Temporarily Yours

Chapter 23

She was just as beautiful as when my eyes first landed on her. And I fell in love the way you fall asleep, slowly... then all at once.

::::

My phone rang from the other room so I picked myself up from the couch and walked into the kitchen, picking my cell up from the counter top.

"Hello?" I answered, not bothering to look at the caller ID.

"Luke, hey," Caroline answered and I instantly lit up. "Um, can you grab something for me? Since I'm flying straight from Georgia to Mexico for Crash My Playa, I just packed everything... but I forgot a teeny tiny thing."

I rolled my eyes. "I knew this would happen."

She scoffed. "What do you mean? I think for only having fifteen minutes to pack I was pretty good at gathering all of my stuff, mister."

I smiled and then chuckled slightly. "True, okay, okay, what do you need?"

"My bathing suits, particularly three bikinis." She said.

I began walking towards her room and just laughed to myself. "Why the hell do you need three bikinis?"

"Because," She defended herself. "I get picky. One day I might want to wear a light pink one, and the next I may want to wear one with tribal elephant patterns on it, who knows. Hell I might just wear my string bikini every time."

I gulped, picturing her in each of those bikinis. "Luke? You still there, bud?"

I leaned against the door frame and shook my head. "Yeah, um sorry. Is that all you need."

Caroline sounded skeptical but kept talking. "Yes it is, sir. You'll find them in my bottom drawer."

"Okay, got it. Lov-, goodbye Caroline. See you tomorrow!"

Caroline was silent a moment before answering herself. "Goodbye Luke."

The call disconnected and I cursed at myself. Dammit Luke, you can't slip up like that. Yah, sure we'd admitted to loving each other, but it wasn't like we were a couple yet. It felt odd throwing out I love yous, yet completely right. I pushed the thought away and entered Caroline's room to grab her bikinis for her.

Her bed was all made up, nice and neat. Everything seemed to be cleaned up and tidy, unlike my room. To the left of the door was a large, white dresser. So, I opened the bottom drawer, just as she had instructed me, to be pleasantly surprised. Those certainly weren't bikinis, rather all of her lacy undergarments. I stared at them. Red, deep blue and purples, white, black. Luke, what are you doing? Close the damn drawer. That had to be planned. She set me up to that one. Oh, was I for sure going to get her back for that... Then I realized there was a dresser in her closet as well. Walking into her closet on the other side of the room, I noticed the black-painted drawers against the back wall of the closet immediately.

When I approached it, I noticed a box on top of it labeled College. My mind immediately rushed to the thought of our night together all those years ago. Bonfire, bottomless alcohol, kisses, love-making... College. I opened the box against my better judgement and began to look through it. It was wrong and I knew it, but the curious side of me got the better of me and took over. Does she remember me? Could evidence of her remembering me be in her? I scoured over top of diplomas and a few binders. I scanned the headings of papers, hoping for anything. But as I had begged myself not to believe, nothing came up. As I set some things back into the box, an envelope slipped out of the pages of a book, landing facedown. I bent down and gently picked it up, flipping it over. The front of it was blank, so I gently lifted the flap, curious as to what was inside. I discovered a few pictures all of which featured, well, me... and Caroline. One in particular caught my eye. It was of her and I at Dingus Magee's. My guitar was slung over my shoulder, my arms around her side. Carter was to my left, holding onto some brunette chick. I wracked my brain, trying my hardest to remember when this was. My only memory of Caroline and I was at the bonfire. Then out of the blue, I seemed to remember. In fact, that picture was taken right before the bonfire. Yes, it was all coming to light again.