“Why?”
“He hurt you, Megan. He’s a manipulator. He isn’t good. You of all people know that.”
I do know that. But recent events seem to have swayed that particular opinion. Vincent is right. Casper is probably only being nice to me for his own good, but I apparently want to refuse to believe it now. Maybe I am a glutton for punishment.
“Look, I don’t mean to come off as some overbearing jealous guy, but I saw how hurt you were the other night. I’m just looking out for you.”
“I know.”
“See? Aren’t I good boyfriend?”
“Of course, you are. The good thing is, after this project, we won’t be partners anymore. And that leaves more time with you.” I smile.
“Promise?”
“Yes.” I hook my fingers in the collar of his shirt and I pull him against me with my back against his car. Our lips meet and he circles his arms around me.
“Did you willingly partner with him?”
“Mr. Burress put us together,” I say between kisses.
“You should’ve told him you didn’t want to partner with Casper. And why do I keep hearing that you have an obsession with him?”
I look away. “Those are the rumors I told you about.
“Is it true?”
“What? No.”
“Good.”
We go see a movie and sit in the back. At some point in the movie, he leans over and kisses me. Another vision crosses my mind where we are laying in a field in love. The visions seem to intensify our kisses. We pay no attention to the movie whatsoever. My lips are raw by the time the movie ends and instead of getting up with everyone else, we stay, catching our breath, and laughing hysterically because we seriously made out for almost two hours.
When he pulls into my driveway, I don’t want the date to be over. It went by too quickly.
“Working tomorrow?”
“Actually, I’m hanging out with Cherry. We could do a double date.”
“I don’t want to. You see her all the time. Let’s just have the night to ourselves.”
“I made plans with her.”
“Megan, I’m dealing with a lot right now, and I need you. You told me you were here for me.”
“I am.”
“Are you? Is Cherry more important? I’m your boyfriend. I’d do the same for you. You know, anytime you need me I’m there.”
I don’t want to upset him, but why doesn’t he understand that I made plans already?
“If you only understood what I’m dealing with. You need to spend more time with me.”
“I want to spend more time with you. I want to talk to you more, but you’re always busy.”
“So, it’s my fault?”
“No, I’m just—.”
“It’s Casper, isn’t it?”
“What?”
“No.” I don’t want to fight with him. I can’t resist the pitiful look in his eyes, but I feel like I need to prove to him that I’d do anything for him. “I’ll cancel with Cherry.”
“Good.” He smiles.
Chapter Twenty-One
Valentine’s Day, Vincent wows me with calla lilies, of course, and we spend the day at the Railroad Park ice skating. I have never been ice skating and any time I almost fall, he catches me. We eat Italian at one of the upscale restaurants downtown and he takes me to the overlook of the city. He holds me from behind as we peer out over the beautiful city lights.
“You sure you want to leave all this behind?” he whispers in my ear.
“I love Birmingham, but I gotta get away from my parents.”
“Why don’t we leave together?”
“What?”
“You and me. We’ll take on the world and leave all this behind. Just like the characters in our story. Nothing could stop them.”
“It sounds nice.”
“So let’s do it.”
When I turn around to face him, his eyes are serious. “We will next year.”
He shakes his head. “No, I mean now. We don’t need school. We don’t need any of this.”
“But Vincent…your mom.”
“She won’t make it.”
“Vincent?”
His eyes hold mine, but after a few moments, he shakes his head. “Sorry. Just random thoughts going through my mind. I’m okay.” He kisses me. “You won’t be stuck here forever, Megan. Things will get better for you and you will have an amazing life. I promise you that. Come on. There’s one last thing I want to do.”
A few minutes later, we end up at the rainbow color tunnel. It’s an abandoned underpass that has multicolored LED lights. What was once a dark, uninviting place, is now a beautiful, bright area that makes me smile.
It was such a beautiful date that I’m still thinking about it two weeks later. I’m so in love with this man. I’m so crazy about him and I want him to be my first. Because we only see each other on weekends and if he visits me at work, I’ve skipped work a few times so we can see each other more. He makes me laugh and when he’s with me, it’s like he sees no one else. It’s almost scary how intense he is, and I still wonder how serious he was about leaving.
While my dreams aren’t plagued with war anymore, they’re of Casper and me falling deeper in love – a love I’ve never experienced before. It’s intense like always, but it feels that with each dream it deepens.
I’m still trying to keep the two lives separate. Concentrating on school, work, and family is harder now with Vincent. But he makes me feel alive that I’m starting to let a couple of things fall behind. Casper and I remain friends, secretly, and he visits me every Saturday while I’m at work. I feel myself drawing to him more and more and I’m tired of struggling with the balance. I’m scared that during one of my make out sessions with Vincent I’m going to slip and say Casper’s
