Bloom

I strolled alongside Amy for a mile or so. We didn’t speak much, just exchanged the occasional comment here and there. Mostly we just observed the changing scenery around us. The sun was an overbearing fiery orb lingering in the sky that made sweat droplets appear on Amy’s exposed shoulder. They rolled down the curve of her back, crossing paths ever so slightly with Amy’s hair that had become matted with the wind and salt of the coast.

She waltzed along lazily with her shoes at her side, obviously in no hurry to reach our destination. It wasn’t as though we had anywhere to be or that we had to rush. It just would’ve been nice to know what I was walking into. It seemed like for every step we took my nerves increased slightly.

I cleared my throat in an attempt to direct Amy’s thoughts away from wherever they had wandered off to. She twirled around, searching for the source of the noise. As a result, she was nearly bowled over since I had failed to decrease my speed. I wanted to get her attention, not stop completely; that was actually quite the opposite of my intention. The more time we spent standing around, the longer it would take for me to discover what she had in store for me.

Raising her eyebrows to feign annoyance, she stepped away from me. “Yes?”

As if she had reason to be annoyed. It was me who was running blind, with little guidance from her. “Where exactly are we going?”

She crossed her arms, a smug air overpowering her. “What’s it matter? You’re going to follow me anyways.”

I knew I should have more of a reaction to a bitchy statement like that, but coming from her, it seemed almost typical. “What makes you respond so pretentiously?”

Her eyes drifted away from the beaten path ahead of her and swept over me. “Where else are you gonna go?”

She posed a good point, but I ultimately chose to not allow her the pleasure of knowing that. Even if I had decided to recognize her achievement, there wouldn’t have been any time for celebration. Amy announced we had arrived several moments after the exchange.

Before us was the shell of an old building. It was made of sturdy brick and accented with remnants of light blue paint around the clouded and sketchy windows. It needed major repair, but it had character.

Amy playfully nudged me in the rib cage. “What do you think?”

I could tell by her fidgeting and the way she ran her hands repeatedly down her sides she was anxious. I just hadn’t discovered why. “I’m sure at one point it was a great building.”

Her cerulean eyes immediately lit up with excitement, and I swore I could see sparks setting off in the pools of crystal. “Do you want to make it great again?”

I needed an explanation before things went any farther. “Amy. Just spit it out! Tell me what you’re thinking rather than just leaving it a mystery.”

She shrunk back and all of her previous glowing subsided. She took a deep breath, as if to reestablish her calm. “Your dad wants to invest in the island. Who says it has to be another hideous apartment complex? I mean, obviously the first one was a bust.”

“Get to the point, Amy.”

“I think your dad should invest in you. By that, I mean give you the chance to do what you want to do with your life.” She paused long enough to grab my enormous hand in her tiny pale ones. “I think you should open a place like Sandy has.” Her eyes inflated with excitement. “Except, you could make gourmet food and whatnot. This island could use an organic place! We could have sushi and…”

She went on with her incessant babble, but I had tuned out. I was enthralled with her idea. I had let myself imagine this kind of life, but this building symbolized something tangible. Amy was right; my father did want to invest in the island. I had been a good right hand man to him long enough. Now it was my turn.

There were so many emotions rushing through my head and no way to deal with all of them at once. I was hopeful for my future, nervous about talking to my father, and I was extraordinarily grateful to Amy for scheming the whole thing. Even more so, I was curious.

Was this her way of asking me to stay? We hardly knew each other, but in the time we had spent together there was unmistakable chemistry. Even now, I could see her lingering on my every move, her mind calculating what I didn’t say.

Everything in my mind was a surge of unanswered questions. How was I to know what all of this meant? Then it hit me: there was only one true way to know, and I had no time to lose.

With the free arm Amy wasn’t grasping, I reached around her partially exposed waist, my fingers impressing into her porcelain skin. With one quick jerk, I pulled her as close to me as she could get. Her still-damp torso collided with mine and her eyes darted upward, glowing a dull blue with alarm. Before she could protest, I moved in.

Her kiss was a spreading sensation. It moved throughout my body in pulsating waves, a feeling I can only describe as warmth. Although, it wasn’t a breezy day kind of warm; it was more accurately described as the fireplace that came from a happy hope kind of warmth. It started in my lips, and slithered down all the way to my toes, branching off like ripples on the surface of still water. I was consumed by the luminescence that was her, and I was not complaining.

Then it was over.

She pulled away slowly, confusion etched in her facial expression. Neither of us made a move. We sat and stared, both cautiously aware of the weight of the next words spoken. I wasn’t sorry I did it, if an apology was what she was waiting for. She could’ve kicked and screamed like a child, or she could’ve protested loudly like she had been known to do. I would’ve rather her done that than just sit there like she did.
All of a sudden, she started walking. It took me a moment to register what she was doing.

Once my feet caught up with my brain, I began to follow her shadow. “Where are you going?”

She kept intently walking forward like a woman on a mission. “’I forgot I have to work tonight.”

“Oh.”

I slowed my pace to match hers, having surpassed her in an attempt to catch up. We walked in stride, my long legs taking shorter steps, her shorter legs wandering lazily across the soft top layer of beach sand.

“Yeah,” she started, “I’ll work the store from one to five. Then I’ll make my way over to Sandy’s.”

She sounded like she was repeating the information more for her own benefit than mine.

“Can I meet you there?”

She shrugged. “I guess.”

When I told Amy I’d meet her at the bar, I never actually considered she might be working, and that I would be left to entertain myself. That activity was mostly consisted of staring down my empty glass of what was once root beer, and occasionally stirring the uneven chunks of ice that plinked with every slight movement. I wiggled in my uneven bar stool until the guy next to me cut his eyes my way. Message received, Strange-Looking-Trucker-Hat-Guy.

It took a tap on the shoulder to bring me back to reality and realize the music had ceased. There stood Amy with her hair haphazardly pulled into a bun that rested on her shoulder, and a pink dress dappled with strawberries.

Since I had never before seen her hair up, I noticed her two piercings in her ear for the first time. She donned tiny bows the same bubblegum color as her dress and white roses. The dress itself fell to her knees and hugged her chest just tightly enough to be professional.

Amy waved her hand in front of my face impatiently. “Cliff!”

“Uh, yeah?” I responded, almost like I was confirming Cliff was indeed my name.

She nervously shifted her weight from one foot to another. “You play guitar, right?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“My manager said I need to spice things up a bit. You know, make it different for regularly attending locals. I think that involves you playing, or singing or whatever it is you do.”

Her eyes glistened with unspoken pleas. I knew almost instantly there was no way I could say no.

“What song did you have in mind?”

Her entire body relaxed, and her previous anxiety was now replaced with something I interpreted as gratitude. “What do you know? Wait, scratch that. What do you know that would be easy for us to do together, but also impressive?”

“Well that’s easy, as long as you know ‘Heaven’ by Bryan Adams. It’s simple, but the harmonies will blow them out of the water.”

She nodded, a slight smile emerging from the corner of her lips. I took that as a sign of satisfaction. “Okay, should we flip a coin to decide who plays and who gets vocal lead?

“You can have the melody and I’ll cover you with guitar,” I replied, feeling like a gentleman.

So we took our positions onstage. She stood parallel to a microphone stand slightly shorter than herself while I perched myself on a sturdy bar stool.

There are no words to describe what transpired next, other than pure magic. Anything I would ever perform after tonight would be dull in comparison to the noise we orchestrated. When Amy began singing along to my casual plucking and occasional strum, people fell silent. They were dazzled by the interactions onstage, almost the same as I was.

We hadn’t even rehearsed the song; it just came out like it belonged to us. It was like it was our song and we were just gracious enough to share a part of it with the audience. In a way, it was our song; the way we communicated through the rhythm, slowing down to make certain notes linger and hang about the room made it original.

I don’t think anyone in the crowd knew we hadn’t done shows together before. We fed off each other’s energy and used our stage chemistry to keep the audience emotionally interested. It worked. When I let the final major chord end, everyone went nuts.

Amy stared at me with widely-astonished eyes. It seemed as though neither of us had heard that particular type of applause before. The kind where there aren’t that many people in attendance, but they’re giving just as much heart via applause as you did in the set. It’s fulfilling, exciting, and most of all, intoxicating. I had no idea what Amy was trying to do when she grabbed my hand and started yanking me downward. By the time I realized we were bowing, it was too late. I still smiled like an idiot. Not even a sour bow could ruin the feeling I had.

I had been waiting for Amy to finish closing up for about fifteen minutes when she finally emerged from the seaside building. She hugged her arms around her torso, her body now enveloped in the enormous sweater she had thrown on before coming outside. She began yanking her hair out of up-do, releasing limp waves from the confines of their elastic bondage. I followed her down the splintery board walk and watched the light gleam off her hair as it swished to and fro. She took a seat where the high tide began, letting the inky black current wash over her dress. She stared at the spot on the horizon where the sun would’ve been, had it not been well past time for that.

I didn’t see any alternative other than to sit in the grainy sand aside her. “Come here often?”

She smiled, but didn’t look up from the pile of sand she was digging with her hand opposite me. “Well, considering I live within walking distance…”

I didn’t have anything to say for that, so I let the silence occupy us.