Page 15 of Ten Years and Then…
“They say a lot of things, whoever they are.” She kissed him, slow and long, and when they broke apart, she caressed his cheek and said, “But I really want to hear it, if you want to tell me.”
“I guess you really do.” He wasn’t quite blushing. “Okay. You’re right, she kissed me, and we—we ended up making out until right before her parents came home. And I guess after that—we never really said anything, either one of us, we just started spending more time together. It was probably two months before she called me her boyfriend in front of anybody.”
“I wouldn’t have waited that long. I would’ve wanted everyone to know you were mine.” She surprised herself as much as him with that.
“I think I’d like being yours,” he answered, and she thought she heard a hint of teasing there. That was almost better than his words, that he felt comfortable enough to joke around with her. “But let me—let me finish, I really want you to know. We dated, and it was—it was nice. She was nice. She asked me to her prom, and then she graduated, and it was, I guess the middle of June. We went to see Top Gun, she drove—I had my license but Dad didn’t want me driving at night, so we were in her dad’s car, and when the movie was over, we went back out to the parking lot.”
Now she knew exactly what the bad memory was, but she let him tell it.
“We got in the car, and she locked it, but she didn’t put the key in the ignition. She—we were making out, and then she—she touched me, she … anyway, she wanted to—right there in the car.”
Nora knew precisely how and where he’d been touched. This might as well have been one of her own memories, except from the reverse perspective. The girl she didn’t want to be anymore would have been touching Daniel like that. The girl she hoped she was stayed quiet and still, because she knew he needed her to hear him. So she just stared into his pretty—so pretty—eyes, and listened.
“I mean, we were way far away in the corner of the lot, and pretty far from the streetlights, it was like she knew, like she planned exactly where to park.”
“But you—you weren’t ready?” She wished she’d been brave enough or strong enough to say she wasn’t ready, in a parking lot the summer after freshman year of high school.
“I felt like—it just wasn’t right. I liked her, but I didn’t—this will sound ridiculous, but it’s true. I didn’t really know her. I know you better after a few hours, I mean who you really are, better than I knew her after eight months. It just—I didn’t want to do it just to check off a box, or just because I was too horny. And for sure I didn’t want to do it in the backseat of a 1974 Buick Skylark.”
She couldn’t help laughing, and at the same time feeling a sympathetic twinge of pain. “Believe me, you did her a favor. There’s nothing sexy about a seatbelt buckle grinding into your back.”
“Swear to God, I thought of that—it looked like it would be really uncomfortable for her. And probably me, too.” He went silent again, then pulled her up against him. “But why I wanted to tell you is, I’m really glad I didn’t that night. I’m glad I waited. I’m glad it happened with someone as amazing as you.” He was holding her eyes as he said it, not blinking, not moving a muscle, just telling the absolute truth.
For once, she couldn’t think of anything to say or do. She just let him hold her, and replayed his words over and over, really believing them, and how amazing was that?
Chapter 5
The Next Day—Albion College
Daniel, October 16, around eight o’clock in the morning
Daniel stirred awake, sunlight streaming in from the gaps in the curtains. It was very bright, more than usual—he supposed because it was later than he usually woke up. He felt so peaceful, so much better rested than he could ever recall feeling.
The reason why was staring at him, a teasing, perfect smile on her face.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” she said.
“Good morning, yourself.” How could it not be good, after last night? It had been—he didn’t have the words for it. She’d led him back to his dorm, invited herself up to his room, and she’d made love to him. She hadn’t even said a word about his inexperience.
And then, after he’d told her about Peggy, they’d done it a second time, and he thought—hoped—it had been better for her. If her smile now was any indication, it must have been. When—if—no, definitely when it happened again, he would make sure it was better for her. He’d opened his heart to her, surely he could talk honestly about how things were when they were intimate.
“Tell me the truth,” she said. “When you fell asleep, did you have a moment where you wondered if the universe was playing a joke on you, and you’d wake up alone and it was all just a dream or something? Because I did.” She pulled herself close to him, kissed him.
“No.” As much as he could get lost in his head, there was none of that once they got back to his room. “Because the last thing I remember feeling before I fell asleep was you holding me.”
She kissed him again. “That’s really sweet. Everything was sweet. Especially waking up with you here.” Now she pushed herself away. “But—I hate it, but I have to get back to my room. I call my Dad every Saturday morning. Just to check in, you know?” Daniel understood perfectly. “And he’s got caller ID—he paid extra to get it—otherwise I’d just call from your room.” He liked that she just assumed he wouldn’t care about the long-distance charges; she was absolutely right about that.
“I’ll walk you back, if you want.”
“I want. I really want.”
Nora, an hour later
They were only a few steps outside his dorm, Daniel holding her hand as they walked, and a dark haired Indian girl waved to him, then stopped and did a double-take.
He waved back. “Hi, Anjali.”
The girl with the iron. The last girl he kissed. The girl who—lucky for Nora—had been too blind or too dumb to see what was right in front of her.
