Like he has something he wants to tell me badly, but at the same time, he just can’t for some reason.
Time seems to have sped up like it always does when we know we have to say goodbye to someone. When we’d rather they just stay and keep everything the same.
But everything is different now.
But in a good way.
Niles Cartwright is by the gate, pacing when we arrive, and he actually presents himself as not so flamboyant when he meets Zoe’s dad for the first time.
He looks the same, but acts more… I dunno, normal. I guess he’s not in character or whatever actors call that kind of thing.
Michael quizzes him man to man, quietly but firmly and Niles has all the answers a concerned father needs to hear.
Zoe and me? We grow silent, but only because we both know if we talk too much we’ll both start bawling. A look I know she doesn’t want with her new agent so close.
“What about Romeo and Juliet?” I ask her, genuinely wondering about the play I thought Niles was such a big part of.
"Oh, that’s still going ahead. We’ll have video rehearsals and readings in between everything else,” Zoe informs me, letting me know that an actress’s life isn’t that glamorous at all.
It’s actually a lot of work that’s never-ending.
“So, you’ll be back in town soon enough?” I ask, but she only shrugs.
“I dunno, Shez,” she tells me, creasing the corner of her mouth and holding her hands up in the air.
“If I get the pilot gig, who knows? If I flop and come back here, who knows?”
Her dramatic tone, her over the top but utterly convincing performance is so great, so comforting to me right now I can’t help but just hug her.
“I love you, Zoe,” I tell her, feeling the hot tears on my cheeks as she squeezes me harder.
“I know you do. And you know I love you, Sheree… You look after my dad. Ya hear?” she says finally, gripping me by the shoulders, her lower lip trembling the only sign of emotion as we both hear her flight being announced.
The last flight out of the state for at least a week.
She hugs her dad, right up until she really has to go, with Niles hurrying her up, we hug. All three of us.
My two best friends, her dad, and my man now.
Once she finally disappears through her gate, waving at us both, I feel Michael's arm hook around my waist, pulling me close.
Like he needs me close now that he knows Zoe’s out of reach. Maybe for the next week, maybe for good.
We stay a while longer, watching the snow grow heavier outside, needing to watch her flight take off.
Wanting to see the flickering lights of the plane disappear into the night until it’s like a pair of stars.
Carrying our Zoe forward, towards her dreams and every success we both know she deserves more than anyone.
“Let’s go home,” Michael says finally, kissing the top of my head as I stand glued to the spot, hugging him like he’s the only anchor left in my life.
“I need to call home,” I murmur, figuring I may as well get all the painful stuff out of the way in one night. “I need to tell Mama and Papa Peterson what’s going on, about the flights. The snow,” I explain to Michael, who nods.
Knowing I can’t go back to them right now, even if I wanted to.
Knowing I probably won’t ever go back.
It worries me, makes me sad.
Makes me wish I could do more for them, to be there for them like they’ve always been there for me.
“I know you do,” he says knowingly.
“Maybe we can call them together? I’d like to check in and see how they are anyway,” he says with another strange smile.
He’s full of those tonight.
“They were our neighbors for quite a while if you remember?” he adds, and I do remember.
Life before I felt this way about him.
Life before I knew what it meant to be a woman, to have her man.
To love and be loved.
Better times, when things were simpler. With silly secrets and sleepovers.
The innocence of youth. That great age, those wonderful years where we get to pretend full-time.
“I’m glad I picked chemistry,” I tell him suddenly as we walk back to the car.
“Why did you pick chemistry?” he asks, genuinely interested.
I grin to myself, glancing sideways at him as I climb into the front seat.
“I dunno… Something in the brochure really jumped out at me,” I tell him, giving him a mysterious, knowing look of my own.
Chapter Twenty
Michael
Putting chains on the tires doesn’t take so long. But it gives me the chance to let the girls be girls for one last time.
And I know it will be the last time they see each other before things change yet again.