Gravity - Sara Bareilles
Grace watched as the clouds came in. She didn't want to be here, but she felt as though she didn't have a choice. She felt powerless against it. She shouldn't be here. She should be with him. But no. She wanted that even less.
She remembers the first time she came to this beach, she was on vacation, her cousin was visiting from back Iowa and wanted a beach, not understanding that not all of California was movie stars and palm trees and beaches.
She's still not sure how she ended up on this beach. She just followed the signs for L.A. and the beach and ended up somewhere she wasn't sure they were supposed to be. But her cousin had always been more adventurous than she was and they parked their car on a street without a no parking sign and changed into their bikinis in the car, something she hadn't done since high school when their mothers thought that they were wearing the conservative one pieces suites to the lake with their boyfriends.
There had been others on that stretch of beach and the acted as if they belonged. Her cousin didn't waist much time in finding a hot young surfer to apply suntan lotion to her back. Grace had decided to throw caution to the wind and accept the offer of sunscreen from the surfer's friend. She wasn't going to tan. Her red hair pretty much dictated that any "tan" that she got would go from pain to lobster in less than thirty minutes.
She'd brought a book to read, and while her cousin was admiring the muscles of the surfer, she looked up at the houses on the beach and cliffs behind them. One in particular grabbed her attention. It was no different really from the other houses on this stretch of beach. Lots of glass and flat roofs. But there was something about this one that stuck in her mind, made her search through her brain until she thought she'd go crazy.
Just when she was going to interrupt her cousins shameless flirting a voice beside her told her where she had seen the house before.
"It looks better in person, doesn't it?" And she jumped. The one person that she never expected to run into, Patrick Jane, was bending over her, practically whispering in her ear. He always through her off center and this was no different.
"I didn't—I didn't realize that you lived here. I never would have—" She stammered, unsure of what to say, not sure if he was mad or upset that she was here. It truly wasn't planned, but would be believe her?
"Don't worry. I don't think you're stalking me. You're here with your cousin, yes?" She barely nodded, still new to the team, still new to Jane, still new to the way that he always seemed to know what she was thinking and doing. "Is that the infamous Yolanda?" He gestured towards her cousin, currently being fawned over by not only her surfer, but also his friend who had put the sunscreen on Grace.
"Yes." She silently hoped that he didn't want to be introduced. It was one thing being embarrassed and trying to still uphold her beliefs in front of people she barely knew, it was another thing entirely to have him publicly insult her cousin for things that she truly believed were possible.
"Don't worry; I'm not going to ask you to introduce me." He smiled at her. "Come for a walk with me." She looked around, over at her cousin absorbed in the attention of stereotypical California male and then back to Jane.
"Ok." She stood, not sure where they were going to go, not sure why she felt like she left her stomach on the towel behind her, but knew that this was something she needed to do. They walked along the beach, talking of everything and nothing. The sun soared in the sky making a slow decent to the ocean. They walked up to his house, though they didn't go in. There wasn't a need to. And when the sun was setting, when it was being swallowed by the waves she made her way back to her cousin alone.
"Where have you been?" She asked, though her anger was only half formed, a day of beautiful men and warm sand having distracted her so thoroughly that she'd only now realized that Grace was gone.
"I went for a walk." Was the only explanation.
Now, standing not on the beach, but on the sidewalk, and not with the sun but the moon lighting her path she thought again of that first day. She wasn't sure why she was there. She had turned and was about to leave when the door opened.
"Grace." And that was all she needed.