With one long look at the box, I stood and went to run.
JUNE 29 / 6:34 PM
Ophelia Finlay
SUMMER CAMP WAS done. Parents had come today to watch their little angels dance and twirl around the room. Kids were registered for the fall classes beginning in August when school resumed. I had smiled more than was necessary and my cheeks were hurting. No amount of coffee had prepared me for the chaos of today.
On my drive there I’d spoken with Phoenix for the first time in over a month. She’d called me and acted as if she hadn’t been ignoring my calls. I had been prepared not to correct her or give her advice she didn’t want because I knew doing so would make her ignore me for another month. But she was already realizing her mistake. I could hear it in her voice. The guy wasn’t what she had hoped he would be. This had been a call to get me to speak to our parents for her without her actually asking me to do it. Phoenix was as stubborn as she was wild. I would talk to Mom on Monday. This weekend, however, was about me and Eli.
Pulling my car into the parking lot of Live Bay made all that exhaustion vanish. It had only been two nights without Eli, but it had felt longer. Being away from him was only getting more difficult. He’d offered to come to me today, but he’d done that last weekend and Wednesday. With his work schedule now in full effect, it wasn’t fair to always expect him to be the one to do this drive.
He had worked long shifts Thursday and Friday so he could have off tonight. I’d suggested we eat dinner here and listen to the band they’d been advertising for the past few weeks. It was growing in popularity because the parking lot was already filling up and it wasn’t even eight yet which was when they took the stage.
Luckily I was able to get one of the last parking spots in the front. I quickly put on some lip gloss then grabbed my purse before opening the car door. When I stepped out my eyes met Eli’s as he was making his way to me. The sight of him excited me. His blonde hair caught up in the breeze showed off the tattoos on his neck. The sleeveless shirt he was wearing also showcased more of his decorated body. His jeans fit loosely at his hips and I wanted to crawl all over him right here with the world watching.
I only took a few steps before he reached me. I opened my mouth to speak but his was covering mine before a word could be uttered. His hands cupped my face in a way that made me feel cherished and desired. Loving this man was easy but not telling him was getting harder every day. Especially when his actions said he felt the same way even if he had yet to say the words.
I held onto his biceps as he thoroughly kissed me, and I enjoyed it. His silent loving. He did this so often in so many ways I wondered if he even realized it. More than one night I had stayed awake trying to decide if I should say the words first. I didn’t know what he had been through or why he’d returned with so much pain inside his beautiful eyes, but I did know I rarely even saw glimpses of that darkness now. There was happiness there.
When he ended the kiss, he pressed one last peck on my lips then held my face a moment longer. “God, I missed you.” He said the words with so much passion one would think he hadn’t seen me in weeks. This was love. I knew it was. Even if he wasn’t ready to say it.
“I’ve missed you too,” I replied, the pleased grin on my face didn’t bother my tired cheeks at all. My earlier exhaustion was gone, and I was full of the energy being with Eli seemed to bring me.
“You sure you want to eat here?” he asked. His reluctance to be around his friends and family had bothered me at first. I thought it had been me he was trying to hide. But after a few times of them forcing themselves on us, I realized it wasn’t that. Eli got annoyed with them. He liked our time together to be just that. Us.
Fitting into his world was important to me though. I wanted those closest to him to like me. Keeping him away from them wasn’t going to earn me any points. So I nodded my head. “Yes. Please,” I replied. “We don’t have to stay all night. Just long enough to eat and hear some of the band. I’d like to dance with you too.” I added the last part because I had thought about that earlier today and I wanted to experience it.