“I’m not sure what more there is to say. You want me to let it go and I haven’t figured out what’s best.” I picked at my nail unnerved that he waited to trap me in a moving vehicle for this conversation but I was willing to wait it out. He couldn’t drive forever.
“I didn’t mean that.” Andy glanced over at me for a second and then back to the road. His eyes were shaded by sunglasses and unreadable. “I meant it just hasn’t surfaced in conversation. I get that the decision will be hard either way, but I want you to know I’m here for you, even if you want to tell me to shut up and mind my own business.” Despite the lack of eye contact his words comforted me.
I reached for his leg and squeezed him gently. “I appreciate that, Andrew, more than you know.”
His hand reached for mine entwining our fingers together like that’s where they were meant to be all this time. It was nice in a way that a meal was fulfilling. It was kind. Generous. Things I always knew Andy to be even if I wasn’t in a place to receive that kindness. We settled into the drive
We drove for about forty-five minutes before he tossed something at me. “What’s this?”
“Put it on, please. Unless you have a serious objection to blind folds and then I’ll relent.” There it was–that oddly vulnerable request from Andrew that told me he still saw me as a fragile, breakable, mentally unstable thing he had to treat with kid gloves.
Releasing the breath I’d been holding–because of the surprise awaiting me–not the blindfold, I put it on and tied it tight. I didn’t have to wait long as Andy pulled off the highway and drove a little longer.
“Alright. We’re here.” I felt him lean over in the car. His breath was warm on my cheek as he gently tugged on the blindfold pulling it off my face. I didn’t register the location right away because I was caught up looking in his eyes. I memorized the black ring around his iris and the pattern of color. Licking my lips I was tempted to reach for him, pull him closer and taste his mouth. Not just his lips, but his tongue, his whole essence and let it sustain my hunger for something good.
Andy cleared his throat and I watched the color in his cheeks pinken. Heat sparked between us and I pulled back slowly to take in the view of where we were.
A renaissance fair? What the hell?
“Andrew?” I asked unsure why we were in place of dreams and fantasies.
“Go with it firefly.” His nose bumped mine tenderly in a show of affection as he winked. “I even rented costumes for the day.”
“But?”
“Come on then.” He backed away from me completely and out of the car. He shut his door and jogged around the car to mine opening it and pulling me out onto my feet. Andrew Easton was a hell of a trickster sometimes. Unpredictable in the most amazing ways.
I put my hand in his and we walked up the path to the entrance of the park. He must have sprung for the VIP treatment because we were guided off track to a building where costumes had been put aside with changing rooms and lockers. I took the dress handed to me and slipped it on in a state of shock. For many years I had perfected the art of undressing convincing myself it was honest work because I didn’t sleep with my customers. I didn’t finish school. I didn’t have a real vocation. I used my body in a way that suggested one thing while I delivered another. Satisfaction at a cost.
I looked into the mirror and watched myself erase the last ten years. The modest neckline hinted at my cleavage. The cut of the dress accentuated my slight frame and the flare put a hop into my step that suggested hope and love everlasting. Oh, Andrew Easton was a wizard now magically giving me back something I hadn’t realized I’d lost along the way. He was giving me the opportunity to be a girl again and not the scared jaded woman I was running away. He was offering to slay my dragons and protect me from evils that haunted me still.
“You fall in there or what?” He said just outside the door.
“I’m coming, but I don’t think you’ll recognize me.” It was easy to tease him. I opened the door and stepped out twirling in a circle. His arm reached for my waist and pulled me in flush against him. That’s when I realized he was dressed as my counterpart. If I was a princess for a day, then he was my prince.
“I don’t think I could ever forget you, Sierra.”
“I suppose not.”
“Let’s have a magical day, shall we?” Andy led me outside into a courtyard where faire revelers were getting underway.
“There’s no place I’d rather be.” Arm in arm we joined them and for a change, it felt flawless.
21
Andy
Sierra looked beautiful gliding down the dirt trail toward the kissing bridge, but that wasn’t where I wanted to go first. I’d been planning this outing for a decade since I turned eighteen and she seventeen. Over and over in my head did I imagine a day with the sky so blu
e and her hand in mine. I knew that the years in between had been difficult, harsh, and ruined us in very particular ways for anyone else.
But that was ten years ago and I had was today.
If Sierra chose to leave town and never turn back again, today would be all I had and I wanted to fill it with as many things as I could squeeze into a twenty-four hour period. I wanted turkey legs, sweet pickles on our breath followed by beer and kissing on the bridge. I wanted to be the knight that curried the Queen’s favor and for Sierra to be my chosen consort. I wanted a castle to keep out all the drama and a never ending night in which to worship her body.
I wanted to erase the past as much as I wanted to embrace it. And I wanted her to want me with the same fervor our teen selves had unknowing of what the future held.
I also knew that most of this was impossible. But for now, I had my dream, a VIP pass, and the most beautiful firefly the day had ever seen.