Separation Anxiety(54)

“You’re welcome, Va-Va-Va-Voom,” she giggled, calling me by the nickname my younger brother had given me when he was little.

It felt good to chat with a friend who knew me so well, and I was grateful for her friendship. I was starting to wonder how I had kept the fact that Richard and I were separated a secret for so long. Quinn really was a good friend, and I’d shut her and everyone else in my life out and chose to go through a difficult situation alone. If I’d only talked to someone sooner, maybe I could’ve gotten out of it sooner.

But ifs and buts got me nowhere. The way things had happened had fallen into place for a reason, and I was more convinced than ever that it was so that Jesse and I could finally find our way to each other.

The week passed quickly; I had signed up for prom committee, and prom was a couple of weeks after we got back from spring break, so we had a lot of planning to do.

Lucky for me, one very sexy Mr. Jesse Drake was also on the prom committee. He was in charge of the senior class Student Council, and they were the class who planned prom.

Jesse made me his deputy, which meant that we had long nights of supervising while the students did most of the work. They made posters to advertise for the dance, they picked a theme, they chose decorations for the venue, they set playlists, they made party favors and centerpieces. We oversaw the process, but really, we spent most of our time with our heads bent together close in conversation while the kids worked.

I wondered what high school Jesse was like, what it would’ve been like to be his date to the prom. He showed me a picture of himself that his prom date from his junior year had uploaded to Facebook for a Throwback Thursday photo. He definitely would’ve been the kid I had a crush on back in high school. He was attractive even then; he looked like the kind of kid who had never gone through that awkward gawky phase, something I most definitely went through my freshman year of high school. But his eyes had that haunted look that I became familiar with whenever he came home after he’d gotten a call from Carly. He was smiling in his prom picture, but it looked forced, and I could see an air of brooding about him. I wondered what sort of event happened that could cause such grief in a teenager.

Finally Friday afternoon arrived. We had a happy hour to attend first, and then Jesse and I were going to spend the night packing so we could leave early the next morning. His parents, I’d discovered, lived in Santa Monica, California. So that meant we were heading to the beach for our two week long spring break. I didn’t care that March meant it would be far too cold to swim in the ocean. I’d have Jesse Drake to warm me up.

I remembered that vision I’d had of Jesse in swim trunks at the beach. I was about to see that beautiful image come to fruition.

In the spirit of not being super obvious about not only our living situation but also our budding relationship, Jesse and I decided not to sit directly next to each other during happy hour. It was a long table with five chairs on one side, five on the other, and one at each end. Jesse sat at the head of the table, and I was midway down one of the sides seated between Quinn and Avery. The two actually reminded me a lot of each other; both were boy crazy, both were loud, both tended toward the raunchy side of things, and both made me laugh until tears were streaming down my face, as was the case at Friday’s happy hour.

Avery was recounting a story about one of the men she’d slept with in the science department, leaving very few details to the imagination. We all knew exactly who she was talking about, which made the story even funnier.

I glanced over at Jesse and his eyes met mine, warm with merriment.

I was struck with the thought that if I was out with Richard and our table was getting noisy and boisterous, he would’ve shushed me or given me a dirty look meant to quiet me down.

Not Jesse.

Jesse joined right in on the laughter, and his wide smile only made me smile even more. His smile warmed my heart, and I knew without a doubt that it was because I had fallen in love with him.

It wasn’t just because he had saved me.

It wasn’t just because he was so damn sexy that just looking at him was enough to get my motor running.

It wasn’t just because he listened to me and protected me and pressed his lips to my forehead every night to make me feel adored and cherished.

It was all of those things, but it was also his heart and his goodness and the way he cared about others. It was the way he put others before himself. It was the way he was haunted after he went God only knows where to do God only knows what. It was the way he held me in the night as if he was recharging the strength he lost when we were apart.

And, most of all, it was the way that he needed me as much as I needed him.