Page 69 of When We Were Reckless
“Open your eyes, baby.”
I did as he said. That was a little better but still not great.
Jesse swooped me up and into his arms, and he carried me, his strides long and purposeful. Jesse was carrying me like he was the groom, and I was the bride.
It was just like our fake wedding day. “You’re not wearing your daisy chain,” I murmured, looping my arm around his neck and tracing the outline of his soft T-shirt collar with my index finger.
He tipped down his chin to look at my face. “Neither are you.”
“Why are you carrying me?”
“Why did you send me those messages?”
“Messages? What did I say?”
He just shook his head. Guess I’d have to check my phone later. Another humiliation to endure, no doubt.
“Maybe I’m trying to be your knight in shining armor, riding in to save the day. That’s what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it? The stuff of fairytales and legends. A knight in shining armor to swoop in and rescue you.”
“Rescue me from what? I don’t need to be rescued from anything but you.” His hold on me tightened, and his shoulders went rigid. Oops. Shouldn’t have said that. I stroked the stubble on his jaw with my fingertips. Gosh, he was so pretty. “What was I saying? Oh right… Now I remember. And furthermore, if you were the white knight, that would make me the damsel in distress. That’s never been me. And that’s not what I’ve always wanted. I’ve never wanted a knight in shining armor.”
“No?” he asked as he carried me up the stairs to the second floor. He pushed open my bedroom door and kicked it shut behind him, feeling his way in the dark, the silver moonlight casting my room in shadows. He laid me down on my bed, on top of my blush pink comforter, and leaned over me.
“What is it you’ve always wanted?”
“All I’ve ever wanted was the impossible.” I fisted his T-shirt in my hands and pulled him down to me.
When our lips met, my eyes drifted shut, and my tongue peeked out to taste him.
Pink lemonade and sugar cookies. Sunshine and daisy chains. Wishes on stars and slow dancing in the rain.
“Never change to fit in, Sunshine Girl. Don’t be a sheep. Be your own person. You’ll find your tribe.”
That’s what he’d told me all those years ago when I was broken-hearted, trying to figure out what was so wrong with me that my friends didn’t even want to hang out with me anymore.
How could I not love him? The boy I’d grown up with. The man who had given his heart to the wrong girl. My Icarus who flew too close to the sun.
“What’s so impossible?” he asked me now as if he didn’t know. He was staring up at the ceiling as if it had the answers to all our questions.
Without his weight on top of me, I felt unmoored. Dizzy. The room was swimming, and I told him that.
So he pulled me against him, my back to his chest, and I fit so perfectly into the curve of his body. I really did. Two pieces of an unfinished jigsaw puzzle. That was Jesse and me. “The Sun and the Moon. It’s the greatest love story ever told. It blows Romeo and Juliet out of the water.”
“Tell me the story,” he said, stroking my hair, holding me close against his warm, strong body.
So I did. I told him the story of the Sun and the Moon and how the Sun was like a god and everyone admired him. Worshipped him, even. The Sun and Moon were lovers but only had rare chances to meet.
All the Moon wanted was to be loved. The Sun loved the Moon so much that he gave up his light so that she could glow.
The Sun made the ultimate sacrifice for his beloved Moon. He gave up everything so that she could shine.
“Is there anything more heartbreakingly beautiful than a love like that?” I answered my own question. “No. No, there is not.”
* * *
“You have two choices,” Evie said the next day when we were poolside. I’d filled her in on the ongoing Jesse drama, the parts of the story I remembered, that is. “Either you forget about him and move on. Or you forget about him and move on.”
Her advice didn’t surprise me. Evie wasn’t exactly Jesse’s biggest fan. I tossed a grape into my mouth and stared at the swimming pool from the green and white striped cushioned lounge chair. The same chair where Jesse had given me an orgasm three nights ago.
