2 Chapter 2

She’d wanted me to follow her into medicine and although I thought it was great having a mother who was a badass surgeon, I didn’t want that path. I decided to embrace the world of information technology, opting for a degree in programming, naively striving to become employed by the likes of Microsoft or Apple straight out of college. The job that laid me off was great until it wasn’t mine anymore. Instead, I worked for QuantiComp, a small software and networking company out of Seattle from my mother’s basement. Yeah, I know. Na?ve.

The best thing the company offered was the flexibility of the hours and the manager allowing me to practically build my own schedule on what was available. And, it paid decently enough that I was able to put away quite a bit during the time with my family. I stretched my limbs, sore from sitting behind the computer monitor for far too long, and headed up the stairs.

My mother was in the kitchen artfully crafting a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for my brother’s lunch. He sat perched on his booster seat at the table, his large observant hazel eyes watching our mother with scrutiny. “Mama! No!” he shouted before she continued, the knife slicing the crust off. It’s ironic; a tot dictating a surgeon’s deft precision with a sharp instrument.

She turned her back, looking my way. “Honey, could you grab the trash?” I nodded, and she turned, dumping the triangle pieces of sandwich on a bright blue plate along with steamed broccoli and blueberries. I gathered the trash and headed outside and that’s when I saw her across the street.

Her emerald eyes glistened in the sunlight poking through the dense cloud cover, meeting mine instantly. God, she was beautiful, her hair shorter than it had been the summer after high school, little blond tufts ruffled by a stray breeze. I hadn’t seen her in nearly six years, yet, when her eyes met mine, her gaze still caused my heart to race. Reese Garrett. The thought of her name made my breath hitch and my stomach whirl. I ripped my gaze from hers, threw the trash bag into the can, and ducked back into the house.Shit. Shit. Shit, she saw me.

What was she doing across the street from my childhood home? During high school, she and her parents lived in a cozy apartment above the bakery they owed downtown. Without a word to my mother, I grabbed a soda and a banana before heading back down to my dungeon to continue my shift.

* * * *

It happened in a closet—no pun intended—shortly after high school graduation. It was mid-July and an unusual humidity blanketed our hometown. I sat on the floor of my best friend’s bedroom, leaning my back against her dresser. Mimi Andrews and I had been close since elementary school as our mothers working together at the hospital and her living just up the street from me had made it a convenient friendship.

“I can’t believe high school is over,” Mimi lamented, looking down at her feet dangling off the edge of the bed, her long brown hair concealing her face. Reese sat beside her, a comforting hand on her shoulder. In the low lighting, Reese’s freckles looked much darker on her soft cheeks, her shoulder-length blond hair lazily styled.

I kept my attention on the patterned tan carpet, attempting to keep my eyes off the couple. My swooning over Reese Garrett had begun the first day of our junior year during homeroom, when my eyes swept over the new faces and immediately zoned in on her. We became friends shortly after, expanding mine and Mimi’s little duo into a trio. We’d grown closer with each day, working together on class projects, Reese driving Mimi and I home from school. The three of us hung out nearly every day. My feelings for Reese continued to grow to an undeniable gnawing in my heart.

I had become the third wheel the beginning of senior year when Reese and Mimi become a couple seemingly out of nowhere. Mimi had told me she was questioning her sexuality during the summer but hadn’t divulged who had caught her attention.

Of course, it was when I finally gathered the guts to ask Reese out on a date when Mimi told me. I had confided my true feelings toward Reese to my best friend only a few weeks earlier, but she must’ve forgotten. Or did it on purpose. At least, that’s what my angsty teenage mind told me.

The proverbial love triangle elicited such a profound dread within me, it felt as if I had to beat it back with a hammer. Although I imagined my jealousy was palpable, neither Reese nor Mimi seemed aware of my cantankerous feelings toward their ardor.