Page 85 of Why Not Us?

She glances at me, and I shake my head. She laughs again.

“Anyway, he’s banished, and in the play, he starts lamenting that he has to leave Verona. Whenever I read it, I always thought he was a whiny baby. Then, whenthis guyplayed Romeo, it suddenly made sense to me. He wasn’t sad about leaving Verona. He was sad about leavingJuliet.” She shrugs. “I thought it was interesting how someone can say something, and you don’t always understand the subtext right away. Sometimes it takes a bit for things to suddenly make sense.”

We chat for a while about the plays she’s seen and read. I confess that I haven’t seen or read any since high school. We readHamletin grade twelve, but that was it, and I don’t remember any of it.

The show begins. It’s funny and I follow along as best I can considering the old English. But the best part is Adalie’s fingers entwined with mine and the way she watches with rapt attention. When she shivers, I wrap an arm around her, and she leans into me.

When the play is over and we walk out, I say, “So, all that craziness and they all ended up with the people they were with in the beginning?”

She grins up at me. “Yep. Much ado about nothing.”

She orders us an Uber and it takes us to her place. We sit together in the back with her snuggled against me, my hand playing along her leg and under her skirt. She giggles, stopping me from moving up too far.

I hadn’t really intended to push further, anyway. I just wanted to hear her laugh.

Chapter 26

Adalie

By Sunday, I’m a vibrating, nervous mess. Derek and Spencer have agreed to come with us, but we’re going separately since Nate wants to ride and I need to wear pants to jump off a bridge, anyway. He picks me up early and we ride out of the city onto the Sea-to-Sky Highway. The drive is as beautiful as always and calms me a little. The view of the ocean combined with the freedom I feel on the back of Nate’s bike help me to relax.

Right up until the sign for Whistler Bungee indicates the turn off and Nate follows it onto a gravel road. It’s another couple kilometers down, and he rides slow so as not to kick up too much dust. When he pulls to a stop, Derek and Spencer are already there, sitting on the hood of Derek’s car. They had been watching the green bridge that arcs overhead, glancing at us as we approach. As I’m getting off, they turn back. I hear a shout above and look up as someone falls off the bridge, the long bungee cord seeming to float in the air until it stretches taut, and the person flies back up toward the bridge. I watch in horrified fascination, wondering if they’re going to hit it before they fall again, swinging and bouncing in uncontrolled motions.

Nate takes hold of one of my wrists, pulling my hand away from my mouth. I hadn’t even realized I’d pressed my fingers to my face as I watched.

“You ready?” he asks with a teasing smile.

I straighten my shoulders. “Yes.”

Derek and Spencer come over, greeting us with handshakes and hugs.

“Have you been here long?” I ask.

“No,” Spencer says as we start up a short hill. “Only about fifteen minutes. We’ve been watching. This looks awesome.”

“If you say so.”

He laughs and we step onto the bridge. It’s made from metal and has a little bounce to it as we walk. The deck is open circles, so when I look down, I can see the river a hundred and sixty feet below—I looked up the distance before we came.

“If you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to,” Nate says quietly.

“What makes you think I don’t want to?” I ask.

“The way you’re squeezing my hand like you’re afraid you’re going to fall off the bridge.”

I loosen my grip, and he chuckles. Then, someone calls his name.

“Nate! How’s it going, man?”

A man comes toward us, his hand outstretched, the t-shirt he’s wearing marking him as an employee.

Nate shakes the man’s hand.

“Good. Brought a few newbies today. This is my girlfriend, Adalie, and her friends Spencer and Derek. Guys, this is Max.”

Max looks us all over with excitement. “You’re all jumping?”

My friends answer enthusiastically. I just nod.

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