Page 41 of Stay With Me
“Honestly, I called him to make sure he remembered and that he wasn’t going to do anything crazy. But he told me he had coloring books, movies,Mario Kart, puzzles, and pretty much anything else she could need for their night. I was shocked.”
Her laugh fills the truck. “I hope we get pictures of what they do. I know you guys give him crap, but he’s so good with her.”
“He is, and we do because we love him. When I dropped her off, he showed me that he even got her a bed set in case she wants to stay over there.”
“Oh lord. She’s never going to want to come home.”
I flip on my blinker to turn into a local grocery store just outside of town. “She will, she loves you.”
“Why are we here? Are we going to do grocery shopping?”
“We’re here to grab subs and snacks, and then we’re going to head to the drive-in movies,” I tell her and hop out. As I open her door, she just stares at me, and I start to doubt my idea. “I mean, if you want to, we don’t have to if you think it’s stupid.”
“It isn’t stupid. I’ve been wanting to go, but I don’t drive, so I never did. I’m so excited to do this. It’s like a picnic at the movies!” she says as she takes my hand and hops out.
“It’s like that, yeah.” I take her hand in mine as we walk in.
We grab two premade subs and so many snacks that we have to grab two hand baskets. After checking out, we head to our final destination.
“How long has this place been here?” she asks.
“Well, it originally opened back in the fifties, I think. Then, around the nineties, it closed down because people lost interest in it. I think sometime in the early two thousands it opened back up after three people, one from each county, came together to refurb it and reopen it. It’s very successful. I think more people come to this than a traditional movie theater,” I tell her as we pull into the parking lot. I stop at the booth and pay for us.
“You’ll want to pull into the last screen and turn the station to 103.1 AM to listen,” the kid tells us and points in the direction we need to go.
As I navigate the truck, I look over at Luna and take her in as her head swivels, taking everything in with a wide-eyed expression. When her eyes meet mine, I see how excited she is.
“If I don’t say it later, thank you for an amazing night, Noah.”
“The night is still young. It could go to shit,” I say with a laugh, pulling into a spot.
“Absolutely not. Tonight is one of the best nights of my life.” She places her hand on my arm, and I put the truck into park, in front of the screen we were directed to.
“I’ll take it,” I tell her as I lean over the console and kiss her on the cheek. “Okay, let’s get comfortable.”
She glances around the truck. “We don’t just sit here?”
“We do. If it wasn’t summer, I would have a mattress pad in the truck bed with blankets, but it’s too hot for that. So, instead, we’ll scoot our seats back as far as they’ll go, and I’ll lift the center console. I already folded the back seats down, which is where we’ll lay out our snacks that we aren’t eating.”
“You sound like a pro,” she says as she presses the button on the side of her seat to move it back, and I do the same.
“I mean, I’ve been coming here since I was old enough to drive, and I tried to come once a week, even if it was the same movie during COVID.”
“Oh, that would have been such a nice way to get out of the house.”
“Yeah, it was a nice opportunity to get out of the house for non-work-related reasons,” I admit. “I know you weren’t in Griffin’s Den during COVID, but did you pick up a hobby during lockdown?”
“I did. It was when I taught myself how to build and maintain websites. It isn’t much, but it challenged me, and I was so fascinated with computers after I left The Family that I learned all I could about them.”
I turn and look at her. “Not much? Luna, that’s amazing that you taught yourself that. I mean, I know the bare minimum when it comes to computers. I have a fancy gaming computer at home, but I only know how to play my games on it.”
“I saw it in your office. It looks nice. It took me a long time to figure a lot of stuff out. I also started to study for school, even though I wasn’t in school. I just like to learn, and I utilized the free classes everyone was giving out,” she says as she unwraps her sub to take a bite.
Looking over at her, I can’t help but admire how hard this woman has worked to get to where she is today. She ran away from a cult at sixteen, has worked under the table, and is what some would consider uneducated since she never attended school formally. Even with everything stacked against her, she’s thriving, and I hope I’m privileged enough to continue to watch her grow.
“Why are you looking at me like that? Do I have something on my face?” she asks when she realizes I’ve been staring at her.
I shake my head. “No. I’m amazed by you. You’ve come so far with everything stacked against you, and you’re doing so amazing. I’m in awe of you.”
