“Miss Ashford,” he greeted me. “It’s been a long time.”
“Yes, it has,” I agreed, feeling every hair on my body stand on end. “Wh—what are you doing here?”
He looked around as everyone walking on the sidewalk moved around us. “I live here.”
“You do?”
He nodded. “Yeah, after I moved out of Chicago, I was a nomad for a bit. Until I ended up here.” He shrugged and took a deep breath. “It seemed to fit. The city that never sleeps for the man who lost his ability to dream.” He frowned like he didn’t mean to say that. “What are you doing here? All done with school, I hope?”
“Oh, yeah,” I agreed, looking down at my feet as my body started to buzz in a way that I hadn’t felt in a very long time. “I graduated and was offered a job here in the city working for a publishing house. I’m the newest literary agent for NYC Publishing.”
“Wow, that’s amazing,” he said, genuinely looking happy for me.
I nodded. “Thank you. So, uh, what do you do? Still teaching?”
He shook his head. “No, I gave that up back in Chicago. After I walked away from my whole life, I decided that it was time to focus on myself and become a better person. I’d wasted too many years being unhappy, and I knew that I never would be again if I didn’t turn into someone to be proud of. So, I started going to therapy, exercising more, and joined a book club. Did some traveling. I made a few friends. Friends that turned toconnections, and the next thing I knew, I was being offered a coaching position at NYU.”
Surprise washed over me. “You’re a coach?”
He grinned and nodded.
“What do you coach?”
“I coach the university’s baseball team.”
“Oh my God, that’s amazing!” I smiled widely. “You were so talented growing up. I was surprised when you said you were going to teach. I always thought you’d make a better coach… or even a professional player.”
He nodded. “It does feel like a better fit, and maybe in another life I’d have taken the chance at being a professional. I was in a dark place then, and it screwed up my life quite a lot.” He glanced down at his watch, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was holding him up.
“Oh, I’m sorry. You probably have places to be.” I shook my head as if to clear, feeling stupid for stopping him. After we broke up, I didn’t see him again. I didn’t reach out to him, even though I wanted to. He didn’t reach out to me either, but I knew he wouldn’t. Elliot would rather suffer in silence than bother me. And me? I was too scared to reach out to him. I’d cried myself to sleep for months, missing him. I’d made it through college, though. I didn’t stay at his place, even though he’d offered it the night he left. Instead, I enrolled at a different university and graduated soon after, but not a day had gone by that I hadn’t thought about him.
“It was good bumping into you. You look…” I blushed and nodded. “You look good, Eli. I mean, you look like you’re doing well.”
He chuckled. “Evelyn?”
Hearing him say my name was like falling for him all over again. My stomach flipped, and butterflies sprang to life. How could one word cause my entire body to warm like that?
“Y-Yeah?”
The way his lips turned up in the corners made my heart race. I was supposed to hate him, but I couldn’t. Maybe at one point in time I did, but time had passed, and he’d been nothing but good to me. He did exactly what he said he would that night. He returned to the city where he had broken his contract and walked away from teaching for good. Maddy said everyone was talking about why he left. I never told her it was because of me.
I made friends, dated, but I never found anyone who made me feel the way he did. I was convinced that kind of love only happened once in a lifetime, and we’d missed our chance.
He respected my decision the night he walked away.
“I don’t need to be anywhere. I was just checking the time to see if we’d be able to grab a drink and catch up. What do you think?” He studied me.
Excitement bubbled through me. “Yeah, I-I’d like that.”
He nodded once. “Shall we?” He held out his elbow.
I looked from his steely eyes to his arm and back. I smiled and nodded.
“Let’s.” I wrapped my arm around his, and it felt like a bomb had gone off. The radiation from it was consuming both of us. I could tell by the way his smile fell and his eyes darkened.
He straightened his back as his brows knitted together. “Actually, I have something for you… Back at my place. Would you come back with me? It isn’t far.”
“Back…at… your place?” I repeated.
