It Had to Be You

The Next Summer

Twelve months can change a person. That fact of life never ceased to astound Eliza. She was so set in her ways to the point of being stuck that she was always surprised or rather caught off guard when life seemed to change with or without her realizing it.

In the twelve months (technically twelve months and thirteen days) since she had been at the beach house with Walker Andrews she had seen him approximately two and a half times. The half being the time she saw him walking down the street with a girl through the window of a dive bar. She had considered running outside to say hi but thought better of it. She didn't want him to see her drunk and she didn't want to meet the new woman on his arm. She wasn't exactly new. But she was new to Eliza who had heard grumblings about Walker's new somebody a few months ago and had promptly tried to ignore the stabbing sensation of hurt she felt coursing through her body each time she heard his name.

The other two times she had seen him had been unremarkable. She had seen him coming out of Alexa and Henry's new apartment on the day her nephew was born. She had been in such a hurry to go meet the new baby that she hadn't bothered with anything other than a hello and a quick congratulatory hug. The second time had been at her nephew's baptism where Walker was the godfather and she had tried all day very hard to not look him in the eye. For his part he was being standoffish and she took that as a signal to give him space. In both of the interactions, there had been no romantic advances, so longing glances, not even a swoon worthy stare and somehow along the way Eliza had learned or forced herself to learn that whatever it was she and Walker Andrews had going was long gone.

So when Eliza pulled up to the beach house for the annual friends weekend she was neither shocked nor hurt, at least not outwardly so, to be introduced to Walker Andrew's girlfriend Gabby.

The thing about Gabby was that she was enjoyable. She was kind. She was smart, beautiful and easy to get along with. The thing about Gabby was also that no one had warned Eliza she was coming, let alone that she actually existed. Sure there had been rumors and rumblings. There had been hints about Walker seeing someone. But there had never been a real person in the flesh standing in front of her. When confronted with this fact Eliza died a little on the inside. It was made worse by the face Walker made when he saw her. She couldn't quite describe it but as she went to give him a hug hello he looked sad, embarrassed and pained all at once. The look itself culminated in an expression of pity that Eliza couldn't quite figure out. Did he pity her for being in this situation or did he feel bad for putting her in this situation? In either case, there was Eliza standing dumbly on the first step of the staircase awkwardly hugging Walker then feeling obligated to hug Gabby, this new and unfamiliar human she was being forced to engage with.

Eliza didn't like new people. Everyone in her family knew this. She didn't like strangers and she certainly didn't like being physically touched by one of them. When it came to social interactions with new people, Eliza liked to carry a healthy bit of skepticism and a large distance of physical space. For many of her closest friends, it would be years before she would engage in the ease of a hug hello or goodbye. She preferred to keep her space her own but meeting Gabby put her in the awkward predicament of looking rude if she didn't hug.

"Hi, I'm Eliza" she bent down awkwardly, nearly stumbling off the step to say hello. When Gabby hugged her, Eliza tried not to linger too long or pull away too quickly. She had a terrible habit of being abrupt and not knowing when and how to extricate herself from these types of things.

"Hi, I'm Gabby. It's so nice to meet you." Gabby flashed Eliza a megawatt smile. She was quite pretty, Eliza couldn't argue with that. She was around her height, probably 5'2 at most and had wavy light brown hair that fell in effortless beach waves. They were the kind of waves that would have taken Eliza hours to do in the mirror.

"Nice to meet you too." She could feel Walker's body close to hers – or rather, close to Gabby's. Eliza avoided the urge to shake her head; to shake herself back into reality.

"C'mon guys, I'll show you where you're sleeping." Alexa pointed upstairs and Walker and Gabby followed suit.

"You'll be in the same room as last year Walker." Eliza could hear Alexa's voice as it carried downward.

"Who's sleeping next door?" Walker's response was curiosity poised with dread.

"Eliza. I thought about moving her so you could be close to Cass and Ben but it wasn't worth the trouble."

Eliza cringed. She hated when Alexa made her sound high maintenance. Alexa had never mentioned to her the potential of moving. She would have if she had known about it or if Alexa had asked. Now she just looked like an asshole.

"Hey is everything okay?" Henry appeared at her side. She hadn't noticed she was still standing in the hallway. It was clear she had been eavesdropping.

"What? Yea absolutely. All good. What's up?" He looked at her quizzically before rearranging his face to a state of calm.

"Nothing at all. Want to help me with lunch?" Eliza nodded and followed Henry into the kitchen.

"There she is." Ben's booming voice greeted her as she joined him and Cass at the counter.

"Eliza can you help us settle this debate?" Cass looked at her expectantly.

"Um sure." Eliza picked up a piece of cheese left out for their sandwiches and took a bite.

"Last summer – was that when Walker was dating what's her name? Jess? And he left to meet her in the cape or was it when his grandmother died?" Ben and Cass looked at her for clarification.

"Erm." Eliza felt uncomfortable. She didn't know who Jess was and she didn't want to come across as remembering every single detail of Walker's time here even though she did.

"I think it was his grandmother."

"It was his grandmother." Henry piped up from inside the refrigerator.

"Are you sure? I could have sworn it was last summer that he went to the Cape. Remember it was a whole thing about catching the seaplane on time."

"It was my grandmother you asshole." Eliza wasn't sure where Walker had come from but his presence made the room feel small.

"And let's keep the Jess talk to a minimum please. You're lucky Gabby hasn't come down yet." Ben had the decency to look caught.

"Sorry man, just trying to figure out why you left in such a hurry last year." Walker's eyes flicked towards Eliza's and all of a sudden she was back in the laundry room, sandy and sweaty from the beach. She could feel his body against hers. The way his hands ran down her spine and over her hips. When he dragged his eyes away from hers she needed to catch her breath.

"So what's the plan today?" He turned his full attention to Henry leaving Eliza more than hot and bothered. She was annoyed.

"I figure we hang by the pool and then go to the beach for cocktails around five. Maybe bring some wine and get pizza from town. Sound good?"

"Sounds great." Everyone agreed except Eliza whose eyes fell on Walker as he turned to welcome Gabby into the room.

"Hey baby." He bent down giving her a kiss on the forehead and just like that, Eliza's heart went dark.