back last night.”
“What?” Gabriela turned around, as if the camera might appear in front of her. “Where?”
“It’s on the dresser.”
“Right here, honey!” Miranda’s father yelled out. He appeared around the corner, holding up the camera. “Appears to be in perfect condition. How did you get this back?”
She gave them both a cryptic smile. “He’s not really a thief. I mean, he is, but he’s not.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Gabriela scoffed.
“He’s going to return everything by the time we leave. That’s all I can say. So there’s no use in reporting him.”
Her dad’s face crinkled in confusion. “What’s going on, Manda? Do you know this guy?”
“I do now. Just trust me, okay? Everything is fine.”
She knew they would drop it, and they did.
They spent the day as a whole family, since her dad had the day off from the convention. As they ate lunch and went on some rides, Miranda considered staying home and forgetting about college altogether. Her mom seemed so stressed sometimes when it came to Grammy, as if losing all those pictures in the flood was more about losing a part of herself and needing to find it again some other way. Miranda wondered if staying home might be for the best. Moving away was just another thing that would make her mom feel like she’d lost someone important. Would staying help, though? Julia wasn’t going to stick around forever, either. For today, Miranda decided, she would savor being with her family, even if Julia kept complaining that she missed Gavin so much she was going to die.
“I think I’m starting to understand,” Miranda said as they took their seats for an afternoon magic show at one of the hotels.
Julia leaned closer. “Understand what?”
“Missing someone.”
Julia grinned. “Ah-ha. You have things to tell me. I saw your note on your pillow last night, by the way. ’Fess up, sista.”
Miranda laughed as the lights dimmed and the show began. “Well, not now, but later I will.”
She tried not to think about Ollie and how much she was starting to like him. She wanted him to touch her again so she could feel that shock of excitement run through her. She wanted to show him not everybody in the world was out to use him or exert power over him. He didn’t have to steal in order to triumph over his father, and he didn’t have to give in to his father’s little game in order to survive. There had to be another way.
*
“Let’s go see the Bellagio fountains,” Miranda’s dad said as they were walking to a monorail station so they could ride back to the hotel. Miranda kept staring at her phone, wondering why Ollie hadn’t messaged her at all today. She had texted a few messages to him, but there had been no response. There was a dim spark of hope that she might run into him at the fountains in front of the Bellagio, but it was a very dim spark. She sent him another text anyway.
Dancing water.
That had to be easy enough. She wasn’t sure if he’d show up in front of her family, though. Maybe tonight they could meet for coffee again.
“So, Miranda,” Gabriela said as they walked down the sidewalk toward the Bellagio. “I forgot to tell you that I’ve decided to write a memoir.”
That was random. Miranda looked at Julia, who shrugged.
“About your whole life so far?”
“About my mother—every memory I have of her. There was that time she took me to the orange orchard and we found a stray tabby. We kept that cat for fifteen years before it died. My mother loved cats more than anything in the world.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that,” Miranda said, curious. “You hate cats.”
“I know! Isn’t that funny? We used to fight over that tabby all the time, how its fur would get on everything and I constantly had itchy eyes.”
“Well, Mom,” Miranda said as they neared the fountain, “I think that’s really great—about the memoir. I want to read it when you’re done. I want to know what she was like. You’ve never really talked about her.”
“I’m sorry about that,” she replied, putting an arm around Miranda’s shoulders. “I hope you’ll talk about me one day to your own children more than I have about my mother. I feel bad about that now. She and I might not have had the best relationship, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t talk about it. Since those pictures were stolen, I’ve realized there are other ways I can preserve her.”
Miranda slipped her arm around her mother and squeezed as they reached the fountain. “I’ll get them back, Mom.”
“Hah, nice!” Julia laughed as Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean” started playing. Between the lights and the water shooting up like fireworks against a violet velvet sky, everybody fell silent.
Miranda’s phone buzzed halfway through.
I saw Ryder today. Ugh! He was with Amber. Can you believe he’s still with her? She’s a total skank.
Miranda’s heart fell as she realized it wasn’t Ollie. It was her friend Cammie, who usually only texted her when drama was happening.
She typed back, Eh, who cares about them? I don’t miss him at all.
She wanted to say, Oh, and I’ve met someone new … but she wasn’t sure if that was entirely true. What exactly was this thing they had going, and why hadn’t he messaged her today? Especially when he knew she was leaving the day after tomorrow. Especially when she’d been screwed over by one too many guys. She had to face the possibility that Ollie could be another one, simply because she had taken a chance and opened her heart the tiniest bit. As her history proved, that was always a mistake.
*
“I wonder what Grammy thought about men and love,” Miranda mused as she sat down to breakfast with her family the next morning. Ollie still hadn’t contacted her, and she was beginning to worry. Had he gone back to his father? Had the situation escalated into something worse? Or did he want to call it quits and sever ties with her? He had seemed so into her when they’d had coffee together. Maybe she was really bad at reading body language.
“She was not a romantic, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Miranda’s mother said as she cut a piece of French toast. The syrup on the top pooled on the white plate between each piece. “She loved my father, yes, but I don’t remember her with stars in her eyes, or ever talking about love in a passionate way. It seemed very straightforward and logical for her.”
Julia took a big bite of watermelon then a sip of orange juice, making Miranda grimace. “That’s kinda sad,” she said with her mouth full. “I mean, nothing about me and Gavin is logical.”
“No,” Miranda teased, “it’s all crazy physical passion for you two, isn’t it?”
Julia smirked and said, “Mmmmm, yes.”
“Just be careful, please,” their father said with a growl in his voice.
Miranda speared a piece of cantaloupe with her fork. “I already told her that, Dad. She will be. Right, Julia?”
Julia laughed. “I’m not stupid, you guys. I know
all about the birds and bees. Sheesh!”
“As long as you know,” their mother sighed. “But mistakes do happen, especially when it comes to that. Understand?”
“Yes, Mom, I do.”
“Then we’re good.”
And that was that. Miranda chuckled to herself and ate the rest of her cantaloupe. It was perfectly ripe. When she was done, she started sipping her coffee and closed her eyes at the memory of drinking coffee with Ollie. She wanted to feel like that again. Excited and … illogical. In the past, she had been like her grandmother. Levelheaded. Logical. She’d avoided passion like the plague because she was scared of giving too much of herself away too fast. Then Christian had happened and she’d let herself slip and fall harder than she’d ever fallen before. But not for long. Even before the end of her relationship with him, she’d put her guard back up little by little, letting that logical side of her take over. But why? Why? Julia was passionate with Gavin and still careful … so far, anyway.
“Was Grammy happy?” she asked her mother.
Gabriela frowned. “You know what, Miranda?” she said in a droopy voice. “I don’t remember her being the happiest person in the world. It’s sad when I think about it, but I’m going to face it and write that memoir anyway.”
Miranda took her time finishing her coffee then checked her phone once again. No messages. She couldn’t even call him. She didn’t even know his last name. Maybe if she did a little research she could find out who his father was, and that might lead her to him. Or maybe something as illogical and strange as Ollie was better left behind. She hoped it wasn’t. That might break her heart more than anything else … and she’d never even kissed him. Not even close.
*
At the zoo, Miranda texted Lions, Tigers, and Bears to Ollie, but he didn’t answer. She kept looking around all day to see if she could spot him, but by dinnertime she’d given up completely. It was over, she told herself. She was leaving in the morning, and it was over.
That night, she went to bed with her heart heavier than it had been in a long time. Once their parents were asleep, she rolled over and told Julia everything that had happened. Her sister listened intently, her eyes filling with tears toward the end.
“I can’t believe he hasn’t even tried to contact you again,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry, Miranda. You have the worst luck ever with guys.”
“I know. I’m doomed forever.”
Julia pulled her covers closer and wet her lips. “I don’t know about that. You don’t really need a man to make you happy, right? You’ve got college and stuff.”
“Yeah, and who knows what will happen at school. It just pisses me off, you know? Here I was finally getting to an okay place after all that crap with Christian happened, and this guy has to drop into my life. I don’t care if he stole stuff. He means well, and I doubt he’ll keep doing it.” Her eyes went distant and Julia’s face turned hazy in her vision. “I know nobody’s perfect, but he seemed a lot like me. He didn’t want to feel stuck anywhere, and I get that, you know? I thought it might turn into something amazing, that’s all. I’m so not like Grammy. I’m logical, but I want to be a romantic.”
Julia laughed, and her face came back into focus. “Oh, you’re a romantic. You’re totally falling all over this guy and you’ve only known him for, like, three days.”
“Yeah,” Miranda sighed. “I guess I am.”
They talked for another hour and then Miranda went to sleep. She dreamed about a big office building and a shiny black desk. She dreamed about Ollie sitting in a chair at that desk, his expression cold and harsh, and a picture of his tyrannical father hung on the wall in front of him.
*
The next morning, she packed up her bags. On their way to the airport, she pulled out her phone and sent one last message to Ollie.
Airplanes. Last chance.
He didn’t answer.
4.
Miranda hated to admit it, but she cried the first week away from home. None of her dorm mates seemed homesick. They were all too busy loving their freedom. There were parties and guys and alcohol to keep them distracted. Miranda couldn’t seem to enjoy any of it. She called Julia almost every night and told her about her classes, her professors, and her party-crazy dorm mates. Julia listened and sympathized, and then gushed about Gavin. Neither of them mentioned Ollie, although Miranda had to admit she looked at her phone more often than she might have otherwise. He seemed so far away, like a blip in her existence—something bright and shiny and odd she’d found on the sidewalk one afternoon and then lost.
Walking to class, she looked around at the trees changing to orange and red and yellow. No palm trees. No hot, sticky days filled with casinos and hotels. She had to let him go! It was harder to do than she thought it would be because she didn’t know what had happened. It was one thing to have a boyfriend tell her things were over and everything ended in a final bang. It was another to have a barely-there relationship drift away from you like a sailboat on the horizon. Once in awhile she thought she might try to find it, but it had been long enough for him to message her again, even if things had escalated with his father.
She was close to her class now. It was in a building across from a pretty fountain she loved to sit near and do her homework sometimes. She rounded the corner and headed into class. Halfway through, her phone buzzed and she smiled because it was probably Julia telling her something about Gavin again. The girl was obsessed with him, and Miranda had to keep telling her that while it was great to be passionate about him, she still had to pay attention to school so she could go to college one day too.
Pulling out her phone, she slid it into her lap and tried to peek at it so her geology professor didn’t chew her out and tell her to leave. He hated cell phones in class.
Red brick circle.
She almost choked on her wintergreen gum. It couldn’t be. It was from a number she didn’t recognize. Not restricted. As fast as she could, she typed her response.
Do you see palm trees?
A guy who always sat next to her cleared his throat. When she looked up at him, he nodded at her lap. “You better put that away,” he whispered.
She swallowed a lump in her throat and shrugged, as if she had no choice. She really didn’t. She had to follow this through. The phone vibrated in her lap.
No palm trees right here. Kinda weird.
Breathe in. Breathe out. It was him. He was back. Maybe he was here. Red brick circle. What could he be talking about?
Are you here on campus? she typed, getting more impatient by the second.
“Miranda, I asked you a question,” Professor King said in a tight-lipped, irritated voice. “Is that a cell phone you’re using? Because you know the policy.”
She snapped her attention to her professor. He was tall and gangly and his glasses made him look like a studious owl. A skinny owl. It was odd. “Yeah, I guess I’ll leave,” she said quickly, gathering up her books and notepad. She shoved them into her backpack and stood. “Sorry.”
A few people giggled as she left the classroom under Professor King’s glare. She knew if he kicked her out more than twice, she would be asked to leave the class permanently. If she left too late in the semester, she’d get a failing grade. It wouldn’t happen again, she told herself as she exited the building and stood under the warm sun. A breeze rustled through the autumn leaves, and she breathed it in deeply as she kept staring at her phone.
You look good today, the next message said.
Her heart nearly pounded through her chest. He was here. Where? Then she looked across the road and realized that a circular red brick plaza surrounded the fountain she loved so much. Where was he?
Hurrying across the crosswalk, she rushed past a few students and followed a red brick path to the fountain. There he was, on a bench beneath a shady tree. He was in jeans instead of a suit, and she might not have recognized him if it wasn’t for his Las Vegas 51s baseball cap. Her heart continued to thud as she neared him. Fi
nally, she stood in front of him, and he looked up at her with a grin spreading across his face. He was clean-shaven, and she realized she had never actually seen him in natural lighting before. His eyes were a beautiful clear gray, but even more intriguing in the sun. They were filled with something Julia might have described as “moons and stars.” He looked like he wanted to throw his arms around her, but he was restraining himself.
“It was really your turn,” he said as she stared open-mouthed at him, “but I know you’ve probably given up on me, so I took a chance.”
She wanted to say something, anything, but couldn’t manage it. She knew she had missed him, but now that he was in front of her, something felt like it was trying to squeeze her heart into a diamond. She hadn’t just missed him. She had mourned the loss of him. She had resigned herself to the fact that she would never see him again, that he had chosen a life he didn’t really want, and that if he could make a mistake like that, she might screw up in her life too. It was all so much bigger than she’d wanted it to be.
“You’re speechless,” he laughed. “I’m so sorry. Can I explain?”
She nodded, and he reached into a leather briefcase beside him on the bench.
“First,” he said softly. “Here are your pictures.”
She looked down at the thick stack of her grandmother’s pictures, still secured with the same rubber band as before.
“Thank you,” she croaked, taking them. “My mom will be really glad to get these back. I am too. Thanks.”
“No problem. I’ve got your purse in my car. I can get it for you later. Is that all right?”
She nodded and asked, “What happened, Ollie? It’s been two months. I thought I’d never see you again.”
He hung his head for a minute and slid his white tennis shoes across the red bricks. “I called my father that next morning after we had coffee. I told him I wanted to talk to him about other options, and he said he was open to figuring something out. Then I told him about the purses and he chewed me out for ten minutes. He said if I wanted to work under him, I had to talk to the police about what I’d done.”
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