Free (Never) Again by Theresa Paolo

selfish to not think about how hard leaving must’ve been for him? Did I even ask?
    “I wish I’d known. I would’ve gone to see her,” I said, and for a split second his eyes lit up.
    “Really?”
    “Of course! I love Mimi. You know that.”
    “She still asks about you. On her good days, you know. She’d love to see you.”
    She still asked about me? My heart swelled like a marshmallow in a microwave. “I’d love to see her.”
    He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. I could see the contentment in the slight smile that tugged at his lips.
    “Now, what about you? What’s new?” he finally asked after we’d walked another twenty feet down the beach.
    “Not much to tell.” The words brought me back to our first meeting in high school, when he gave me the same bullshit answer during our get-to-know-your-classmate activity.
    “If I know anything, I know Liz Wagner leads anything but a normal, boring life.”
    “Then I guess you don’t know anything.” And we laughed just like we used to. Nothing existed except us. We were in our own world.
    “How long have you and Joe been together?”
    And just like that he ripped our world from its orbit and threw it back into reality.
* * *
    When I told Zach I’d go see Mimi, I didn’t expect to go directly from the beach. But after seeing the excitement in his eyes, I couldn’t say no.
    Since I’d carpooled with Professor Mulligan, Zach offered to take me to Mimi’s then drop me off at my place. The orange color of his Jeep was usually hard to miss, but the truck was currently caked in mud.
    “Ever hear of a car wash?” I asked, eyeing the mess.
    “A car wash? What’s that?”
    I gave a good shove to his shoulder. “Very funny, smartass.”
    “I went off-roading yesterday afternoon. The inside is clean. Here, I’ll even open the door for you, so you don’t have to touch the handle.”
    “How kind.” He reached around me and my breath hitched at his proximity.
    “What can I say? I’m a gentleman.” His breath, warm and minty, lingered on my skin.
    “That’s debatable.”
    “You really know how to get to a guy’s heart.” He opened the door and waited until I climbed in.
    I took my step up then turned back to him. “I try.”
    He was right. The inside wasn’t a disaster. Even the back seat, which had been covered in dirt from when we went pumpkin picking, was spotless.
    I was impressed.
    I thought the ride to Mimi’s would be awkward, but I should have known Zach didn’t do awkward.
    “Mom’s doing good, still tutoring,” he said, his eyes focused on the road in front of him. “What about you?” I asked, wanting to know what I’d missed while we’d been apart.
    He stopped at a red light and glanced over at me. “What about me?”
    Everything and anything. I wanted to know what became of my Zach. How similar or how different the new Zach was.
    “Do you still want to be a marine biologist?”
    His dark eyes twinkled. “Absolutely. The love I have for the ocean will never go away.”
    The words punched me in the gut. Hard. The ocean was able to keep his love, but I wasn’t.
    “By the way, your presentation was amazing.”
    I took a calming breath to ease the pain. “Thanks.”
    A few seconds of silence passed, but Zach could never stay quiet for long. “So have you seen Purge play?”
    “More times than I’d like to admit.”
    “Between me and you . . .” He waved his finger like a metronome. “They suck.”
    A giggle escaped my lips and I threw my hand over my mouth.
    “What? They do! Joe’s not here. It’s just me and you. You can laugh about it.”
    So I did. As I was laughing a Nickelback song came on the radio and he turned it up and started belting it out.
    “Come on, Liz. Don’t you remember Zach and Liz Karaoke Time?” he asked, bobbing his head to the music and tapping the steering wheel with his hands.
    How could I forget Zach and Liz Karaoke Time? It was never planned. It was always a random outburst,