Page 65 of Open for Negotiation
“It really is,” I reply, but I’m not looking at the fountain. I’m fully focused on her.
When we reach the large, circular opening that houses the fountain, she releases my hand and wraps her fingers around the black, iron fencing and closes her eyes.
“What are you thinking?” I ask.
“Do you have two coins?”
I dig into my pockets and produce two pennies that I got back as change at the bar. “Lucky you.” I smile, offering them to her, but she only takes one.
“Now, we turn around,” she does just that, “close our eyes, and make a wish. Then toss it into the fountain over your head.”
“Are you going to tell me what you wish for?”
“If I did that, it wouldn’t come true, and I really want this one to come true.” She closes her eyes.
I do the same, standing shoulder to shoulder with her.
“I’m ready,” I say.
“Okay… three… two… one…”
I wish to feel like this, this happy, with her forever.
***
We are back in the car now. It’s so dark in the alley we parked in that I can barely see her face. I don’t know what comes over me, call it the magic of Savannah, or the obvious hold this beautiful woman has over me, but I just want to break myself open and tell her how I found myself wrapped up in someone like Miranda. All she wants is to know me. So, I indulge her.
“I had the worst heartbreak of my life when I was in high school,” I admit to her. “I think that’s why I dove so deep into Miranda when I met her.”
“Tell me about that. I want to understand.”
I sigh again and continue talking, “I was a senior, Kelly was a junior. God, I was head over heels for that girl. I would have done anything for her. We spent hours and hours talking about our futures together. She wanted to be a doctor, like her mom. We were going to go to school together, get an apartment together. I’d go first, obviously, set us up for a year, then when she graduated, she would join me.”
“What happened?”
She is watching me intently, with those big beautiful eyes full of curiosity and empathy. It makes talking to her even easier.
“She got pregnant.”
I hear her sharp intake of breath through her nose. It’s clear she may have an idea where this is going.
“When she told me, God, I was so excited. Looking back on it now, I knew in the back of my mind I wasn’t ready to be a father, but a baby would be a forever link to her. Selfishly, I wanted that.”
“That makes sense. It doesn’t make it okay, but I understand it.”
“We didn’t want to tell our parents right away. She was terrified, with good reason. She was only seventeen years old…. We were waiting on the right time.” I pause then say the words that still hurt to this day. “Then she had a miscarriage.”
“Oh my God.”
“After that, her parents refused to let me see her or even talk to her. I even got into a fight with her father in their driveway.” I scrub my hand over my face. “He told me that he wasn’t going to let me ruin her life. That she had plans and goals and being with me couldn’t be in the plan anymore. They moved to California a month later… and I haven’t seen her since.”
“Oh, Max, I’m so sorry.” She reaches over and takes my hand. “You don’t know what happened to her?”
“I’ve found her on social media over the years. She’s married now and has a couple of kids. She did become a doctor, actually. So, I guess, her parents made the right choice, didn’t they?”
She takes my face in her hands. “Hey, don’t say things like that. Life throws curveballs at you all the time, okay? Things happen that hurt so badly in the moment. Hurt so badly that you don’t know if you’ll ever be able to overcome them.”
“Like I said, I think my relationship and subsequent fallout with her is a big part of why I fell do hard into Miranda when we met,” I look over and she is watching me intently, just letting me vent out anything that I need to say. “I was so desperate to make sure I never felt that kind of heartbreak again. Miranda seemed all in, just like I was, and it was great for a while, until it wasn’t.”
