I visited home often. After all my years spent with Aiden and Natalie, and even after the animosity, I missed them both all the time. And ever since meeting their daughter, Jem, named for the boy character in To Kill a Mockingbird (one of Natalie’s favorite books), I couldn’t help but miss her, too.
She was freaking cute. She had brown hair, pretty green eyes, and I swear she almost never cried or screamed. She was easygoing and sweet, like both of her parents. She didn’t whine and throw Cheerios. She was pretty quiet, and when you looked in her eyes—which she had so totally gotten from Aiden—it seemed like she was having actual thoughts.
Aiden and Natalie were still together.
I guess in the end, it was a good thing they had done what they did.
Aiden was already almost finished with his program at College Park. Natalie was finishing up a program at a culinary institute.
This past time I’d gone home, Natalie and I had gone to lunch at Chin Chin, which the owners had finally remodeled. Jem sat quietly in my lap as we finished chicken fried rice and drank sodas.
“So did you leave behind a broken heart in Pennsylvania?” Natalie asked, taking a spoonful of egg drop soup. “I mean, I know you weren’t dating anyone, but that doesn’t mean someone wasn’t in love with you.” She smiled.
“Nah,” I said. “I’ve had, like, no time. Seriously. That program was near impossible. But I got a lot of credits, and they’re going to transfer, which is awesome. They might not have, and then I could have ended up a year or more behind. Which would have been god-awful.”
“I think you’re going to meet someone amazing in New York. I have this feeling about it.”
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
“You will. I’m like a mom, you know. I know things.”
I shook my head. “A mom, ew, you’re a mom!”
“Shut up, I love it! Bitch!”
I covered Jem’s ears. “Excuse me, do not fuck up my goddaughter’s language before I get a chance to.”
Jem wrapped her fingers around mine and squeezed. She looked up at me, wide-eyed, and said my name. Actually, it sounded more like “Book!” But I knew what she meant.
I smiled at her.
“Do you really love it?” I asked.
“I really do. I’ve never been good at much, really. I have never loved doing something every single day. I was always afraid I would never find whatever it was that I would be really good at that I’d enjoy forever. But—” she cocked her head at her daughter “—I really did. Even though it happened superyoung. And unexpectedly.” She made a whoops face.
“At least it was you that got knocked up,” I said. “I mean, let’s face it, the odds were in my favor.”
“Definitely true.”
“Are you calling me a slut?” I narrowed my eyes at her and took a bite of my dumpling.
“Yeah. I am.”
We both cracked up.
Later that night, we had gone out to dinner with Aiden, Natalie’s dad and his new wife, Marcy, and I insisted on her not getting a sitter for Jem. I loved the little monster.
I loved my trips home. And I was so glad to feel like I had family when I went there. I had feared for so long that I would become an island, and that I would always be surrounded by people who kind of mattered, but who ultimately were nothing to me. But I had them, and I knew I always would.
My phone buzzed on the floor of my New York apartment. I reached over and picked it up. Alexa.
Superhot musician guy at the bar on 2nd ave. Come meet! I’m with girls from work but they’re cool.
I sighed and responded.
How hot?
She responded immediately.
Worth the makeup.
I laughed aloud.
Be there in 15.
I got up. Boxes could wait. I slithered into my skinny denims, tossed on my favorite Aldo boots, disheveled my hair, put on a little blush and a coat of my favorite mascara. I grabbed my brown leather jacket, my purse and headed out the door.
I went up to the door, where I was not charged the typical five-dollar cover, and found Alexa. She said he had just gone on break, but that he would be back in a few minutes. I ordered a Corona—I didn’t drink a ton anymore, but I was twenty-one and I was hardly going to let that go to waste—and took off my jacket.
I introduced myself to the girls. They commented on how pretty my hair was. I smiled and thanked them, tossing it to one side. I told them the name of the guy who did my highlights. Our conversation became drowned out as the musician came back to the stage. I talked to Alexa animatedly at first, not paying attention, and then finally turned to see the singer. I immediately loved his voice.
When I saw his face, I almost died.
I narrowed my eyes and started laughing to myself. No freaking way.
His songs were good. I couldn’t even verbalize what was going on inside my brain as Alexa yelled into my ear that he worked at an elementary school that one of her friend’s daughters attended. I listened but mainly gawked at him.
His gaze caught mine on a lyric about time going by. He did the slightest double take. It could have been because he thought I was good-looking. I didn’t know yet. But I found out when he came off the stage and over to our table.
The girls watched in awe.
He held out his hand. “I’m Paul.”
“Hi, Paul,” I said, smiling. “I’m Brooke.”
He gave me that look you give someone when you’re not sure if it’s weird if you remember meeting them. “I think...”
“Yeah, I’ve seen you play before.”
“In Bethesda, Maryland, like...a million years ago?”
“Yep. I hope you put that twenty toward something really worth it.”
He smiled. “I can’t believe you remember seeing me.”
“I can’t believe you remember me passing by.”
“Are you kidding? Definitely the hottest girl I had ever seen. Even in beautiful Bethesda.”
I felt the girls watching our conversation like a tennis match. In fact, I felt the eyes of a lot of people in the bar on us.
“Hey...so for the sake of...fate and all that...” He gave a nervous laugh.
“And all that, yeah.”
“Do you want to...go get some dinner?”
“Tonight?”
“Yeah, I’m done at midnight...is that weird?”
“No.” I couldn’t stop smiling. “Let’s go get dinner. I know some all-night places.”
“Okay, cool.” He laughed again. “This is crazy. All right. Awesome. I’ll, uh, I’ll meet you here...yeah. I gotta...” He gestured at the stage.
“Cool.”
He went back up, and every once in a while, he would sing a line in my direction and shake his head at the craziness that we remembered each other.
Sometimes things work out the way they’re supposed to.
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781460325438
ANYTHING TO HAVE YOU
Copyright © 2014 by Paige Harbison
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