Seatmate (Love Lines) by Cara Bastone

Author:Cara Bastone [Bastone, Cara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Headline
Published: 2022-06-27T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Sam

Gwen has been alternately scratching away at a notebook and gazing out the window for twenty minutes now. I’m trying not to look over at her too often because she is clearly deep in thought.

But . . . it’s hard not to look over at her too often because she is so pretty my hands are sweating on the steering wheel.

Have you ever had a movie soundtrack moment? Where for one second it becomes very clear that your life must be on someone else’s TV screen because there’s a moment so choreographed, so perfect, it must have been written by some writer-god? And you’re just certain that the perfect song must be playing in the background somewhere? Like how when ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ plays at a party and, even if no one is dancing yet, everybody automatically gets up and dances? There’s an automatic dance scene and it becomes clear that there is some sort of narrative plan for all of us and we’re all just bopping along in our lives, able to get swept up in it at a moment’s notice?

Yeah, well, perhaps the semi-sensical ramblings here should be an indicator that one of those moments just happened to me and it just about knocked me sideways.

Picture this: you’re in a totally random flea market in Connecticut looking at a very strange set of snow globes (you’re almost certain that one of them is displaying Blackbeard snoozing under a palm tree . . . in the snow) while a grumpy man barks at you, “No touching” and you’ve just started wondering about the many curious smells you’re currently being subjected to when, for some reason, you straighten up and turn to look over your shoulder.

And there she is.

Here’s the thing about a crush. There are a lot of different kinds. Some of them are happy to pleasantly pluck away at a harp or an acoustic guitar in the corner of your mind. Some of them tap at the mic and ask for center stage. And some of them . . . some of them fly-tackle you and shove snow down your pants.

Guess which one Gwen is for me.

The crowd parted—somewhere for some cosmic audience, I’m sure the perfect song dropped in the background—and for me, I just stopped breathing while she walked over to me. Brushed and polished and smiling. She’s got such a great smile.

All I could think?

Thank you, peanut butter sandwich.

Thank you for making me miss my neighbor’s ride into the city this morning. Thank you, city buses, for being ten minutes behind schedule. Thank you, every other passenger who didn’t want to sit across from the bus bathroom. Thank you for leaving one last seat and having it be next to Gwen.

Because if everything had gone as usual, I would have been sitting at the front of the bus with my headphones in and might never even have seen her.

But instead, all thanks to that perfect, wonderful, irritating peanut butter sandwich, instead, I got to be the guy, the one guy, she walked across a flea market to smile at.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.