“I love when you wear your glasses.” She smiled and he laughed fleetingly.
“Oh yeah? My specs do it for you?” He asked as he gave her a small smile before glancing down at the drawing.
“The whole package does it for me.” She fidgeted a bit as he looked back and forth between her and the pad. “How’s it coming out?” She tried to steal a glimpse, but he eyed her and she sunk back into the mattress.
“Try and relax, baby.” He said and then cocked his head to look at her. “Talk to me, that’ll relax you.” He quipped and then his smile spread. “Tell me one of your favorite memories of us.”
She knew what he was doing. He had done the same thing to her when she had burnt her calf on the motorcycle. He distracted her with her own thoughts as he tended to her wound. She pondered, how was she, supposed to pick just one.
“There are so many.” She said and then smiled wistfully. “Do you remember when drove out to New Jersey for the weekend. We wanted to see what all the rage was of the Jersey Shore.” She watched the smile cross his face as he grabbed another pencil, knowing he knew exactly what memory she was about to relive with him. “You were drunk and I was driving home. We stopped for gas, I don’t remember what song was on the radio, but we were singing at the top of our lungs. I didn’t know you weren’t allowed to pump your own gas, and so when the gas station attendant gave me back the debit card, I thought he was done.” She laughed and the sheet moved, so she fixed it. “I drove away while the gas was still pumping. I hadn’t realized it.”
“You were so nervous that you were going to get arrested. I think you even contemplated driving off with it.” He added.
“I looked into the side mirror and the man was just standing by the pumps with his hands in the air, and then I saw the pump hanging out of the car.” She smiled and their eyes caught.
“What happened next?” He asked softly.
“You were there, you know.”
He laughed. “Humor me, we’re trying to relax you, remember?”
“You stumbled out of the car and pulled the pump from my gas tank and trekked back to the attendant.” Her eyebrows furrowed. “What did you say to him when you handed it back to him?”
“Here, I think this is yours. Have a good night.” He recited and then laughed along with her. “I don’t think I ever saw you speed away like that again.” He paused. “The best part of that story is that four years later you did it again.”
She cringed, hoping he wouldn’t have remembered that part. “Who seriously does that twice in a lifetime? Don’t answer that.” She laughed, and had to admit she was beginning to relax.
“What about when we went to Cancun. What was your favorite part of that?” He coaxed.
She took a moment, they had gone to Mexico for a week, one whole week they shared a hotel room just the two of them, half of the memories were fuzzy. She remembered the motorcycle incident, and she remembered tricking their friends into thinking they had finally come to their senses and became a couple. One night stood out to her, and some might not have categorized it as a good memory, because they had fought, but it was for her, because she realized that night that she had meant just as much to him and that he too was struggling with what he was feeling for her. “Remember when we went to that club, I forget the name of it now, but I left you there?”
“I said good memories.” He didn’t lift his head to look at her, he continued to draw.
“Well, it was for me. I left you there when someone had pick-pocketed me. You were on the stage dancing with two girls, and I thought you wouldn’t give a shit. So I left, I went back to the hotel. I was on the balcony smoking a cigar with Gina’s brother and you stormed into the hotel room, so mad, and angry. I don’t think I ever saw you that angry with me before.”
“I couldn’t believe something had happened to you and you thought I wouldn’t have cared.” He looked up at her. “I was angry and for the record, I did care.”
“I know that. When you came back to the hotel room, I knew just by looking at your face how much I meant to you.”
“I don’t know what I was mad at more, the fact that you left and thought I didn’t care, or that when I came back you were smoking a cigar with another guy.” He looked at her. “You drove me crazy that night.”
“Sorry,” She said simply but sincerely.
He flashed her a smile. “You’re forgiven.”
She returned the smile and then let the memories swoosh through her head. “You know we have so many memories, even the bad ones I’d never trade. What about you?”
“I wouldn’t erase one single second I’ve spent with you, Cara.” He put his pencils down and stared at her. “Not one.”
She blew him a kiss, and nodded towards his pad. “Are you finished?”