It was Adam’s business card, shining in the light.
I picked it up and dusted it off, smiling a little to myself. I remembered when he gave it to me, and the difference between how I felt about him then and how I felt about him now. It was like back then, there was a spark of something, and I was interested. But now that spark had followed a steady crescendo into an explosive connection.
For a moment I entertained the thought of what might have happened if I never texted him that day. If we’d never gotten the chance to bond.
I shuddered at the thought and shuffled it away into my memory.
With reverence, I tucked the business card into my pocket. I knew that I’d treasure it forever.
Once I’d done another walk-through of my room, I went down to the kitchen. A few minutes later, my mother re-emerged from her bedroom.
She looked like she’d been reborn, and was as beautiful as ever. Though, she was wearing a simple sundress that I’d never seen on her before. It made her look delicate and feminine, which was a stark contrast to the power suits she usually wore.
It was clear that something had changed her; it made her stronger and more carefree.
“How do I look?” she asked.
“Beautiful,” I said, pulling her into a tight hug. “Now, let’s go introduce you to Adam’s family.”
* * *
When we got back to the farmhouse, I introduced my mom to Adam’s family. It was fun to see them all flock to her, pulled in by the magnetic orbit of her smile.
“I knew they’d get along,” Adam said, wrapping his arm around my waist as we watched my mother enraptured in conversation with his parents.
“It makes me so happy that they’re all… they’re all like this. Here, in the same place,” I explained. “It’s like watching all of our worlds collide and mesh.”
Adam chuckled. “That’s one way to put it.”
Unbelievably, things got better and better throughout the day. Everyone got along, shared food and drink, and played games. I played volleyball with Jake and some of Adam’s other siblings, laughing and bonding with each of them. My mom was over to my right playing corn hole with Adam’s parents. Later in the day after a few drinks, I noticed her starting to talk to Jake with interest.
I was watching them talk near the barn, and seeing this twinkle in my mom’s eye.
“That’s going to be a thing,” Adam groaned, appearing at my side.
I sighed, conflicting feelings bubbling in my gut. “Should we stop them?”
But as soon as the words left my mouth, Jake put his hand on my mom’s shoulder and I watched her beam.
“Nope,” Adam said, watching the same thing unfold before his eyes.
I chuckled and pulled him close. “As long as I don’t have to look at it,”
“After today, I don’t think you’ll have to very much. You are going back to school…”
The thought of that brought a bittersweet feeling to my mind. My face fell.
“I’ll miss you…” I said.
“What are you talking about?” Adam said. “I still plan to see you almost every day.”
“But how is that going to work?” I asked. I’d already tried to find some scenario where I could see Adam every day, somehow make it so that he fit into my life. I wasn’t able to even imagine a situation where he’d be able to finish working for the day, drive the hour through rush hour traffic to the university, see me in the evening for a bit, and then have to drive home to make work the next day. That was feasible for the weekends, but not during the week.
The inevitability crossed his face too as he put it together.
“I’ll find a way to see you. You’re the most important thing to me in my life right now,” he said gently in the darkness, the crickets around us chirping. Then doubt tainted his voice. “You do want to see me every day, don’t you?”
“Of course!” I said, feeling a rush of fear that he would even think I would want to leave him. “I want to see you as much as I can! I just don’t want you to have to feel obligated to put your life on hold for me.”
He nodded, looking somewhere far off in the distance. Then he turned back to look me in the eye and said, “We’ll still talk on the phone every day.”
He wasn’t asking.
Suddenly I was reminded of the overbearing nature of my mother. But just as quickly, I shuffled that thought into the back of my mind, too.
“Yes, we’ll talk every day,” I said.
He wrapped me in a tight hug. “I’m going to miss you.”
“We’ll still see each other on weekends,” I comforted him.
“I’ll look forward to every one,” he said. “And then once you’re done with school, you’ll have a nice break, and you can do whatever you want. We can be together, and you can go off and do fashion, or writing, or whatever you’d like to do.”
I relaxed in his arms, and we began to sway back and forth. This was… this was heaven.
I wanted to believe everything he was promising me, but it was hard to let my guard down to let him. Despite everything that had happened between us, there was this small seed of doubt that was growing in my mind: The notion that Adam would inevitably get bored of me. If I wasn’t there for him as much as he needed, he might withdraw.
He’d leave me alone, just like I was left alone in that house all tied up for a few days…
For the first time in a while, the panic started to vibrate in my gut. My old anxiety monster was starting to stir.
Even though Adam was holding me tight and we were swaying in a comfortable embrace, I couldn’t shake the feeling that all of this was just temporary.
Predictably, the
