As soon as we could move again, we quickly covered ourselves back up while laughing. We would have been safe to lay on our towel and pretend that nothing had happened, but it was drenched from the waves. As were we.
“I guess we should get back inside,” he offered reluctantly.
I sighed. “I guess so.”
He pressed his forehead to mine and whispered, “Say it again.”
The light in his eyes told me exactly what he meant. “I love you,” I replied, flurrying his cheeks and neck with kisses. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
Despite our best efforts to go in, he rolled over, placing me on top of him. “Just stay like this for a minute,” he said. “I want to remember you just like this. With your hair falling down all around you. The ocean and the stars behind you.”
The sight of him beneath me was just as captivating. His handsome face laid back in the sand with the occasional wave coming up around him, filled with rushes of little shells. Not everything about us may have been the fairytale I had always imagined. But it was definitely a fairytale or dream come true of some kind. One of our own making.
17
Damon
By the time we returned to Cherry Falls, Nadia had texted me ten more times at least. Never saying what it was she wanted to talk about. Only that it was important and that we had to meet up as soon as possible. Every new message sent me further into a panic over my fear of the unknown.
Nadia and I had dated for a while in New York when I was in my early twenties and didn’t have much money yet. She took advantage of how shy and timid I was then and treated me horribly. That relationship was part of what fueled my drive to make something of myself. To transform into someone who would never let a woman treat them that way.
It felt like a million years ago. That was why I hadn’t immediately realized who it was when she texted me. We hadn’t spoken since we broke up. I never thought about her anymore, only how she made me feel. And knowing that I never wanted to feel that way again.
As I walked away from Lizzy’s apartment after taking her home, I thought back on things I had said to her about not being capable of a relationship. The memory made me shudder. I was so caught up in never wanting to feel the way Nadia made me feel again, that I hadn’t realized I was doing the same thing to someone who would actually love me if I just let them.
Nadia had said she talked to Joey. He wouldn’t have told her where I was or when I’d be back unless whatever she had to say was important. That fact was what kept me from asking Lizzy to move in with me while we were on the beach. I had to know what was going on with this situation first, but the least I could do was tell her I loved her. The rest of the conversation would have to happen after I checked in with Joey to see what he knew.
I went straight from Lizzy’s place to Joey’s office. He was on a call with the contractors when I walked in. I paced the room while I waited for the call to end. I didn’t know what this whole Nadia thing was about, but something about it filled me with dread.
“I guess you want the report on the club,” he said as he hung up the phone.
“No. I mean, yes. Yes, I do. But first I need to know why Nadia is blowing my phone up.”
The immediate change in his body language told me I was right to be so worried about it. He tensed up and ran his hands down his face before standing to take a seat at the edge of his desk. Not a good sign. He was getting ready to drop a bomb.
“You need to go meet with her,” he stated plainly, putting his palms together for emphasis.
“Yeah, I know, that’s what she says. I’m asking you why.”
“I can’t tell you. It’s something you really need to discuss with her.”
My mouth dropped. “What the hell do you mean you can’t tell me!? Come on, man. You’re supposed to be one of my best friends. How can you send me into something like this, not knowing what I’m walking into?”
He winced, but I could tell he wasn’t going to budge. “You’ll just have to trust me on this one, okay? You’ll understand why when you go meet with her. But as your best friend, don’t worry. I am looking into it for you.”
“Looking into what!?” I shouted. “Jeez, Joey. You’re scaring the shit out of me here. Can you at least tell me how bad it is?”
He walked over and put his hands on my shoulders. “You trust me, right?”
I really didn’t want to let it go, but he had me. I knew he was asking me to just listen to him, and I could ask questions later. I reluctantly nodded in agreement and started trying to prepare myself for the worst.
Joey pointed to my phone and said, “Go on. Trust me. Call her.”
I let out a deep breath and made the call. She agreed to meet me in an hour, so I had my secretary make us lunch reservations and tried to get my head together before leaving.
For all the years that had passed, I recognized Nadia instantly. She hadn’t changed a bit with her long, black, silky, straight hair and ivory skin masked in a fake tan. She always kept her hair, nails, and makeup perfect. It had been so attractive to me when I first met her, but I didn’t realize it was all a product of how materialistic and vain she was.
She barely smiled when she saw me. Her coldness was another thing I remembered well about her. I slid into the booth across from her and immediately flagged down the waiter for a drink.
“Hey,” I grumbled, wondering how long it would take us to get to the point.
“Hey, yourself.”
“So...you wanted to see me…”
“Wow. After all this time, that’s the first thing you say to me?”
I rolled my eyes. “What do you expect, Nadia? You blew my phone up while I was on vacation. I’ve barely been back on the ground three hours and now I’m sitting here across from you because you said it was an emergency. So...what’s the emergency?”
“Vacation, huh?” she flashed a snarky pout. “With your girlfriend?”
“Yeah. Exactly. With my girlfriend who I love. Which is why I don’t want to be sitting here across from you, and why I’m a little annoyed that I had to spend our entire vacation together stressing over your incessant texting.”
“I’m doing great, by the way. Thanks for asking,” she snapped back. “I have a pretty decent job now. Still living in Queens. Of course, things are a little hard as a single mom.”
I realized she wasn’t going to let this be over with quickly. I was going to have to feign interest in her life before she would ever just come out with whatever this was about. “Oh, so you had a kid? That’s great,” I said dryly.
“His name is Simon,” she told me, pulling out her phone.
I begrudgingly glanced at the photo to humor her, but the sight of the kid smiling back at me made me pause. His complexion was dark...way dark. Darker than Nadia’s. Dark like mine.
“How old is he?” I asked, squinting to get a closer look while my heart started pounding.
“Nine and a half,” she answered with a certain emphasis that finally hinted at what I was sitting there for.
The exact age I was hoping she wouldn’t say. The exact number of years since we had been apart, plus roughly nine months. “You don’t… You’re not… I mean, I’m not…”