Page 87 of Rewind It Back

I work up the nerve and ask what I’ve been thinking about the entire drive. “I know it’s your only night home and you just waited for me for hours, but is there any chance you’d want to keep driving?”

I don’t dare look over at him. I know what I’m asking is selfish, but for the first time in a long time, things feel good between us, and I want to live in it for a bit longer. He’s about to leave for two weeks. Who knows if he’ll come to his senses in that time? Who knows if I will?

The car is silent between songs and without Rio’s response, until finally, after what feels like forever, the sound of his blinker begins to click.

I look up to find him leaning his head back on the headrest, wearing a soft smile, and merging back onto the expressway.

He’s really showing off that forearm with his rolled-up sleeve and one hand on the wheel as he drives past the city limits. Past anywhere I’ve ever been. He just drives, going nowhere in particular.

“Do you remember this song?” Rio asks when an old TLC song starts playing through the speakers.

“Of course I remember this song. I specifically remember us listening to it in my bedroom one night and telling you it was playing the first time some boy told me he liked me.”

“Kevin Gross,” Rio mumbles under his breath. “I hated that guy, by the way.”

“Why?” I burst a laugh. “He was a nice kid. Incredibly strange, but nice.”

“He got to tell you he liked you before I could. That song should have been dedicated to me.”

I’m still chuckling because this is ridiculous and petty and was almost thirteen years ago. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, the only memory I have of that song being on my yearly playlist is listening to it with you.”

Rio is biting back his smile. “I guess that helps a little.”

When the song ends, I actively choose the next one.

His head falls back in laughter as soon it begins to play. “I still remember how relieved I felt when you put this song on right before I kissed you for the first time.”

I turn it up and let “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer blast through the speakers.

“It was subliminal messaging.”

“There was no secret meaning in the song choice, Hallie. It was the least subtle thing you’ve ever done, and I was so fucking thankful for that.”

We drive for another two hours, laughing at stupid memories we have as kids, playing old songs we used to be obsessed with. He takes a few back roads, cruising down unlit lanes until eventually, he pulls into a gas station, needing to refill the tank.

It’s nearing three in the morning when he gets back into the cab and restarts the truck.

“Should we get home?” I ask.

He pulls back onto the road. “If you’re ready, we can.”

“It’s almost three in the morning. What are you going to do? Keep driving me around until it’s time for you to head to the airport for your trip?”

“I wouldn’t mind.”

I chuckle. “I should get some sleep. I’ve got to work in a few hours.”

This time when Rio is driving down the expressway, he gets off at our exit. The turns he takes to get into our neighborhood are done slowly, about five miles under the speed limit, drawing this drive out for as long as possible. And though I know I’m going to be dead tired on my feet tomorrow, I also don’t want this to end.

He parks in his driveway and kills the engine, but it takes a while for either of us to move. I’m the first one to, refolding the blanket and stacking both it and the pillow on his dashboard.

“Thank you,” I tell him. “That...”

“Felt exactly how it’s supposed to,” he finishes.

I don’t ask him to elaborate if that sentence should end with “between us,” because we truly do have so much good history when we ignore the bad, or if he means in general. That it felt exactly how it’s supposed to with “your person.”

Then there’s that voice in my head, the one who used to be in love with him, that’s wondering if there’s any difference between the two.

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