Page 140 of One Night

"I told you, we'll make something up. Or we'll just tell them we met at a party. We'll leave out the one-night stand. Nobody needs to know about that."

She stretches her arms out and sighs happily. "I'm hungry. Want to go find something to eat?" She turns to me. "Oh! Would you make that egg thing again? That was really good."

"It was just scrambled eggs."

"It was still really good."

"If that's what you want, then yeah, I'll make it." I give her a kiss. "Let's go."

She gets out of bed and puts on her robe while I put on my jeans.

"What's that?" I ask, pointing to the bulletin board above her desk. There's something red hanging from it.

She goes over and looks at it, then laughs. "Kira must've taken it from my room back home and brought it here. She was probably hoping it'd restore my faith in love."

"What is it?"

"The remnants of a balloon I found when I was a kid. My family was on vacation at Lake Michigan and the balloon floated down to me when I was on the beach."

"Huh." I walk over to get a better look at it. It seems familiar. Oddly familiar. "Why'd you keep it?"

"Because I'm a hopeless romantic." She laughs again. "There was a message inside from some kid. I still have the note."

The note? My heart beats faster. There's no way. No freaking way.

"Is it back at your house?" I ask.

"No. I keep it in my jewelry box."

"Can I see it?"

She looks at me funny. "Um, okay." She goes to her dresser and opens her jewelry box and takes out a small scrap of paper.

Holy shit. That can't be it. How would that even be possible?

She starts to read the note. "To whoever—"

"Wait. Stop."

"Why?"

"To whoever finds this," I say, slowly walking toward her. "If you're a boy, throw it out. If you're a girl, it means we're meant to be together. When I'm old, I'll come find you and we'll get married. So don't marry anyone else. Just wait." I'm standing in front of Amber now. Her eyes are wide, her jaw dropped. She looks down at the note and we say the last line together, "I'll come find you."

"Oh my God." She drops the note as her hand flies over her mouth. "You were him? You were the little boy? How is that possible?"

"I went to camp that summer. It was just north of Chicago along Lake Michigan. One day they made us write notes and send them off in balloons. I don't even know why I wrote that. Everyone else wrote basic shit, like their name and where they're from. But when I sat down to write, it's the first thing that came to mind. And then I sent it off, never thinking it would make it to anyone."

"But it did," she says as her hand falls back by her side. "I can't believe this. I found your note. YOUR note, Dylan."

I smile. "I know. It's crazy."

"I waited for you. When I got home from the trip, I tried on every dress I had so I'd be all ready for when you arrived. But then you never came."

"I was only ten." I chuckle. "Didn't have any wheels back then, other than my bike, which I doubt would've made it to Michigan." I cup her cheek. "You really waited for me?"

She nods. "For weeks. Months. I didn't know who you were or what you looked like, but in my heart, I felt that if I ever saw you, I'd know it was you."

"And you did," I say, putting the pieces together. "That night at the party, we both felt something. We both felt like we'd met before even though we hadn't."

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