by Ellie Hall
Kai strides into the foyer, that muscular build even broader than I remember. His still-thick hair is slightly longer than he kept it back then. The loose waves have my fingers aching to relive the times I ran my hands through it while we kissed.
A ball of heat encircles my heart. I’m either having a heart attack, or someone has suddenly sucked the air out of the room. I reach out with a robotic arm as he nears, but Kai brushes it away and moves to hug me instead. Warm, strong, and Kai-scented.
Mmm. I inhale his spicy aftershave like it’s life’s breath.
“I’m so glad we’re doing this,” he says under his breath, his lips grazing my ear.
My neglected flesh breaks out in goosebumps once again. Rules, Nikki.
“Me too,” I blurt, not even sure I mean it. I blow out a shaky breath and step back as he does. Holy heavens, he’s gorgeous!
Kai moves past me to snatch my suitcase off the porch. “They labeled the rooms His and Hers, so that takes out the guesswork. Let me show you to your room.”
I close the door behind him and cringe when he gives my suitcase handle an expectant pull. A sharp squeak peals out as the broken wheel bits scrape the tile floor.
Kai stops short and hunches down to inspect the thing.
“It broke while I was yanking it out of the car,” I explain. I’m seriously in the same house with Kai right now. It doesn’t feel real.
His brow furrows. “They should have removed it from the car for you.” But he’s quick to secure the other handle—the jeweled one on the side—and carry the case that way instead.
I follow Kai into the hallway, liking the way he handles my shiny pink suitcase. He never complained about storing my phone, lip gloss, or other feminine products in his pocket during dates.
A dart of longing shoots through me at the recollection. We really did have a great relationship. And at the risk of sounding snobby, I’m not terribly surprised that we received so many nominations. Kai and I were always laughing together. In class, out of class, on dates, or during assemblies. Like the talent show where we dressed up as an 80s rock band. Kai jumped off the stage Van Halen style while rocking his electric guitar and split his pants.
I cover a laugh at the memory while trailing Kai into my room. I barely have time to glance about the place when the alarming ring of a bell blasts. It’s long, loud, and it reminds me of—
“Was that our old school bell?” Kai asks, face scrunched in confusion.
“Welcome to Time Warp, High School Reunion Style,” sings a cheery male voice from whatever speakers lurk among us.
“It’s time for today’s assignment. Please find the locker located inside your wardrobe for individual instructions, then meet one another in the library. You have exactly twenty minutes to prepare. Go!”
“Whoa, already?”
“Guess I’ll see you in the library in twenty minutes.” Kai spins on one foot before pausing to look over his broad shoulder. “And Nikki?”
I gulp, and my cheeks go fire hot. “Yeah?”
“I really am glad you came.”
A trillion butterflies whoosh into my tummy. “Me too.”
3
Day-why did I do this?
Forget. My. Life.
Seriously. It’s officially over. I stare at the hideous jumper before me, complete with huge ugly flowers, and feel a gag coming on. I think back on the questionnaire. The part where I explained our first date in detail, all the way down to the “hideous floral jumper” I was so in love with at the time.
This is what I get for being honest?
My nostrils flare as I dart a look to a camera I spotted in the high corner behind me. “I can’t believe you guys did this,” I hiss, death itself clinging to my voice. I cover my face and weigh my options. Can I make a deal with Marsha to forgo the thirty K for today and wear something else instead?
“This is evil,” I add, glaring at the atrocity before me. My old high school jumper wasn’t this hideous. It was a cute enough cut and shape, just not an attractive pattern with all its clashing colors and loud flowers.
But this…Satan himself sewed this monstrosity. I step one foot inside the massive wardrobe, hoping it will take me straight to Narnia. When it doesn’t, I reach into the metal locker fastened to the back and tug the ugly outfit off its hook.
It’s the material they use to make stiff, pleated drapes that hang on high dark walls in forsaken castles. There are ruffles—ruffles happening at the cuff of each three-quarters-length sleeve and at the hems too, which look as if they’ll hit me mid-calf.
My heart goes into spasms. I spin it around and gasp when I spot a zipper in back! A zipper, for crying out loud. And not just a little invisible one either. This thing is the size of railroad tracks.
My next breath comes out shaky. This was a mistake. A mistake as big as the mansion that held the drapes this fabric came from. But then, an image of Kai floats through my mind. We used to dress up in crazy costumes together all the time. I’d rocked a Twisted Sister style wig with matching makeup and wardrobe in front of the entire school. I can do this.
At least the producers hadn’t made me show up in the thing. And they better not make me wear crap like this for the rest of the time. I duck into the attached bathroom, trusting what they said about not having cameras in there, and say goodbye for now to the gorgeous dress.
My heels definitely won’t go with this, I realize as I step into the bloomer-like pants one leg at a time. I shove my arms in next, the cloth scratchy against my skin, and take a look at myself in the mirror. Clown shoes and a big red nose, that’s all that’s missing here.
No, no, it’s not Nikki anymore. You can call me Mimi. I make balloon animals, I perform magic tricks, and I can make your libido disappear!
I stare at my reflection. Between the puffed sleeves, rounded collar, and the mane of my wavy blonde hair, my face looks like it’s shrinking.
I hurry back into my room and tip my suitcase on its side. It takes less than three seconds to recover my hair and makeup kit and run back to the safety of the private bathroom. I tug a hairband from my bag and proceed to pull my hair back. I work the long locks into a high pony and loosen a few wisps so they frame my face. There.
I try focusing on my face and hair while blurring out what’s happening on my body and almost feel normal. I’m quick to trace on an extra coat of lip gloss and gargle some of the mouthwash they so kindly provided. I hurry back to my suitcase, step into my bamboo flip-flops, and stand before the mirror hanging inside the wardrobe door. Hello, Mimi.
My puffy pleated shoulders flinch as the rattling bell blasts again, this time in two short spurts.
“That was the sound of your five-minute warning,” the man chimes happily through the intercom.
I walk into the hallway. No signs or arrows point out the way. It seems the wardrobe must be the only porthole in which the station’s evil witch and her hobgoblins have access from the other side.
The place seems to be part house, part high school, and part TV studio. It looks perfectly normal from the outside, and my bedroom—minus the hidden locker—is typical too. But as I walk into what I expected to be the kitchen, I find our old high school cafeteria instead. Only it looks like the lunch duty crew has the day off since the serving area lacks any hints of food.
“Hey,” comes a husky voice from behind.
I stop short. I’m seriously dreading the big reveal, but I force myself to spin around and get it over with. “Hi.”
I expect to see Kai wearing a football jersey like he wore during our first date. He’s wearing one all right; one made for a sasquatch. A pair of thick, dark-rimmed glasses sit crookedly on his nose. Layers of masking tape make a bump in the center, and the glass has a magnifying effect on just one side, making one of his brown eyes bulge. It reminds me of the googly eyes on my old Cookie Monster toy.
I can’t help but laugh. “They got you too?” I laugh some more, relieved that I’m not the only one suffering.
<
br /> “Oh, they got me!” he says, his weirdly wide eye going even wider behind the thick glass.
I stifle more laughter. “Well, I didn’t exactly say I wore an Oompa Loompa costume on our first date, but I might as well have.”
Kai leans down and takes hold of my hand like it’s the most natural thing in the world. “It’s probably best that you didn’t. They might have rolled you in Cheeto dust, and then I wouldn’t have wanted to hold your hand.”
“Right,” I say through another laugh.
“I’d have wanted to lick it instead.”
I giggle some more. Kai always did know how to make me laugh. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like the way my hand feels in his.
“The library’s this way.” He leads me down the hall. “I took a small tour right when I got here. Luckily, everything’s labeled.” He nods toward a bronze plaque outside the upcoming door.
And so it is. We walk inside and quietly survey the place. Bookshelves, books, study areas with round tables, and bean bags for lounging. It’s not until I glance around a second time that I see a flashing florescent sign over a rather tall, isolated bookcase by the drinking fountain.
Enter here.
Just as I scrutinize the letters in glowing green, Kai speaks up once more. “Ooh, a magic bookcase, maybe?”
A whir of wonder stirs within me. “I always wanted to step through a secret passageway like that.”
“Who hasn’t?” Kai shrugs, and his oversized jersey inches down his tan and very muscular shoulder.
Stop staring, Nikki.
“How did they find a jersey that was too big for you?” I ask as we move toward the sign. “I mean, should I be worried that King Kong is going to come tear the roof off this place to get his jersey back?”
“I’m more concerned that the ornery old man with the floating house is going to fly over here and take his glasses back.”
I laugh, knowing that Kai wore similar glasses on our first date to make himself look smarter—a fact he fessed up to on our second date. That explained why I’d never seen him wear them at school.
“Okay,” Kai says once we’re at the green sign. “I’m about to make your wildest dreams come true.”
Hot tingles flare in my tummy. How did he know about my dream?
“Go ahead,” he says with a nod at the bookcase.
Oh yeah, that dream—the hidden passageway. I clear my throat, reach out, and give the edge a little push. The tall structure gives way like a revolving door, so I push on it some more. “Here we go,” I say theatrically over my shoulder as I walk into the unseen space.
If this place is part school, this is the giant gymnasium—one with a diner-style booth set up in the corner.
“You made it,” sings that same cheery voice. A guy in a pale blue suit stands there. I’ve seen him before, haven’t I?
“If this were a race between the tortoise and the hare,” the man continues, “I’m the hare, and you’re the tortoises. But wait, doesn’t the hare lose?” He scratches his head, then shrugs.
“My name’s Colt Findley, and I’ll be your host for the next five days. Now, before big boy gets all crazy-eyed—wait, maybe it’s too late for that.” He laughs under his breath. “I should assure you that I won’t enter the main part of the home. I only show up when it’s date time, which is when you’ll require my talent for telling people what to do. You’ll show up here to find the place transformed just in time for the event.
“Tonight, if you haven’t already guessed, you two will be going on your first date again. But since you can’t step outside these walls, we’ve brought Sill’s Diner to you. So, head on over, take a seat at the booth, and enjoy your evening.”
“Okay,” Kai says. I can tell by the sound of his voice that he’s wary, which is good because so am I.
“Oh,” Colt Findley adds. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll just be on my phone hunting for wearable parachutes so I can get my wife one of those.” He nods to my outfit.
Kai shakes his head.
“Whoa, whoa…” The host puts his hands up and steps back. “Don’t pull those eyes at me, man. Please, I’ll be nice.”
I look at Kai once more, trying not to laugh at the hilarious effects of the glasses. One eye looks big enough to belong to the cyclops who owns the giant jersey. The other looks like it came from a shrunken squirrel.
Kai shakes it off and places a hand at my lower back. It feels warm and wonderful and so very familiar.
We head to the booth that looks just like the ones from our favorite burger joint.
“Shall we?” Kai motions for me to take a seat.
I slide into the booth, praying the ugly outfit won’t make toilet noises against the vinyl as I scoot. It doesn’t, and I sigh with gratitude.
Kai slides onto the seat across from me. “This is weird, isn’t it?”
I try to look at him seriously, but I’m having a hard time with the lopsided eye size. “Yes.” A laugh coats the word. “So let me guess. You said you wore an oversized jersey to our first date, along with a pair of fake, dorky glasses?”
He nods. “And you told them about your cute little outfit and ended up with a tent.”
“Pretty much.”
“You still look cute.”
My heart sputters. “So do you.” And he does, even if it is cartoon-character cute.
He clears his throat. “You graduated last year, I heard. And you’re starting up a small business now?”
He heard that? “Yeah. And you’re about to take the bar exam if all is going well, right?”
“Right.” Kai nods.
I nod too, dreading the question that comes to mind next. A lot hinges on whether he’s moving back here or not. And by a lot, I mean our second chance, if there even is one. I try to tell Traitor Me to stop thinking things like that, but suddenly the question comes barreling out of my mouth.
“Where do you plan to practice law?”
My heart jumps into a wild rhythm. I run the tip of my finger over the tablecloth while waiting for his reply.
“Here in Arizona.”
The wild heart rhythm turns into a happy dance.
“I already have offers from two different firms. Of course, one of them is my father’s, but…”
Another thing I admire about Kai—he’s always two steps ahead of the game. The guy graduated high school with an associate degree for crying out loud.
“Would you consider working at your dad’s firm?” I ask. This touches a sore spot. His father is the reason Kai was so set on going to Stanford for his undergrad. The reason he took off to California instead of staying in Arizona while I suffered the most brutal years of my life.
“No,” Kai says. “I think it’d be best if I worked for a different firm. But it’s nice to know he has confidence in me.”
I want to ask if his father would still have confidence in him if he’d finished his undergrad here in Arizona, but I don’t.
Kai clears his throat. “Shelly has two boys now. They’re cute little rascals too. I can’t wait to be a bigger part of their lives when I move back.”
I picture his sister raising two boys and grin. “She married Troy Conner, right?”
“Right. So that’s another reason I should stay close. They need their cool Uncle Kai around, so they don’t turn out like their geeky dad.”
I point to the glasses and laugh at the irony. “Umm-hmm.”
Kai tears off the glasses and runs a hand over his face. “Sheesh, these things are giving me a headache.” He blinks a few times. “I feel like my eyes have shrunk.”
“Just one of them has,” I promise.
“That’s a relief.” He sets them down on the table and squares a look at me.
I gulp. On one hand, I’m relieved that he took the silly things off so we can have a conversation that isn’t comedy-enhanced by the crazy eyewear. But another part of me senses my disadvantage; the glasses helped even out the playing field.
Kai lets out
a sigh. “How’s your mom?”
My mom isn’t secretive about her eating disorder anymore. In fact, she’s come to a place where she’s helping raise awareness about the different forms those disorders take on. But since I failed to get the okay to discuss it beforehand, I choose my words carefully.
“She’s actually really good, thank heavens. She’s been back home for almost two years. She has a good job, and she’s living with her mother now. Helping to take care of her.”
Kai holds my gaze, a genuine smile spreading across his face. “That’s great, Nikki.”
“Yeah, it is.” I’m grateful that, despite her time spent in and out of the treatment centers, my mom is getting her life back in order. But even still, the memories make my shoulders tense.
I roll them back, trying to free myself from the residual pain. This was the crux of our breakup. I couldn’t have abandoned my mom and taken off to some out-of-state university. And since Kai knew how much I was struggling to keep it all together, I figured he’d join me until he was ready for law school. But no—he couldn’t let his father down.
Of all the important people who’d gone absent in my life—my father who walked out while I was young, and my mother whose illness took her away from me—it was Kai who hurt me the most; he’d always been my comfort. My constant. My distraction from all the hurts beyond my control. Nate felt a similar way about it. He’d always looked up to Kai, which was probably why he’d taken it so hard when he left.
“How’s Nate?” Kai asks as if reading my thoughts. “I think I heard he’s going to Washington State.”
I grin. “Yes, isn’t that amazing? I can’t tell you how important it was.” A flood of emotion grips hold of me—pride, satisfaction, and gratitude. “For a while, I wasn’t even sure the kid would graduate, as much as he was skipping school and doing…Lord knows what. But he came around.”
A vision of Nate in his cap and gown causes my eyes to well with tears. What I would have given to have that type of freedom at his age. I clear my throat and blink back the tears threatening to spill. “It was important to me that Nate had the opportunity to just leave, you know? Unhindered. Free.”