Page 10 of Between the Blue
Giving me one more preview of what I’m sure to hear in my dreams tonight.
“Does anyone just call you Ben?”
I turn around. See her directly under the porch light now. It’s like her own personal spotlight.
She was made for it.
I shake my head. “Nobody at all, actually.”
“Well, that’s settled then,” she nods. “See you around, Ben.”
My brows pull together. And it’s like she can hear the question in my head clear as day. She shrugs her shoulders and answers without me having to ask.
“I’ve never strived to be like anyone else.”
She doesn’t have to worry about that. Not for a second.
She tilts her head at me then, her eyes tracing my figure before landing on my face again.
“And Bennett is way too serious of a name for you.”
Then she turns away and steps inside the house. Closes the door behind her without a backwards glance.
I stare at the closed door for a long time.
Not a single person in my life has ever accused me of not being serious enough.
Julia.
How are you supposed to know when you meet someone that you’ll never be the same again?
I should’ve known at that moment.
I just wish it wouldn’t have taken me so long to realize.
three
HER
I realize that I’m ten minutes early, but it’s much later than I’d like it to be when I take my seat at my first editorial photography class.
But, considering how my morning went, I’m allowing myself an ounce of grace.
I’m not sure I’ve ever had an enemy in my life, yet somehow I managed to make one within the first hour of my first real day of living in my new city.
Even better, in a place I spend five days a week inside of.
I can only hope James isn’t a regular early morning gym go-er. That maybe he’s from out of town or just woke up feeling motivated this morning. Because I’d rather not have to work out with two searing eyes burning into my back for the foreseeable future.
It was odd.
For someone who just asked me to stay far away from him, he managed to always be just a little too close for comfort every time I’d glance around my surroundings in the weight room.
Never once did I catch him looking in my direction, even in the moments when my gaze kept insisting on finding him like a magnet. He may not have wanted to interact with me, or evenacknowledge that I exist, but that didn’t keep him from revolving around me like some sort of satellite for the entirety of my forty-five minute workout. Never near, but never far either.
I don’t know what his deal was.
I knew I had been the one in the wrong.Hell, I admitted it.I stumbled into the wrong locker room and loudly accused him of doing just that. It wasn’t my proudest moment. But I’m not sure what made him so angry. I swear, he went from silently staring at me with a straight-face to fuming mad and looking like he was plotting my murder in a matter of seconds.
