Chapter Twelve: Unfinished Business
Lucinda
“You used to love these pizzas. We ate way too many of them back then. I thought I was going to explode and turn into an Oompa Loompa.” I groaned, reaching out for another slice even though I was definitely already full.
Easy laughter filled the kitchen.
Chalk and I were back on the sentimental path. His presence felt like walking down a tree-lined street into the past. “You force fed me! What could I do? We hadn’t been dating that long. I didn’t want you to feel bad if I didn’t eat the pizza,” Chalk protested.
Now we were eating pizza at his house and kicking back with beer.
I held up a floppy piece as the cheese dripped down from it. “Look at this now? We’re right back here.” I stretched out the cheese with my teeth, grinning like a kid.
Chalk’s short, blonde hair looked good on him, he was so damn cute. Every time I saw him, the more my heart skipped a beat. I still didn’t know where I stood with him, but we were past the timid stages. It was hard to admit it hurt my heart to see him with Angie. I saw her flirting, I saw her touch his arm with the tips of her fingers. It made it feel like a knife went through my gut. “We are right back here. Together again,” I repeated. Oops. That part slipped out wrong and I couldn’t retrieve it.
Dimples near the curve of his lips released me from the feeling being unrequited.
“Together again,” he intoned, as his crystal blue eyes locked on mine.
So many words unspoken, delicate threads of our history that were begging to be woven back together again.
“Can I ask you a personal question, Chalk?” This was it. I would never know if I didn’t ask.
“Sure. Please.” His eyes were trained on me.
I placed my pizza delicately back into the box. “Are you with Angie Carmichael?” I asked softly. “I know it’s technically none of my business, so you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” I placed my finger over a grease spot on the pizza box, trying to distract myself from any painful truth that he was about to deliver.
“No, I umm. I was never dating her.” Chalk’s voice had a husk to it as his piercing blue eyes met mine. “You came back in and shook things up, and if I’m being totally honest I – umm, I’ve been confused about things. How everything between us is fitting together. You know.” His eyes wouldn’t let me go.
The feeling of exposure grew as I gave him a sympathetic look. “Me too. There are feelings still inside of me – I mean towards you. I’m, ah – finding it difficult not to tell you that,” I stammered.
Chalk threw his head back, and when it fell forward, there was a look of amusement on his face. “Ahhhh, we are – we are, I don’t know…a little bit of a mess, huh?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know…maybe we are, but I think we are discovering some beautiful things about one another. I’m sorry I abandoned the family, Chalk. I am. I want to tell you that.” My fingers floated over and he locked his into mine. They fit like a glove. Like we belonged together.
Chalk looked down at my fingers stroking the back of his hand, then his eyes rested on my lips. “I forgive you. I’m sorry if I made you feel any less than perfect when you were with me. You were as beautiful then as you are now, Lucy. We got back here so hey…that’s something.”
“You never did that, Chalk. It was all me. My issues. They are long gone now.”
Leaning close, we rested our foreheads together.
Chalk pulled his lean frame back from me while inhaling. “We used to have fun together. We went bowling, I took you on rides. We were freer…” He scrubbed his hand over his face and looked into my eyes.
I popped a mushroom into my mouth as I reminisced. “The ferris wheel. You were so scared to go on there. Who knew that big, bad Chalk was afraid of an amusement ride?”
Chalk shook his head from side to side. “Hey! That thing sitting up in the air and not looking like we could get down would scare anyone. That guy running the ride didn’t even look like he knew what the hell he was doing. You can’t blame me for that one.”
“Still funny. We’ve got so many memories. So many.” A deep smile crept onto my lips.
“I’ve never found anyone like you, Lucy,” Chalk professed as he leaned forward on his seat bending his head to mine. His knee was locked in between mine and his hands ran over the back of my hand, sending light electrical pulses through it.
The words I wanted to hear. Needed to hear. They were coming. I could feel it. Sense it. Taste it between us.
“We’ve got unfinished business, you and I. There were a few women like Angie. Just flirtations, and no one ever stuck to me. I kept thinking it was just that I wasn’t ready.” He paused in a lapse of frustration. “But I realize I couldn’t get on with my life because my heart is still with you,” he confessed.
“It is?” My voice came out more as a squeak rather than the calm, serene answer I wanted to provide. Love pours out of you in so many different ways.
“Of course, it is. Every day I look at Sarah and she reminds me of you. I can’t not see you in her. She has your cute nose, and those perfect lips.”