One Day

Part 17 - History

We make it to the car without saying the first word to each other. He shuts his door, starts the car and leans his arm on the console between us. "I didn't say that back there meaning that I expected anything from you," he shakes his head and sighs. "That didn't come out right, either. Let me start over."

I laugh as I buckle my seat belt and turn towards him. My mind can't keep up so I decide to stop over-analyzing and just let him speak.

"I like you, Lay. I like you a lot, actually. I know we've only been hanging out for a short amount of time so the things that I'm feeling seem crazy. We have fun together, I love hearing you laugh and I really, really like kissing you," he smiles as he continues. "I'm going to take it back old school here – will you be my girlfriend?"

I laugh, I can't help it. The fact that he just asked me to be his girlfriend like we are kids is sweet. I'm still smiling as I lean over and kiss him, "Yes, I will be your girlfriend."

I can feel his smile against my lips. He pulls away from me and takes my face in his hands. "I know this is moving really fast but I've never been this happy before."

He gives me a small kiss and then leans back in his seat, "You ready to head home or did you want to stop by anywhere else since we are here?"

"Let's head home," I say leaning back and sighing. I have a lot of questions for him and I'm not sure that I can keep them to myself much longer. "I know you said earlier that you weren't ready to talk about your relationship with January but our game earlier made me really curious. You all were together for three years...it's hard for me to understand."

I don't mean to sound so condescending. I'm acting like I know all there is to know about relationships when in fact, prior to Jace, I had only ever had one serious boyfriend that I dated for five years. To say I'm experienced in any department is an understatement. My relationship with Jacob is really the only relationship I know so I have no idea what I'm talking about outside of that one person.

He pulls out of the parking lot and onto the highway before he speaks. "January and I started dating right after we graduated from high school. You and everyone else in our class know how much I liked her so when she finally agreed to date, I was on top of the world. We had an amazing summer together before she left to go to college in Georgia."

Hearing how much he loved her is hard for me to take but as I think back, I can remember him chasing her for months before she finally agreed to go on a date with him. They must have hit it off because they were inseparable after that. I can see his mind taking himself back.

"After she went to college, it got really hard. She was in class all the time and working part time, and I was working full time. Seeing each other was sporadic at best. I would drive down as much as I could but she lived in the dorms so I couldn't stay the night with her and she wouldn't stay the night with me in a hotel. So, even when I did drive down, we would only see each other for a few hours before I had to drive home or she had to work. She is a really good girl, if you know what I mean – on the straight and narrow path. And that's not a bad thing. I respected her boundaries and it's one of the things I love about her. She has these goals for her life and she wasn't going to let a relationship get in the way of those things – so she set strict boundaries for herself and us so she could focus on her future."

He sighs, "So, although we had a good relationship for the most part, we didn't really have much of one. She came in town whenever she could and we made it work but I can't tell you how hard it was. When I started visiting you at Sonic and when we started hanging out last week, I guess I realized what I had been missing in a real relationship – the dates, the little things, the actually getting to be with someone..." His sentence drifts off.

I sense he has more he wants to say but he seems emotionally drained. "I still love her. That's probably hard for you to hear," he looks over at me. "But, I want to be honest with you. She will always have a piece of my heart. She was the first and only girl I've ever loved and I had plans on marrying her."

I nod, "I understand, I really do. I know it's going to take some time."

He smiles but I can see the apology in his eyes. "I know that you just went through this with Jacob and you all ended things on pretty bad terms." He reaches over and squeezes my hand. Jacob is the last thing that I want to talk about right now.

"Obviously there is a bigger plan for us out there that we don't see yet," I say, hoping that my words are true. "Maybe we were brought together to help each other move forward and away from our pasts."

He winks, "I hope so."

Thanks for reading One Day! I try to post each weekday and look forward to where this story takes us as it is a work in progress.

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