Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 21955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 110(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 110(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
The crowd kind of went nuts with clapping and I heard a long wolf-whistle too. Julia was all smiles, probably relieved that the speeches were over. The administrator handed me the giant scissors. Julia and I both held them, each of us taking one handle, and slowly pinched the red ribbon between the blades. Flashbulbs went off all around us. Finally the ribbon was cut all the way through, and I turned to Julia and kissed her cheek to the sound of applause as more cameras flashed. She didn’t object, but smiled at me. Her eyes sparkled in their green depths, and I wished we were alone. But we would be soon enough.
There was the usual confusion and hubbub of a bunch of people suddenly talking and moving around at once. Most of them seemed to be heading for the exits, and I thought it would be a good time for Julia and me to go, too. Just then, I got a text from my new assistant, Mark. “The letter got here,” it read. “Should I open it?”
My stomach dropped. I had told him to get in touch with me the instant the letter from the university arrived. “Open it,” I texted back.
At this point Julia noticed my texting, and said, “What’s up?”
“I don’t know yet,” I said. “Hang on.”
She frowned a bit and turned away to talk to another well-wisher, this time the wife of a former mayor of Greenwood.
It took forever for the answering text to come in, but when it did, it read, “It’s a GO.”
I couldn’t help it, I said, “Awesome!” Heads turned, including Julia’s.
“What’s awesome?” she said with a smile.
“It’s a brand new project for me. Whew! I can’t wait to get going!”
She stiffened. “Oh really?” she said, and her eyes were suddenly blazing with anger. “I knew it. I knew that you wouldn’t stay. Sooner or later you would turn your back and walk away again.” That’s exactly what she did then, turned and walked through the doorway where we had just cut the ribbon.
I chased after her. “Wait! Julia, let me explain!”
She was walking fast through a hallway, the skirt of her dress a red silk flag behind her, but now she turned and faced me in the empty hall. “There is no explanation for this. You did it before, you’re doing it again. At least now I can stand on my own two feet, at least now I don’t have to start my whole life over from scratch.”
I was stunned. All this fury because she thought I was leaving town? “This is what I’ve been—”
“Look. Nick. I’m done. I did this thing for the hospital like you wanted, I even started to let you…. But I’m done. You’re not getting the chance to do this to me again. Do me a favor.” She took a deep breath. “Do not ever try to see me again. Don’t call, don’t email…of course what am I worried about? It’s not like you did any of those things the last time you bailed on me. But understand this: I don’t ever. Ever. Want to lay eyes on you again.”
I grabbed her arm before she could turn away. “Julia stop! You have no idea what this is. You don’t even know why I left!”
“What difference does it make? What I knew was that when I got out of the ICU, you were gone.”
“It matters! My god, Julia, you have no idea what I went through.”
“What YOU went though? Oh, right. I was in a coma, had spinal injuries and everything else. I ended up in a wheelchair for two years—you came out with not a scratch on you, but you are the one who suffered?”
“See? I knew you blamed me! When they said you wouldn’t remember anything, I felt such guilt. You had all these problems; I had none. I was driving. I was sure you would hate me for ruining your life. It was wrong to run away, I know that now, but at the time…. I almost drove off a bridge, I was such a mess.”
She grabbed my arms then, and looked at me intently, but then let go of me.
“Julia, I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t bear it, after seeing you in all that pain, to know you would wake up and hate me. I was going to come back about a month later, but that’s when Dad told me you didn’t want him or Lucy to tell me anything about you. You cut off all contact. So I knew you didn’t want to see me. Of course you thought the accident was all my fault.”
“The hell I did! I never blamed you for the accident! What we were doing was dangerous as hell and it was my fault as much as yours!”