Page 2 of A Simple Love
I know she’s rambling on about her book and I really should pay more close attention, but my mind is fixated on Mike and what he said to me after the ceremony. He wants to talk to me, after all these years. I mean, we see each other often when we hang out with Tyler, Hayley, Pauline, and Dean. But we never really converse more than necessary, so I’m anxious to know what this conversation will entail.
Is he finally going to make a move? Do I want him to, or more importantly, do I trust him to follow through after he stood me up last time? I have so many questions to contemplate on the drive, but a smile plays on the corners of my mouth as I realize, for the first time in my life, I get to live my life for me. I finally get to teach, hopefully move out of my parents’ house soon, and possibly fall in love, something I’ve been prolonging out of necessity. I take the rest of the drive to envision my future, excited that I finally get to start this next chapter in my life, but nervous about where it will take me. I guess we will find out tonight.
Chapter 2
Mike
“You can do this. You’ve been waiting for this moment, and now it’s here.” Breathing deeply, I exhale just as hard as I stare at myself in the mirror in my master bathroom. Deep brown eyes glower back at me as I muster up the courage to fulfill my deepest desires tonight. The shaking in my hands accompanied by the sweat dripping down my back only serves to remind me how crucial tonight is to my future with Vic.
Victoria Baker. The raven-haired beauty that has been on my radar since I was ten and never left my sights is finally free, the chains of school and accomplishing her goals severed, releasing her out into the world for the taking. And tonight, I make my move. This girl, a woman now actually, has been the only person I’ve ever wanted in my entire life. I had one girlfriend in high school, only because Victoria had a boyfriend at the time as well, and I couldn’t stand the thought of her with someone else without my own form of distraction. Brittany and I used each other mutually, her eyes set on a football player a year older than us, but it wasn’t love. It was a need to make the people we actually wanted jealous. It didn’t work, but at least we tried.
When Victoria broke up with her boyfriend, I waited a good two years before I made my move. I was nervous as all hell, but I knew I would kick myself if I never went for it. The note that I left on my table during her shift at the diner paid homage to the notes we used to pass each other in school. Of course, the ones during class were never serious, but rather simple questions that we asked one another out of friendship that could be answered by checking ‘yes’ or ‘no’. So when I finally got the courage to ask her out, I followed through with tradition and wrote a note asking her to go on a date with me, complete with two boxes that she could check with her answer. Yes or No.
I left the diner and waited around the corner, peeking into the window to watch her unfold the paper. Her hazel eyes lit up, her long black hair framing the smile beaming across her face, telling me her answer before she ever returned the note to me the next day at Mic’s Garage, the local automotive shop where I worked with my brother up until three months ago when I started my furniture business. She came into the office, handed the note to Mic to deliver to me, and walked right back out.
“Mail for Michael Kelley!” Mic teased as he leaned into the garage from the door frame to the office. I perked up and practically ran over to him, swiping the paper from his hands in a rush to open it.
“So, what did she say?” My brother lunged at the note in my hands before I swiftly turned and dodged his attempt at retrieving it.
As I suspected, the ‘yes’ box was checked with her cell phone number written underneath. I was on cloud nine, a smile so wide across my face someone could slap me, and it would still remain.
“You’d better not mess this up,” he teased before he returned to work, knowing damn well how I’ve felt about her all those years. My brother is the only person I’ve confided in about my feelings towards Victoria, even though most people have caught on to the blatantly obvious adoration I carry for her. I simply nodded back at him, before folding the note back up and stuffing it deep in my pocket and returning to work with the grin still plastered on my face.
I called her later that night to arrange plans, which quickly unraveled and had no hopes of being put back together the next day. Her dad, the least of all my biggest fans, cornered me at Mic’s the following morning and warned me to stay away from his daughter.
“I know who you are, son, and who your father is. You have no business dating Victoria, and if you know what’s good for you, you will leave her alone. My daughter is headed for big things, her whole future ahead of her still. The last thing she needs is a Kelley boy to deter her from her goals. Your father was worthless and a drunk who only knew how to turn a wrench when he was around long enough to keep his job, and I won’t be surprised if you end up the same way. This is the only warning you’ll get from me before I take matters into my own hands. Stay away from her. You’ll never be good enough.”
His height and stature were intimidating, even though we pretty much saw eye to eye. But the fierceness of his words are what assured me he wasn’t playing. My gut told me she was worth it, but the more I stewed on his warning, the more I realized the fight we would be up against, and the more I questioned my worth. Was he right? Would I ever be good enough for her? She deserved the world and I was just a nineteen-year-old mechanic who still lived at home and didn’t know what his future would entail.
I didn’t want to jeopardize her relationship with her parents, her future, or her goals. So instead of meeting her at Tom’s Burgers that night, I left town and drove out to a field to sulk in my misery of missing my chance with her; hoping that it wasn’t the only one I would ever get, vowing to make something of myself so the next time I took a chance, there would be no reason for her dad or myself to believe that we shouldn’t be together.
I imagined the look on her face when she’d realized that I wasn’t coming, the tears that would surely trickle down her cheek as she wiped them away discretely. The thought of how much I would hurt her felt like a knife stabbing me in the chest, the realization that I might have just blown my chance with her sinking in.
I remember the look on her face when I saw her just days later after I left her alone at the restaurant, her sadness so visible. But when her eyes met mine, hatred replaced her despair, and I convinced myself that I deserved it, even though I was just trying to look out for her. We never spoke of that event, burying it deep in our past. And it hasn’t been an issue until the past year or so when Hayley started dating Tyler and my brother got back together with Pauline, forcing us all to see each other more often than before. The tension is still there, but five years and an expanse of maturity has displaced the anger some and replaced it with a mutual understanding to tolerate one another for our friends while avoiding our true feelings for each other.
I shake my head, bringing myself back from traveling down memory lane and focus on the task ahead of me tonight. I am ready to fight for her this time, slightly more confident that I have something to offer her and a reputation that is not that of my father’s. I’m hoping her dad can see now how different I am from him too, not a drunk and far more responsible than he ever was.
About three months ago I purchased my own home, a property about twenty minutes out of town with a large farmhouse and a fifteen-hundred square foot shop in the back that I used to start my own furniture business. Kelley Furnishings is prospering thanks to the inheritance I received from my grandmother for start-up costs and loyal customers. I’ve quit partying and doing stupid shit with my brother and friends, mostly because they are all beginning to settle down now, but also because I knew this day was coming when Victoria would finish school and I would get my chance again. I wanted to be ready, committed to a future that she could be a part of, willing to offer her something besides a shell of a man who knew how to turn a wrench. More importantly, I didn’t want to give her dad any more ammunition to hate me, but rather, a reason to see that maybe I could be a man worthy of his daughter.
I took one more deep breath before nodding at myself in the mirror, gathering my composure, and turning to leave my house and make my way to BJ’s for Victoria’s graduation party. I left right after the ceremony to deliver a table to a customer and return home to compose myself before the festivities began. The drive gave me plenty of time to stew over my plan, the note in my pocket folded and prepared for delivery. I would try this again, but this time, the plan was to follow through, no matter what the costs. I just had to convince her to give me the opportunity to prove that I am serious about her and our future.
I reached the bar slightly after nine, arriving over three hours late to the party so the parking situation was beyond hopeless. I made my way around to the back where the employees parked and noticed a spot open next to my brother’s truck, so I snagged it before thinking otherwise. My dark blue Ford F250 fit snugly in the spot, but with limited options, I made it work. Hopping down from the cab, I ran my hands down my slacks, removing the clamminess that accumulated and braced myself on my thighs while I hunched over, fighting off a panic attack. Why was I reacting like this? You’d think by my behavior I’d never asked a girl out before, which was not true. But none of them had ever been Victoria, and my head and heart both knew that’s what made tonight different.
Standing up tall, I pressed my shoulders back and mustered up the confidence to walk in and scope out the situation, resolving to play it by ear until I saw the opportunity to make my move, hoping that my hesitation in arriving on time wouldn’t come back to bite me in the ass. The large wooden doors to the bar felt heavier than cement as I pushed my way through, greeted by laughter and music, the sounds of celebration wafting through the air in a symphony. Almost everyone from the town close with the Baker’s was in attendance, a table full of gifts portraying the pride and adoration they held for Victoria.
I spotted my friends in their usual corner, my brother seated right next to Pauline with his arm around her, Tyler and Hayley cuddled up across from them, but no sign of Vic. My eyes surveyed the room, penetrating the throws of people in search of stark black hair and hazel eyes that haunted my dreams every night, but there was no indication of her whereabouts.
I decided to say hello to my friends in the meantime, knowing that she couldn’t have gone far from a party in her honor. Striding up to the table, I’m met with a knowing smirk from my brother.
“Glad you decided to show up finally,” he teases. “Are you ready to do this?”
“Do what?” Hayley chimes in, her eyes moving back and forth between my brother and me.
“He’s going to ask out Vic tonight.”
I close my eyes and take a deep breath to will my heart to slow down, but also to refrain from decking my brother due to his outburst.
“Thanks for sharing my business with everyone, bro.” Turning to my brother, I shoot him a death glare that only makes him laugh at me.