A few days later…
“Alex, where are we going?”
“You’ll see,” Alex answered.
“How can I? I can’t see a thing!” Alex had met Tana at her job at the Gap right at the time she got off. He had led her to his truck and proceeded to blindfold her. Then he helped her into the truck and they drove off.
It had been 15 minutes and Tana was starting to get confused. “What are we doing?” she asked again.
“Don’t you trust me?” Alex asked.
“Yeah, I guess,” she answered warily.
“That sure, huh?” They traveled about 15 more minutes before stopping. Alex took Tana’s hand and led her up a flight of stairs. When he finally took the blindfold off, she was looking over a rail at the ocean below.
“I remembered you said you like the ocean at night. And you said today would’ve been your 7th anniversary with what’s-his-face. So here we are.”
Tana wasn’t sure how to react. She knew Alex did this to try to win her over, and it was all she could do to keep it from working. “Alex,” she said slowly, to fend off the tears burning the backs of her eyes, “It’s so beautiful. The stars shining, and the waters so calm…” Alex opened his arms for a hug. Against her will, Tana fell into his grasp and wished to stay there forever.
“Come here,” Alex said, leading her to a bench. They sat down and Alex turned to face her. “Tana, I gotta say somethin’.”
Here it comes, she thought, He’s gonna drop the bomb.
“I like you a lot. From the first day I met you, I’ve wanted to be more than your friend. I think you’re beautiful. To know that you want nothing more than a pal breaks my heart daily.” Finally, he congratulated himself, I got it out. Now what?
“Alex,” Tana replied slowly, “I know it’s hard. I love being with you. I love being around you. But I’ve been single for just 2 weeks after a 7-year relationship. I’m not ready to think about dating. And even if I could, I wouldn’t be ready to actually date. Believe me, if I weren’t fresh out of this relationship, I’d be with you in a second. Give me time. I’ll be ready eventually, and when I am, you’re first on my list.” Tana let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding as she waited for a reaction from Alex.
“Did you love him?” Alex asked suddenly, needing to know.
“Excuse me?”
“Did you love him?”
“Did I…?” Tana searched her heart for an answer she didn’t have. “I don’t know. I think I did. For almost 7 years, he was my life. He made me happy. He knew me better than I knew myself. It wasn’t until the last couple months that we started to fall apart. So, yeah. Once upon a time, I think I loved him. But the day we broke up, the day I met you, I don’t think I was still in love. I don’t think I had been.”
Alex mover himself next to Tana and enveloped her in one of his trademark hugs. “I’m sorry you lost him,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
They sat like that for awhile. Being in Alex’s warm embrace calmed Tana’s bottled emotions. “I’m sorry, Alex,” she said quietly, “I’m sorry you had to be dragged into this. It’s not fair to you.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about, Tan. I dragged myself into this and I’ll never regret it. I promise you that.” He looked at her. He saw a fear in her eyes; a fear of the future, a fear of the past, a fear of the present. He knew that the only was that fear would disappear would be if someone would give her a shoulder to cry on. I’m gonna be that shoulder, he told himself, I won’t let her be hurt anymore.
Alex took her hand and led her to his truck. Once inside, he asked, “Do you wanna go back and get your car, do you wanna go home or do you wanna do something?”
“Let’s go get my car,” Tana replied. “Then if we wanna go somewhere from there, we can.”
They arrived at the mall, and suddenly Alex got an idea. “Come on,” he said, grabbing Tana’s arm. “We gotta go inside.”
“Alex…” she whined, “Haven’t we had enough surprises for one night?”
“Just one more,” he promised. “Then I’m done… with all of this.”
Tana wasn’t sure what ‘all of this’ was, but she figured she’d get it all figured out sooner or later.
When they got to the record store, Alex gave Tana strict instructions to wait outside. Alex ran in, and he came out 5 minutes later with a small bag. “No peeking,” he said, “But when you get home, I want you to listen to track 8. K?”
Tana just giggled, but she nodded, and off they went. As soon as she got into her Altima, she tore the plastic off the CD and pushed it into her CD player without so much as glancing at it. She immediately skipped to track 8 and sat back to listen.