“Maybe we can take you back here someday, then, when you feel ready?”
Dennis leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes, wiping the tears and rain off his face with the back of his sleeve. “Maybe. Someday. That sounds good,” he sighed. “Okay. Let’s go home. I’m pretty sure you have something important going on today. I thought if I left today, then you wouldn’t come after me.”
“You thought wrong.” Elly patted his shoulder and looked up to see Keith’s wide blue eyes watching her in the rearview mirror. “You are the most important thing today, Dennis.”
He rolled his eyes and looked embarrassed. “Elly, don’t overdo it. I’m okay.”
“Are you sure?” He nodded and gave her hand a squeeze before pulling his hand back onto his lap.
Elly leaned forward and gently poked Keith’s shoulder. “In that case, please drive as fast as you possibly can to the airport.”
Keith frowned. “I’m already going five miles per hour over the speed limit.”
“Then please go about ten over that. You always drive so slow.”
“Fine,” he snapped before the car accelerated.
Dennis laughed in the back, a fresh sound. “You guys sound like an old married couple.” The statement hung awkwardly in the car like a slowly deflating balloon for the remainder of the ride to the airport.
Somewhere over Ohio, Keith leaned over Dennis, who was rocking a new pair of headphones that Elly had bought him at the airport. “Psst….”
Elly cracked her eyes open an inch. Flying was less scary when you were pretending to be on a deserted island, feasting on coconut cake. With Keith. “Yes?”
“I need to, er, schedule a time to talk to you.” Dennis’s head bumped and rocked in the turbulence. He was out.
“Right now?”
“Yes. Right now.”
Elly closed her eyes for a minute, capturing once more the scent of his skin, and the feel of his hand. It was ironic that the man she was dreaming of was sitting two seats away from her, with only a sweaty nerd and one big secret shoved between them. So close and yet so far away.
Keith repeated his plea. “I need to schedule a time to talk. To you. Alone.”
Elly pushed her blond curls out of her face. “Can’t we talk … here?”
Keith sat back in his seat. “No. I need to show you something.” Your girlfriend’s baby?
“Okay. I’ll be willing to see, as long as you promise to tell me the truth.” You know, the truth. Like the fact that your couch is made of cat hair. Or that you are engaged. Or homeless. Probably engaged. You have heads in your freezer. The truth. “The day after the BlissBride wedding, can you meet me in our park?”
Keith paused and the next words rung like a gong in Elly’s chest. “And I’ll bring Cadbury so that he can finally go home with you afterwards.”
Elly’s heart sank. He was giving Cadbury back to her. It was over, and he was going to break her heart in their park. That park, the first place that Keith had made known his desire for her. The place where they had shared dozens of kisses, picnics, and memories. This would be the place where he would now tell her the truth, and they would separate forever. She could hear the edge in his voice, the nervousness of his request. It would not be good news, she could feel it.
“Okay,” she whispered. “The day after the wedding. I’ll meet you.” She turned away to hide the hot tears burning in her eyes, the slight quiver of her full lip.
She rotated her whole body toward the window as Dennis snorted loudly in his sleep. High above the clouds, Elly felt her heart alternately grow and break in the same day. One did not cancel out the other.
Three hours later, Keith’s car came to a quick halt in front of Posies.
“Thanks for the ride, Keith.”
“Anytime.”
Oh yes, please, after we break up for good I will love nothing more than to treat you as my personal taxi. Dennis climbed out after Elly. “Go take a nap. I’m sure you are exhausted.”
“No way. I’m helping you.”
The thought of Dennis crushing a flower into small bits ran through Elly’s mind. “Are you sure? It’s sort of delicate work….”
“I’m helping. That’s what family does. Right?”
She smiled. “Right. Are you sure this has nothing to do with the fact that there is a certain blond teenager wearing yoga pants bossing people around in there?”
“Something. But not everything.” Dennis scampered inside.
Elly’s heart was glad. “I’ll see you the night after tomorrow, then?” she said to Keith.
“I’ll bring Cadbury and all his accoutrements.”
Her veins chilled. “I’ll see you then.”
“Good luck, Elly. You are going to do great. You have a way with pulling miracles off at the last hour.” Keith pulled the car away and left Elly staring up at her apartment and then down at Posies, which was bustling with life.