Page 51 of The Second Chance Cinema
But more than anything, Ellie wanted to know that Drake chose her. Drake was it for her, the person who felt like family. Yet Melinda had been so much more of afitfor him on paper that it was hard to get past. Drake’s parents must have loved her. She spoke their language, ate their ham, and would probably even pull a tiny bell out of her purse to accompany the carols. Also, unlike Ellie, Melinda didn’t wear a decade of grief on her sleeve.
There it was again, that easygoingness that had tormented Ellie the night of the dinner at Sal’s.
Life with Melinda was carefree, the photos reinforced.
Life with Ellie would never be easy.
Maybe she’d tried to play it off that way at first with Drake. Maybe she’d tricked him into thinking this life, their marriage, would be straightforward. But the cinema forced them to acknowledge the truth. The scenes exposed her cracks, her flaws, her deep wounds. She possessed a depth of pain that Drake would probably never have had to experience with Melinda.
Could Drake handle a life with more ups and downs, more challenges, more complications? Most of all, did he want to?
Ellie needed answers.
23
Drake could pinpoint the moment Ellie’s mood had changed earlier that night. He was in the middle of fixing the door when she walked out of his bedroom-turned-home-gym with a dark cloud over her head. It was normal for her to be a little distant, given what she’d been through recently, he reminded himself. Besides, Early Christmas Dinner wasn’t really her thing. On the drive home from last year’s festivities, she’d suggested Drake go on his own next time. She could handle Christmas, New Year’s, the usual stuff—but did people really need to gather for anextraversion of those holidays?
But despite giving Ellie an easy out, she had insisted on joining him. Drake didn’t want to leave her home alone, either. He had always known Ben’s absence this time of year must be hard. Now, he could feel that absence himself. What were the holidays without someone to crawl out the window with or carry out a prank with? Drake couldn’t fill that void for her, but he could try to soften its edges. So, to channel Ben, he’d told some jokes. He’d encouraged Ellie to sing and dance when the keyboard made its appearance. He also teed her up to own the spotlight.
Still, Ellie had fled the condo with a stiff escape. “I’m going to go warm up the car,” she’d blurted as soon as his mom sang the last words to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Drake was standing in the living room with his parents, halfway through the longgoodbye it would take to get out the door. Twenty minutes was the average exit time to leave the Nielson home. After the goodbyes were given, other topics surfaced until they had to redo the routine all over again.
“Hey, ah, Mom?” Drake said while his dad put some food away. He picked up a blanket on the couch and started to fold it. “Thanks for having us tonight.”
“And?” Beth asked with a hand gesture that implied she knew there was more on his mind.
“And …” Drake wasn’t sure he should mention how distant Ellie had been, but he wanted to know if his mom had picked up on anything he missed. Beth may have even caused the mood. She could be overly informal, a quality that didn’t always sit well with Ellie. “What did you and Ellie talk about?” he asked. “When I was doing the door.”
Drake watched his mom replay the night in her mind. “Uh, boxes,” she said, taking a seat on the couch. “Home gyms. You.”
“What about me?”
Beth fiddled with the holiday earrings tucked behind her soft, gray hair. His cousin, Sarah, had hot glued the pom poms on them in her childhood. Sarah was nearly thirty, and the earrings were still a yearly statement. How Drake had become so sentimental wasn’t a mystery to him. “Not you, exactly,” Beth said. “Ellie helped me move a box from the closet. Then she went through one of your old albums—”
“Which album?” Drake asked. In lieu of making home videos, his mom had scrapbooked every moment of his life. Drake was already embarrassed about what Ellie might have seen, even though he didn’t know what it was.
“It should still be in there, hon. Is everything okay?”
Fixing the door had been a mistake. He should’ve known better than to leave Ellie alone inside his childhood condo, searching for clues and Easter eggs. If he shared his concerns with his mom,he’d never leave. He’d end up telling the whole story—about the cinema and their challenges—over the table, which was probably already broken again. “Everything’s fine,” he said.
The photo album Ellie must have flipped through was on his bed.DRAKE TWENTIESthe cover read. He sat, and his fingers pried open the pages. There was a photo of him at his friend Steve’s apartment. A few on his first construction sites. One was taken inside of Melinda’s apartment. Had Ellie visited Melinda’s place? Would she have recognized this photo?
Drake’s fingers flew faster.
He was with Melinda at a park. Melinda at a lakefront beach. Melinda at Nathan’s Diner. Melinda, everywhere.
Ellie knew he had been with Melinda. He didn’t think she would be surprised by this. But then, he flipped to the final spread at the back of the book and saw exactly what had upset her. His heart sped to dangerous levels. Here was the start of her bad mood. Of course, it was. Ellie had stumbled onto this section on her own without any heads-up or explanation for it. And what she’d found was much worse than he could’ve imagined.
The photos revealed everything Drake hadn’t told her yet.
Ellie was in the driver’s seat when Drake got outside. Her breath fogged up the windshield. She was probably furious. “Look,” Drake said as he opened the passenger door. “I know what you saw up there. I didn’t mean to hide anything from you.” Ellie turned his way. Her eyes were curious. “And I feel so bad.” Drake ran his hands through his hair. “I should’ve explained everything at the beginning. I didn’t know how.” He waited for Ellie to let him have it. Somehow, the silence was worse.
He had to admit that the photo looked bad without context. But it wasn’t the explosive secret Ellie probably thought it was. Drake wished she could experience everything as it hadhappened, right there at his side, before reaching a verdict. And then, he remembered, she still could.
It was 10:03. It was also Saturday night.
If they didn’t stop on the drive back to the city, they could make it to the sixth screening. Drake had been the one to suggest not going back, but he thought it might help smooth things over. The cinema could fill in more detail than a photo ever would. Ellie had once argued this herself. “We need to catch the movie,” he said.
“You said we shouldn’t do that, Drake—”
