Page 59 of The Second Chance Cinema
Drake couldn’t help but wonder about her past relationships. She’d left so many people before things could develop. Had she ever been in something serious before him?Couldshe be in something serious? The night at the taco drive-thru, she’d mentioned that Drake was her first love. A quote came to mind from her piece called “Yellow Dress.”
“A first love is about finding yourself. A second love is about sharing the self you found with someone new.”
Which person was Drake in this equation?
He thought back to one of the plaques inside the lost and found he’d seen.Love Affair, one of Ellie’s items had been called. Drake couldn’t remember what it was, though. He needed an excuse to look again. So when Ellie wasn’t paying attention, he reached for the excuse Ellie had used the night they returned to the cinema with Jen and Marc. He set his scarf on the seat and left it behind.
The bokeh of soft lights, dusting of snow, and cheery music on the radio must have brightened Ellie’s mood because she seemed okay in the car. Drake did his best to let the night’s memories slip away. When she suggested they put on a movie back at home, he agreed.
“What do you want to watch?” Drake asked.
“Oh, why don’t you pick?” Ellie suggested. Her tone wasplayful, but the remote hit his lap with a hard thud. “I wouldn’t want to choose something you’ve already seen.”
It was understandable she’d be hurt by his omission, even if it was small. Drake tried to turn things around.
“Well, it’s two days till Christmas,” he said. “How about a holiday movie? One where some guy who works at a tree farm falls for a city girl, and she learns the magic of the season?”
“Sure, Drake.” Ellie nodded. “There’s nothing quite like watching a small-town romance, is there?”
Drake ignored the comment.
Later, as the movie played, Drake couldn’t focus on the plot as a girl who volunteered at the petting zoo fell in love with an animal whisperer. How many little moments, Drake wondered, had he repeated in their relationship without realizing it?
And why the hell was he doing that?
26
Christmas Eve was supposed to be cheerful, but Drake woke up claustrophobic in his own house. As he moved about his morning, he felt Ellie’s former lovers cast their critical eyes on him. The dry cleaner heartthrob scolded him for not hanging up his delicates sooner. The line cook insulted his amateur scrambled eggs. Lucas, the last boyfriend, called him out for using the wrong glassware.
“Happy almost-Christmas,” Ellie said, holding her coffee mug close. Her soft skin brushed Drake’s face when her chin found his shoulder. “What should we get up to this morning?” she asked. Her playful mood surprised him; she had ignored Drake since the greatUmbrellasdebacle until now.
“I have to do a few walkthroughs and snap some photos of the new cabinets,” Drake told her. “I just got a last-minute call this morning.” He hoped his reflection in the kitchen window didn’t give away his lie. Last night his boss, George, had asked if anyone would volunteer. The chance to get some fresh air—and space from Ellie—had been too hard to pass up. Drake needed to shake off the complicated story he’d woven in his head. The story went something like this: Ellie wouldn’t be able to commit to him. She would leave him behind in the sea of ghosts that now haunted their old house. The story wasn’t true or fair, but that didn’t make it go away.
“Oh,” Ellie huffed. She stepped back. “You’re working. Today?”
Drake turned to her and leaned against the kitchen counter. Heneeded to be kind. He didn’t want Ellie to shut down again. “I’ll be home tonight,” he said and pulled the belt on her plush robe toward him. “We’ll figure out something fun. A big dinner. Pajama party.”
“Okay,” Ellie finally agreed. “Fun,” she repeated like a threat. Her feet moved in hard steps out of the room, leaving him to drink his coffee alone.
When Drake reached the entrance of Wakeford Heights, he immediately regretted volunteering to work. The community was everything he hated in one place, from the smell of manufactured vanilla in the prospective buyer’s office to the home exteriors that were hard to tell apart. Drake once asked the developer why it was called Wakeford Heights. He was told that Wakeford sounded energetic but not alarming. Maybe his assessment was unfair. Some people loved communities like this.
But for Drake, Wakeford Heights was a daily reminder of his own failure.
By now, he was supposed to have his own business building homes that were passed through generations. Instead, he was pushing paper on homes where most people would live, he guessed, for about two years before they moved on.
The only silver lining about Wakeford Heights was that it made him appreciate his home with Ellie. He couldn’t help comparing the Finch, a three-bedroom unit that was first on his list to check out, to their Queen Anne. Sure, their place was somewhere between fixed and falling to shit. But unlike the fake marble countertops and cheap fixtures found here, it was built to last. For as much as Drake teased Ellie about her need to buy everything used, it meant something to live in a house with a history. He almost pitied the thirtysomething couple he saw banging on the door to the buyer’s office as he passed it. They were so eager to check out a modest, two-bedroom Cardinal on a holiday.
The woman in the couple wore a baby in a carrier and was supported by her husband’s arm. Drake caught the guy’s profile as he leaned forward to peek inside the door. Then, his features filled in. Drake nearly slipped on the sidewalk. There, in a winter scarf and hat, was one of the cameos from Ellie’s last memory.
It was the park guy.
“Hey,” Drake shouted at them. He had no plan of what to say next.
You’re the one who had sex with my soon-to-be-wife in a public park. A public park of all places, who does that? Maybe you’re a voyeur. Maybe you’re here for all the dumb windows.The wife would cover the baby’s ears.Just think about all those geese you messed up for life.
The park guy turned toward Drake. When the sun caught his face, his features became clearer. On closer inspection, he wasn’t the park guy at all. He wasn’t even Ellie’s type.
Now the cinema was making him hallucinate.
