Forked Roads Back

87 - ARCHIE

TESSA EMERGES TEN MINUTES later. I had put the TV on, but I hadn't watched any of it. My thoughts had been focussed on the fact she was now living with Jamie, same as they had been for the last hour.

As much as I knew I didn't have the right to feel this way, something didn't feel right. I could read it clear as day. There was something Tessa wasn't telling everyone... Something big.

She's changed, now in a pair of cut off jeans, a pair of flip-flops and a baggy brown t-shirt, her effortless beauty flooring me once again. Her hair is now up in a ponytail as well, her fringe clipped up out of her face.

"What were you watching?" she asks.

I turn and see that I'd put on The Big Bang Theory. I shrug as I turn it off before following her to the hallway.

"You ready?" she asks me with a smile.

I nod. "Yep."

I wasn't ready at all, but I couldn't say no now. She's waited so long for an answer to all of her questions now, and I would give her as good of an answer as I could manage. If she asked me to relive that day, I would, if she wanted me to put myself back to the worst day, I would. I was ready to bare all, because it was the very least she deserved from me.

I turn off the TV and grab my jumper from the kitchen counter, along with my keys and open the door. "Ladies first."

She smiles as she heads out before me, and when I round the corner, she's holding the lift door.

As the doors close, I feel that charge again. You see authors always describe it in books - the charge that two main characters have in an enclosed space - and right now, with Tessa's flushed cheeks and the fact she can't look me in the eye, I know she must be feeling it too.

Both of us breathe a sigh of relief as the doors open at the foyer, and the air feels amazing as we step outside into the Autumn afternoon sunshine.

***

WE WANDER THE STREETS for a while before we find ourselves at Central Park, and as I think we'll want a quieter spot, I steer us towards the Shakespeare Garden. It's a spot for reflection, and every time I've come, I've been the only one there.

As predicted, when we get there, the garden is deserted, so Tessa walks towards the steps, up to the two benches sat either side of each other.

She sits down, but I stay standing for a moment, just watching the wind ripple around the trees. After a minute, I turn to look at her. She's looking around the garden, the trees, the flowers, her cheeks flushed with the cold wind. She smiles, but when she catches my eye, her smile disappears.

It's time.

"Here goes nothing, huh?" she says, making a weird expression, somewhere between a bright smile and a grimace.

I nod as I take a seat, leaning forward, putting my elbows on my knees. For months I had been wanting this conversation to happen, but now that I'm here, the words aren't being very forthcoming.

Deciding to build up to what I had to say, I psych myself up with a question that had been on my mind for years.

"So, how did you guys meet?"

She turns her head, and from her expression, I think she wasn't expecting that question. She looks at me for a couple of seconds, and for a moment I think she won't answer, but then she focusses on a point in the distance and responds.

"Second year at uni. Nelly, one of my friends at Edinburgh, dragged me along for a karaoke night at the bar he worked at," she explains, her voice small and careful.