A Bucket List for Ella

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

                  11 times.

11 times it took Liam to call me before I finally answered the phone.

"Ella, I'm so sorry. I was out of line and I totally shouldn't have said what I did. Please forgive me."

"I-" I started, then sighed. "You know what, it's fine. I overreacted. I forgive you."

Liam breathed a deep sigh of relief that could be heard over the phone. "I'm going to make it up to you. Tonight at 7, are you free? I want to take you out."

I picked my brain and sarcastically wondered if I could fit that into my horribly busy schedule.

"Of course," I said.

"Okay. Wear something comfortable," he told me. Automatically I was curious as to what we would be doing.

"Sounds good. See you tonight," I replied.

"Love you," he said.

"Love you too."

***

Dressed in my high-waisted jean shorts, a simple v-neck, my gray Converse high tops and my aviator sunglasses on my head, I set foot out my apartment door to go and meet Liam outside. I slipped my key ring into my brown cross-body and poked the elevator button.

Downstairs outside, Liam was waiting for me in his Jeep. I hopped in, and he started off onto the main roads, and then farther away from Sydney, and then slowly farther out.

"You're not taking me to some secluded area to murder me, are you?" I asked him, my eyebrows drawn in a suspicious glance.

Liam laughed lightheartedly. "Of course not. It's a surprise though."

Finally, Liam slowed the Jeep down and hopped out of the car. I opened my door before he could do it for me and stepped out. Immediately my feet found the soft, dark earth that was fertile soil. I looked up to see that we were at some sort of farm.

"What is this place?" I commented, my eyes scanning the landscape around me. A faded red barn sat on the corner of a fenced in property. Grass had grown in a gorgeous field in front of it, and all through the field tiny daisies sprang up.

"An old farm," Liam said.

"It's gorgeous," I breathed, looking around.

I turned to Liam, only to see him holding a thermal-looking cooler. He jerked his head towards the barn and slowly we started walking in that general direction.

Liam approached the barn door and swung it open. Inside, the old building was only lit from the cracks in the roof. Hay still covered the ground as if someone had been using it for storage not too long ago. A tire swing hung from the wooden beams that encircled the roof, and a loft sat up at the back of the barn, a ladder as its only entry.

Liam closed the door behind us and led me up the ladder to the loft. To my surprise, a few bales of hay were leaning up against the back wall of the barn. They were set in such a way that it seemed they were made to seat people.

"How did you find this place?" I asked him, utterly perplexed by the barn's mystery.

"It's my uncle's old farm," he said. "My uncle said it was his retreat, and he would come here to relax and think."