Page 38 of Something like Desire

We spend the next half hour walking through the garden, admiring the flowers and plants. Then I walk her to her car, and she turns to give me one last hug. “See you at the wedding, Lexi. No more shenanigans?”

“I won’t do anything else,” I promise. What I can’t promise is that Gia will behave herself too. She hasn’t seen Mom in person in a long time and I’m going to try to convince them to air things out before they see each other face-to-face in order to avoid any wedding day disasters.

Mom drives away and I go around the back of the building to where Zach is waiting, his window still down, classic rock music blaring. He catches my eye, and his face breaks out into a wide grin.

“How did it go? Was she shocked?” he asks.

“Not at all.” I shake my head. “She knew about it all along. They both did.” I proceed to update him on everything my mom told me.

Zach tugs on his beard and closes his eyes for a beat. “I thought we were so slick at the dance studio. That was some of my best acting.”

I smile. “It certainly was very dramatic, that’s for sure.”

Zach clears his throat. “Hey, I wanted to apologize.” He faces me with his smoldering gaze. “I’m sorry that I blamed your mom the other day. I would have been upset if you said that about my dad.”

“Thanks,” I say quietly. I don’t want to tell him it’s okay, because I don’t know if he’s fully ready to stop talking crap about my mom if his own mom isn’t in a happy place yet. “So, I guess this is it with us trying to sabotage them. We tried everything. They know it was us messing with them and now we either hold a grudge or try to accept things for what they are.”

“Yep. That’s going to be hard.”

I tilt my head. “At leastyoudon’t have to go to a wedding with them. This event has had so much build up, it’ll be a relief when it’s done and we can all stop stressing. Gia’s going to need to find a hobby, or a few of them. This wedding has totally taken over her life. It basically defines her at this point and she’s going to be so lost when it’s over. She’s been agonizing over every little detail.”

“Sounds intense.” Zach glances at me. “I could come, if you like, to be your moral support.”

I hesitate. Not only will Jaydennotbe at the wedding, which will throw Gia for a loop, but now Zach wants to come? “I’ll check with my sister and keep you posted,” I respond, even though I havenoplans to do that.

“Do you know what I do when things don’t go the way I want, and I have to accept that it’s just the way it’s going to be?”

I shake my head. “Lay it on me.”

“I get ice cream. A double scoop. Let’s go.”

I remember how adamant I was that my night was going to be a business interaction and that I would never see Zach again after this evening and this is totally not the way I expected anything to go, but here I am, back on the park bench near my dad’s house, with a double scoop of ice cream in hand, feeling perfectly blissful while chowing down on mint chocolate chip goodness, even though today’s the day I finally had to accept the fact that Mom and Dad won’t be together anymore.

“I want to show you something,” Zach says suddenly, his eyes lighting up. “Do you have a bit more time?”

“What is it?”

“You need to wait and see.”

“Have I ever mentioned that I don’t like surprises?” I can tell that a wide grin is forming on my face against my will, so I try to straighten my lips into an unamused line.

“You’ll like this one,” he says, getting off the picnic bench and heading back to the parking lot.

We get in his car, and he pulls out of the parking lot. The radio’s playing a Queen song, and he twists the volume up until Freddie Mercury’s voice fills the space.

We talk about the weather, our childhoods, our friends, and it’s refreshing not to be fixated on our parents for once now that we’ve come to terms with the fact that our hands are tied. Their relationship will continue with or without our support.

Every time the conversation seems to be going in the direction of bringing them up, one of us quickly changes the subject.

“Where are you taking me? A different state?” I say finally, because we’ve been driving for almost an hour. I just hope he’s not taking us back to the beach resort to use their pool or do another talent show. It would be hard not to connect that place to our parents and I am definitely not in the mood for any more guest participation.

“Almost there,” he says.

After a while, he slows down and pulls into a wooded area, parking at the mouth of a trail where the trees cast soft shadows across the path. He gets out and opens my door, a small act of chivalry I quietly appreciate. In my opinion, gestures like that never go out of style.

We walk down the path, twigs crunching beneath our feet. The scents of grass and wildflowers fill the air. I hear water flowing before I see it—a little creek, and then I realize where we are. The bus poster location.

“How?” I ask. “How did you manage to find this place?”