Page 14 of Anytime I Want

About thirty minutes later, the fort is made and a movie is blaring. Graham and I have a plate of cookies, and we each have a glass of milk. We sit on top of a towel in case of a spill.I look over at Graham and smile as he laughs at the movie.As soon as he leaves, I am going to add cookies and hugs to my boyfriend list. They really do make everything better.

***

My eyes come back into focus when I realize that Chloe is still talking.

“J, just please, for me, try and have fun. Give into the date of it all. I know you won’t admit it, but I know you. You like him. Let yourself like him. Being excited to date him isn’t a commitment to a ring and two point five kids. Just be in the moment, k?” She stares at me while I swallow deeply and nod.

“I’ll try.”

“Now, I’ve accentuated your beauty, given you a pep talk, so I’m out. Tell me everything later. See if you can sneak a picture. I’ll be anxiously waiting. Ta-ta.” Chloe blows me a kiss over her shoulder as she walks out the door.

Chapter 9

Graham

Ding dong.The doorbell at the Pritchett house is old school; it still made the traditional sound, and I hope they never change it. It calms me even though in reality, I’m so nervous that nothing will calm me down.Should I have flowers? What about lollipops? Cookies?I run through a list in my mind of all the things I could forget that would mess this up.No, flowers are in the truck along with lollipops. No cookies this time. Next time. Gotta save something for round two.

The door swings open and I look up, hoping to see Julia’s green eyes, but instead am greeted by Nathan’s smirking face.

“Oh, Julia,” he crows. “Your date is here.” I reach over and give him a high five.Date. That’s me. Finally.I turn towards the stairs and see Julia walking toward me. She has a smile on her face, which I hope is a good sign.

“Hey.” She smiles when she stops in front of me. I don’t know why since we have seen each other almost every day for the past nine years, but I expected her to be a little shy, maybe coy. Her broad smile surprises me, and I have to physically shake my head to get in the right headspace.

“Hi! Hey! You look great! Hi!” Okay, so I might have shaken my head a little too much. I clear my throat. “Are you ready to go?” Julia gives me a weird look and nods.

“See ya later, Nathan.” Julia waves as she walks out the door. I pull the door closed behind her but not fast enough to miss Nathan giving me two thumbs up, mouthingI’ll meet you there, with an exaggerated wink.

“So, I thought we’d go out to Fletcher’s field. There’s more to it but I want it to be a surprise. Oh, and first I wanna stop and get some hot cocoa?” I help her into my truck and wait for her to answer before I shut the door.

“Sure. That sounds great.” Julia smiles and I swear my heart skips a beat. I slam the door closed and walk around to get in the truck. We drive in silence for the next few minutes, and I’m wracking my brain to come up with something to say. Turns out that when I am on a date with her, after years of begging her to date me, I have no idea what to say. I am not this person. I love people and being social, talking, joking, whatever. And now, the moment I have been waiting for for the past nine years, and all I can do is open and close my mouth like a fish.

“Did you notice that the house down the street has a sold sign? It’s been empty for so long. I hope it’s a nice family. Oh! Or a cute old couple. I love old people!” Julia says.

I take a deep breath, so grateful that Julia’s brain is working. “Yeah, I did see that. My mom said she’s pretty sure it's a family. She saw a couple with a teenage girl and a little boy there last week.”

“Oh that's great. I’ll have to keep a lookout for a moving truck while I’m out running. Maybe I can meet her, show her around. Ooh! What if it’s Josie? That would be awesome. I should text her… Later.” Julia smiles shyly.

I look over and smile slightly, once again struck by her kindness. It’s not a big thing, but the best kindnesses are little, in my opinion. We pull into the coffee shack drive-thru lane and wait for the car in front of us to finish ordering.

“Remember when we went on that road trip to Yellowstone two summers ago?” Julia asks suddenly.

I laugh. “Of course! Nathan was sick the whole time. It was nasty.”

“Yeah, that was nasty. Remember the license plate game? We were trying to find a license plate that started with every letter of the alphabet. And your dad kept pointing out random cars. It was hilarious. I don’t think he really knows the order of the alphabet.” Julia laughs.

“I am totally sure he doesn’t. Sometimes on the weekends, my mom and I go into his office to help with alphabetizing files. It takes forever, and I want him to go all digital, but he swears he needs the paper backups.” I tap my fingers on the steering wheel, trying to let out a little of my extra energy.

“Do you remember what letter we were on?” she asks, glancing out of the corner of her eye. The car in front of us finally pulls forward, and I take a break from the conversation to order two creme de menthe hot cocoas. I pull out my wallet to grab mydebit card, thinking about that trip. “Uhm, was it M? I feel like it was M.”

Julia’s eyes light up. “It was M! I love that you remember that.”

“Of course I remember. I remember everything about you.” I smile and watch her cheeks turn an extremely attractive shade of pink.

“Well, anyways,” she clears her throat. “I’ve been playing by myself since, and I am on Q. Not making much headway, sadly.”

“What? You’ve been playing without me! Uncool, Pritchett. Uncool.”

“I am trying to repent of my uncool ways by bringing you back in. Keep your eyes peeled for that Q!” Julia starts looking out the windshield intently, the smile on her face fading into a look of contentment. I watch her for a second before I remember I’m driving. I turn back to the road, letting us enjoy the silence. After another twenty minutes of driving, we pull onto a gravel shoulder, parking next to Nathan’s car.

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