Page 74 of As a Last Resort
“Did you steal this from one of your movies?”she asked.
“No, but it would make a pretty iconic scene in one, don’t you think?”
“What’s your favorite?”she asked.
“Movie or scene?”
“Couple.”
“Yikes, that’s a hard one.Allie and Noah are the clear front-runner, but second is rough.Probably Meg and Tom inSleepless.”
She laughed so hard she started choking.I handed her a water bottle.
“You really are serious, aren’t you?”she asked.
“Dead.”
“I always thought your parents stepped out of an old-fashioned romance.When Lexi and I were in high school and your mom would cook dinner, your dad would walk in and wrap his arms around her as she stood in front of the stove.”She looked down at her hands and shook her head.“I have no idea why I remember that so vividly.”
“They were very much in love.They still are.”I opened her bag of chips and handed them to her.I wanted to ask about her parents, but I wasn’t sure if she felt comfortable talking about them.I didn’t know them when we were younger.I saw Sam’s mom around town now more than I did back in high school and I couldn’t really place her dad.But I wanted to know more about her.“Were your parents ever like that?”
“My dad was this happy bubble that walked around making other people shine brighter because of him.My mom was not,” she said with a laugh.“But when he was with her, he turned a spotlight on her and she came alive.”She shook her head.“You okay after last night?Seeing Vanessa?”
I nodded.
“Do you mind if I ask what happened?”
She was probably the only one left on the face of the earth who didn’t know what happened.“She fell out of love with me, I guess.There were signs I should’ve seen that I didn’t.We worked for the most part.We’d been together so long.”
“You were homecoming king and queen.”
“We were.”I remembered how completely ridiculous I felt walking around the football stadium with her.She lived for that kind of thing—the attention, the buzz of it all.I didn’t.“For the most part it was great.Really great, I thought.But looking back now, the big stuff didn’t fit and we just kept ignoring it.She wasn’t sure she wanted kids but I definitely did.She never saw herself living on the island her whole life.I couldn’t ever see myself leaving.”
“Never?”she asked.
“I’m not the type that leaves the island.”
She nodded, and traced little divots in the sand at the end of the blanket.“When did you notice something was going on between the two of them?”
“That’s the funny thing, I didn’t for a long time.”
I told her about how it was our second year in business with the ferry and we were still doing overnight trips to the mainland.Things were really busy.We were spread pretty thin.One day I was supposed to be out on a run for the night and it got canceled last minute—some engine malfunction we couldn’t fix until the morning.Tom kept ragging me that I wasn’t spending enough time with my best friend, always with her instead when I wasn’t out on the water.So, I drove by his house to see if he wanted to catch up.I felt guilty and wanted to make it up to him.I saw her car in his driveway.I went up to the door to walk in but the curtain was barely open and I saw the two of them on the couch together.
“He was your best friend?”she asked.
“Since elementary school.”
“I’m so sorry.”Her eyebrows pulled together.
“I have no idea why but I walked right in.”It was so unlike me to confront them like that.I don’t know what came over me.I didn’t knock or anything.I wanted them to know I saw them.That theygot caught.I didn’t want any explanations for what I saw—no justifying or denying.
“He tried like hell to explain things but as far as I was concerned I didn’t need to hear a sob story about how he’d messed up and he was sorry, but he loved her and they were soulmates.”
“I don’t believe in soulmates.The idea just seems completely preposterous to me.”
“Why do you say that?”
“The idea there are millions of people in this world, and somehow there’s one specific person who perfectly fits with you, seems mathematically unrealistic.And if you’re lucky, but onlyreallylucky, and happen to be in the same town and place, oh and also even the right decade at the same time as they are, you find them.It just seems a bit far-fetched.Like a cruel joke the universe is playing.”
