Page 150 of Only After We Met
From: Rhys Baker
To: Ginger Davies
Subject: RE: RE: RE: RE: Reflections
I’m surprised to hear you say that given what your favorite book is. “All grown-ups were once children—although few of them remember it.” I have the feeling sometimes that you’re no longer the girl who used to press her nose into the window of the pastry shop. And another thing: you don’t know me as well as you think, Ginger.
From: Ginger Davies
To: Rhys Baker
Subject: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Reflections
You’re wrong there, Rhys. Sorry, but I do know you. And I may as well answer your quote with another one: “It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom.”
From: Rhys Baker
To: Ginger Davies
Subject: Congratulations!
Happy birthday, Rhys. Thirty. My lord. How time passes. I guess you’re still angry at me (this time I don’t know why), but I still hope you’re having a great day and that you make a nice wish when you blow out the candles.
Kisses (sincerely) and hugs.
88
Ginger
The phone on the table vibrated, and I reached out to silence it before James woke up, but I was too late. He turned on the lamp on the nightstand and sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes. He looked tired.
“Who’s calling at two in the morning?”
“Sorry. It’s Rhys.”
“What’s he want now?”
“I don’t know. Maybe something’s up.”
James rolled his eyes just as the phone lit up and started vibrating again. I took a deep breath, got up, tied my robe, and answered, walking downstairs from the bedroom to the kitchen. It was already starting to fill up with boxes of my things.
“Rhys, are you okay?” I sat on the windowsill. Outside, the moon shone over the treetops. “Can you hear me?” Music was blasting on the other end of the line.
“Hey, Ginger Snap!” he shouted in a nasal voice.
“It’s two in the morning; I hope you’ve got a good excuse for this.”
“I love you. That should be enough, right?” I could hear hisdistorted laughter, cutting off every time he moved the phone. “Ginger, Ginger…”
That was the first time he’d ever said it to me.I love you. Just like that. No runaround. It should have been nice, but instead it was almost sad. I could feel my eyes burn. I thought of what I’d whispered in his ear that night when I told him I was in love with him and that he shined so bright he made everything else vanish. That had been true, but as the months passed, it was less and less so. The guy now yelling over the phone wasn’t the same Rhys I’d admired so much.
“You can’t do this.” I was shaking.
“You’re my birthday present though. I was remembering what last year on this day was like. You remember too, don’t you?”
“Rhys, I’m hanging up.”
My tears were dripping over my knuckles.