Page 47 of It's Always Been You
I can tell the moment she spots it. The hitch in her breath and the tightening of her shoulders. The way she reaches out with a shaky hand to grab it off the shelf. With the wooden picture frame in her hand, she turns to look at me, her eyes soaked in emotion.
“Why do you have this?”
We both glance down at the picture of us, age nineteen. I’m leaning against the Redwood tree we claimed as ours in the Redwood Grove on the Berkeley campus, and Molly is in front of me, my arms wrapped around her waist. She’s looking over her shoulder at me, laughing, and I’m just staring at her. The heart and our initials we carved into the tree right before we asked a stranger to take our picture is visible, and the love on both of our faces is so intense it’s sometimes hard to look at. But I kept the picture anyway.
“It’s my favorite one of us.”
“But why is it here?”
“I’ve always kept it with me.”
Molly looks up at me, her eyes meeting mine. “But why, Gabe?”
For some reason my answer right now seems critical. Like something important is hinging on what I’m about to say, even if I’m not sure what.
“The love in that picture. God, Rory, look at it. It’s all over our faces. I loved you so much, and you loved me too. I know you did. When I broke us, the love didn’t go anywhere. I still loved you, and I missed you so much I sometimes didn’t think I would survive it. Looking at that picture was sometimes the only thing that made me feel better. It’s like it was a reminder that what we had was real, and there were times I needed that reminder so badly. Sometimes I still need that reminder.”
Molly glances at the picture one more time and sets it gently back on the shelf. She walks over to me, and this time, it’s her reaching up and laying a hand on my cheek.
“Sometimes I needed the reminder too.”
She leans up and kisses my cheek, lingering there for a few extra seconds before dropping back down and flashing me a grin.
“Now that the nostalgic portion of the night is over, show me where I’m sleeping tonight. I need to get out of this dress, like yesterday.”
My instinct is to press for more. Talk more. Delve into our past and what our future looks like.
Slow, Gabe.
Take it slow.
I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then I give her an exaggerated wink.
“I know a guy who can help you with the dress part.”
“Nice try, Gabriel. I’ve been getting myself out of my own clothes for years,” Molly says dryly.
“Except for all those years I helped you.”
Molly snorts out a laugh. “Yes, you were very adept at getting me naked as often as possible.”
“You know it, Rory baby. Come on,” I swing an arm around her shoulder and lead her to the stairs. “I’ll show you your room.”
Chapter Sixteen
Gabe
“Okay but that was a whole fucking delight. Gamora? What an absolute badass.” Molly grins at me and tosses a handful of popcorn mixed with Reese’s Pieces into her mouth.
“I know, right? I really thinkGuardians of the Galaxyis the unsung hero of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I can’t believe you never saw it.”
Molly shrugs and glances over at me. She looks so cute in polka dot sweatpants and an old University of Pittsburgh Law School T-shirt with a long, bright pink sweater tossed over it, her face freshly washed and her hair piled up on top of her head. I just want to snuggle her up. She’s sitting cross-legged on the couch with the bowl of popcorn in her lap, her knee pressed up against my leg.
“It didn’t feel right to watch them without you. It was our thing for so long, I didn’t want to see any of the movies alone. I thought the TV shows looked cool, but it’s the same universe, and I have a weird thing about watching and reading series in order, so I skipped those too.”
“But the last movie you saw wasCaptain America: The Winter Soldier.I can’t believe you lived all these years with that cliffhanger. What would Black Widow do? Where did Nick Fury go? Would Steve Rogers and Sam be able to save Buckey?”
“And yet somehow I survived.”
