Making a Splash

“I can’t believe you cut up my food!” Mackenzie exclaimed once again as they walked out of the restaurant. “I feel like I’m three years old again and can’t do anything for myself.”

“Mack, you can’t cut up food. You have an injured shoulder. What’s the big deal?” Ryan asked, wondering why she was bringing it up once again.

“I don’t know,” she sighed as he wrapped his arm around her non-injured shoulder and guided her in the direction opposite of where his car was parked. “Where are we going?” she asked suddenly.

“You’ll just have to wait and see, won’t you?” he asked with a grin.

“You know, you’ve said that one too many times tonight,” she told him. “You can’t even tell me where we’re heading? Come on, Ryan, we’re walking. How am I supposed to know if it’s a block away or a mile away?” she questioned.

“It’s not far,” he assured her. “Now, just relax. I promise you’re going to love where we’re going.”

“Fine,” she sighed, as he moved his arm out from around her and linking her hand with his. “I’m trusting you on this one.”

“That’s all I’m asking,” he said, giving her a quick kiss, as they continued their way down the sidewalk.

Ten minutes later, Ryan stopped in front of a large art museum, and Mackenzie turned around, a large smile on her face. “Ryan!” she exclaimed. “You brought me to an art museum?” she asked excitedly. “I can’t believe you’d do this! You hate art museums!”

“But, you love them,” he told her. “When you told me a few days ago about how much you loved art, I knew I had to take you here.”

“But, you hate art museums,” she repeated.

“And, you love them. Mack, I’m here for you. And, since you love art so much, you can help interpret all these paintings for me,” he said as they walked up the steps to the entrance.

“Interpret them?” she asked with a laugh.

“Yeah, interpret them,” he replied. “I never understand what they’re supposed to mean.”

“They can mean whatever you want them to mean,” she told him.

“Well, you can tell me what you think they mean then,” he said, opening the door for her and walking in behind her before grabbing her hand once again and walking into the first exhibit room.

Two hours later, Ryan was walking Mackenzie to her door, when he asked her, “So, are you coming to the pool again tomorrow?”

“I can’t,” she said, shaking her head. “I have my physical therapy appointment tomorrow,” she reminded him.

“That’s right. I’m sorry I can’t go with you,” he said.

“It’s fine,” she assured him. “It’s not like you could really do anything while you were there, anyways. All you’d do is just sit there and watch me. It’d be painfully boring for you. It’s better that you’re going to be working with the kids.”

“Well, call me when you get out and tell me how it went, then,” he told her.

“I will,” she promised. “Now, you better get going. You need your beauty sleep, after all,” she joked.

“I’ll see you later,” he said, giving her a goodnight kiss before leaving.

***

“What’s going to happen when the summer’s over and you two have to go your separate ways?” Ricky asked Ryan while they were waiting on the kids to arrive for the day. Ryan had just told him and Michael about his and Mackenzie’s date the night before.

“What do you mean?” Ryan asked, not understanding what Ricky was asking.

“Isn’t Mack from Chicago?” Ricky asked, and Ryan nodded his head. “Well, isn’t she planning on going back to Chicago when this whole thing is over? I was just wondering what was going to happen between the two of you. Are you going to try the whole long-distance thing? I mean, it’s possible, but it’s going to be difficult, especially with the kinds of schedule you two have.”

“You haven’t even thought about it, have you?” Michael asked him when he saw the look on Ryan’s face.

“Not really,” Ryan admitted. “I guess it never really crossed my mind. I’m going to have to talk to her about it. I have no idea if she’s planning on going back to Chicago after this is over. I don’t see why not. It’s not like she’s going to stay here,” he said more to himself than the other two.

“Well, don’t worry about it now. You’ve got other things to do,” Michael said, nodding towards the door where the kids were starting to flood in with their parents.

All throughout the rest of the day, Ryan couldn’t get his mind off of Mackenzie and what was going to happen to their relationship when the summer ended and they went their separate ways. As soon as the kids had left for the day, Ryan was instantly on his phone, dialing Mackenzie’s number. “Hello?” she picked up.

“Mack, hey, I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner tonight,” Ryan told her.

“Sure,” Mackenzie replied. “What’s the occasion?”

“Nothing major. I just wanted to talk to you about something,” Ryan said.

“Uh oh,” Mackenzie said. “I don’t like the sound of that. Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” he assured her. “Just come over to my place around seven and I’ll have dinner ready.”

“You’re making dinner?” she asked, sounding surprised. “Ryan, you’re starting to scare me. Making dinner, wanting to talk to me.”

“It’s nothing,” he said, not wanting to worry her.

“Okay,” she sighed, still not believing him. “I’ll be over at seven. I’ll see you then,” she said, hanging up the phone.

***

As Mackenzie walked towards Ryan’s front door, she could feel butterflies in her stomach. She didn’t know what Ryan wanted to talk to her about, but she had a feeling it wasn’t something good. She lightly knocked on the door, and she waited until Ryan opened the door in front of her. “Hey,” he smiled, giving her a kiss, easing her anxiety just a little bit.

“Hey,” she smiled back. “Something smells good.”

“That would be the pasta I made.”

“Did you make it this time or did you buy it and are trying to pass it off as your own cooking?” she questioned with a laugh.

“No, I really did make it this time,” he assured her. “You can go into the kitchen and see for yourself if you’d like,” he told her, and she shook her head, silently saying it wasn’t necessary.

“So, what did you need to talk to me about?” she asked, just wanting to know what the issue was. She was sick of all the crazy things her mind was coming up with, and she didn’t think the truth could be any worse than all of her thoughts.

“I was thinking that we could talk about it while we ate.”

“Please, Ryan, just tell me what’s going on. You’ve seriously got me scared. Are you breaking up with me?” she quickly asked him, regretting the words as soon as they left her mouth. She quickly looked away from him, and she got even more nervous when he didn’t reply right away. “You are breaking up with me, aren’t you? Why? Did I do something wrong?” she asked.

“Mack,” he interrupted her, and she slowly turned her head so she was looking at him. “I’m not breaking up with you,” he assured her.

“Then what did you need to talk to me about?”

“Our future,” he answered, and she looked up at him, confused. “Mack, what’s going to happen with us once the summer is over? Are you going back to Chicago and I’m staying here? Are we going to try to make this relationship work long distance, or are we just going to say goodbye?”

Mackenzie stared at him, wondering why he was bringing this up now. “Ryan, we’ve got a while to figure out what we’re going to do. We’ve still got a few weeks left,” she reminded him.

“So, we’re just not going to talk about it and then decide when that day comes?” he asked. “That doesn’t make sense. Mack, I just want to know if we have a future or not. Are we going to go our separate ways in a few weeks or what? I’m not asking you to stay here in Florida. I know you have a life in Chicago, but are we going to try a long distance relationship or what?”

“I don’t know, Ryan,” she admitted. “I don’t even know if I’m going to go back to Chicago or not.”

“What?” Ryan asked, never having heard her talk about not going back to Chicago before. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m thinking about going back to school,” she told him. “When I first went to Northwestern, I only focused on swimming. I didn’t care about school or getting a degree. Now that swimming is over for me, I’m thinking about going back to school to get a degree in something that I really like.”

“Where are you looking at going?” he asked her, suddenly nervous for her answer. He thought that Chicago was a long distance from Florida, but he could only imagine what they would do if she decided to go someplace like Washington or California.

“I’ve looked at a bunch of places,” she told him. “I don’t really know where I’m going to go yet. But, we’ve got time to figure all of this out, right?” she asked. “Can’t we just worry about the present right now and worry about the future later?”

“Yeah, sure,” he told her, kissing her. Though, he couldn’t help but think that the future was going to come much too quickly.