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“I am. Make yourself comfortable, I’ll be home shortly after midnight, unless it’s slow like it was yesterday and I can close up earlier.”

A wave of relief hits me; I don’t have to go back to my parents’ house. I’m safe for one more night. And there’s another feeling there, too, something I didn’t expect to find when I walked into this bar, let alone when I drove back to Chilliwack. I gaze into Jax’s eyes; they’re soft and warm and relaxed from his orgasm, and I feel... feelings. Of some sort. I’m not sure how to name them, or how to organize them in my brain, but the fluttery sensation in my belly and the squeeze in my chest is telling me that maybe there’s more to Jax than just being a fun lay and a way to get an old crush out of my system.

I consider his offer. “Jax?”

“Yeah?”

“I live in Vancouver. I’m never coming back to Chilliwack. You know that, right?”

“It’s not like Vancouver is that far away, Mariah.”

I’m caught off guard by his response.Has he already thought of visiting me?

“I missed out on getting to know you all those years ago. I was young, and stupid, and you were...”

I wait for him to sayweird,different,trying too hard to fit in...

“You were intimidating.”

I’m stunned into silence.

Jax smiles, his eyes darting from mine and down to his hands.Is he nervous?“You seemed wiser. Intelligent. More mature than the rest of us, in a way.”

“Are you sure that’s not just because I ‘matured’ before everyone else?” I gesture to my chest.

He rolls his eyes with a sardonic smile. “I knew there was more to you than meets the eye. I’d be lying if your other ‘maturities’ didn’t catch my attention, as well as the attention of all the other guys in school, but I saw past that. I remember one time at a house party—Darren Freidman’s garage, remember that place?”

I nod.How could I forget?The smell of stale beer and motor oil permanently embedded into the stained concrete, the tinny boom box in the corner always blasting Eminem, and haphazard seating made up of the back seat of someone’s van and various mismatched lawn chairs. It seemed almost everyone had their firsts there: first time smoking pot, first time stealing from their parents’ liquor cabinets, first kisses. I remember watching other people pair off at various points of the night to make out under the stars. Never me.

Jax continues. “Bethany and I had a fight. I don’t even remember what it was about. She stormed off, nobody knew where she went. You were the only sober person there and you drove me around until we found her, then you parked and waited outside while we argued.”

I remember there being more making out than arguing but don’t interrupt.

“Anyone else would have just taken her home, probably talked shit about me behind my back.” He shakes his head slowly. “But not you.”

“You don’t remember why she was mad at you?”

He shakes his head slowly. “No.”

I run my tongue over my bottom lip. “She was mad at you for looking at my tits too much. Said it was inappropriate.”

He chuckles. “She was always jealous of you.”

I had never once in my life considered that possibility. I lean back against the wall, stunned.

Squeezing my hands, he says, “I think everything happens for a reason. I obviously wasn’t ready for you back then. But you walked into this bar, out of all the bars in the city.”

“And now here we are.”

He grins. “Here we are.”

I hadn’t planned on taking this any further than my time here in Chilliwack, just a spicy distraction from my boring job. But now I want to see what this alternate reality has in store. “All right, then. I’ll see you in a couple hours.”

Jax smiles, then leaves me with a tender, dizzying kiss before returning to work.

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