“Fuck,” I say sharply, though my mother would not approve of me cursing in front of her friends. “I think I just sprained my ankle.”
“At least hot water is good for injuries?” she offers feebly, her hair tangling around her shoulders as it ripples in the jets.
She wipes water out of her eye, and a false eyelash lands on her cheek.
I delicately remove it and hold it up to the light cast by the tiki torch. “Make a wish.”
She starts to cry. “I already did.”
And I hope, Ihope,that she means the wish is me.
“What are you doing here, Molls?” I ask softly. “Or, should I call you… Nina?”
She sucks in a breath through clenched teeth. “You read the script.”
I nod. “Are you here for notes on the ending?”
The pink of the hot tub lights shines against her sequins, turning them rose gold. “Well, falling into a hot tubwouldbe a good set piece to punch up the draft,” she says.
“I like your script the way it is.”
She shakes her head. “I’msosorry, Seth. I wrote it for you, not to sell. I was going to give it to you to say that I’m sorry.”
My shoulders relax at these words. I knew it. Iknewshe wrote it for us.
I pull her into my arms. It is very painful to move, but this is the best I’ve felt in a month.
Still, she said the script was an apology. Not an attempt to get me back.
Apologies in relationships are often goodbyes. As the king of failed relationships, I should know. So I ask the question that’s been haunting me:
“Molly? How much of the ending is true?”
“The ending?”
“The part where you pine for me. Regret leaving me. Want to come back to me but fear I won’t want to see you.”
“Oh. The dark night of the soul.”
“Jesus, it was that bad?”
“That’s technically what the beat is called when the girl has to either brave up, or lose the love of her life.”
Those words knock the wind out of me.
“The love of her life?”
She looks into my eyes. “Yeah. The love of my life.”
And then I marry her in that instant and we have fourteen kids and establish an eternal celestial kingdom in heaven, no questions asked.
Or I would. This is all I’ve ever wanted to hear.
But she’s not done talking.
“Seth, I am so, so sorry. It’s not an excuse but… I was so scared. I never thought I was wired to fall in love this hard, and I couldn’t stand the idea of losing you. So I sabotaged it. Again. And I hurt you.”
I want to comfort her in this moment, but my throat is too raw. I just shake my head.
