Some people might even call them romantic comedies, though he’d always protest the association with his least favorite genre.
I may have even seen a shiny statue in his future.
I’m not saying that the romance I had in store for eighteen-year-old Gael would last forever. But I am saying that, no matter how long it lasted, this one would change his life—and the lives of others—for many years to come.
And on the other hand? If my machinations didn’t come to fruition?
Well, I saw that future, too. I saw the ache of another bitter heartbreak when Cara eventually got tired of the newness of it all.
I saw a desk job. Maybe a movie review blog on the side. Some good dates here and some bad dates there, and maybe, when he was old enough, he’d marry a nice girl and settle down.
He’d keep up with the Joneses and polish his car on the weekends and tell himself that he would go to more movies if only he had the time.
It wasn’t necessarily a bad life.
But it wasn’t what Gael’s life was supposed to be.
And I was the only one who could fix it.
friend-zone defense, continued
The second half of the game started, and with the greasy sandwich in front of him, Gael found his appetite. He and Cara devoured their sandwiches, while UNC maintained their lead. When he was finished, he licked the barbecue sauce off his fingers instead of using a napkin, something Anika had always despised. Feeling slightly less distraught, he joined Cara in yelling at the refs, another thing Anika hated. Sure, until about five minutes ago, Gael had kind of hated it, too. But this was the new Gael. The uninhibited Gael. The Gael who realized that no one else was playing by the rules, his father included, and he didn’t need to, either. Cara may not be perfect, she may not do everything exactly as he did, but at least she was here.
(Gael was so far gone by this point that he didn’t even realize how sad that type of logic is.)
As the mammoth players sunk basket after basket, Gael stopped thinking about his dad and his family. He felt good. He felt alive. He felt like the world could go on, even though it wasn’t going the way he’d planned.
And that’s when he looked at Cara and saw she was looking at him, her eyes inviting, her face flushed from yelling, strands of hair that had escaped her ponytail delicately framing her face. And that’s when he thought to himself, screw November. Why in the world does it matter if we wait for November?
And that’s when he guessed she was thinking the same thing.
(And that’s when I saw my moment.)
The horn blew, signaling a time-out, and Gael and Cara were shocked out of their secret little world, just as Cara’s ex-boyfriend, Branson, came walking up the steps in search of his own pulled pork sandwich.
Their eyes locked, and I could almost feel the instant ache in Cara’s belly, the hurt that washed over her, head to toe.
I knew it could have gone a few ways, as these things always do. She could have smiled and waved and struck up a conversation with him and tried to act like everything was normal while practically ignoring Gael and downplaying their whatever-it-was.
Or she could have looked down at her feet, waited until Branson walked by, head filled with the thoughts of how much she still cared about him, of how clearly she did not care about Gael.
Or she could have done what she did. The one thing I’d been hoping and praying for her not to do.
The band burst into a rendition of “Carolina on My Mind” and Cara jumped to her feet, grabbing Gael’s hand and pulling him up with her, snaking her arm around his back in time for Branson to see.
I’d underestimated Cara’s bitterness, her desire to make Branson jealous, no matter what the cost to Gael.
Cara wasn’t a bad person—please don’t judge her—it’s just that people do crazy things when it comes to me.
Of course, Gael didn’t see any of that. To Gael, the girl he liked had her arm around him and was swaying back and forth as his favorite song filled the stadium.
To Gael, a place that was filled with painful family memories would now have a new memory—a memory of her.
“You’re the best for getting these tickets,” he said. And he meant it. With all his heart.
when cara met sammy
The next morning, I abandoned my post monitoring Gael and his ever-vacillating emotions to launch a special mission, part of what I was calling Operation Get Gael’s Love Life Back on Track.
Just after 9:00 A.M., I headed to the campus dining hall where I knew Sammy Sutton would be.