Rusty, historic brick blurred past Anne's window as they wove through Redmond's residential area, but Anne hardly registered anything but her coffee's heat and the thick tension in the car.
As soon as Patty's Place had dematerialized in the rear view mirror, a frigid unease grew between herself and Gil.
This was going to be even more difficult than Anne had thought.
Distant memories of their once easy back-and-forth threatened to twist her heart in two, but Anne determined to rekindle as much of their past repartee as she could.
If she could only think of something to say.
For over a year, pain and loss accumulated around her relationship with Gil, and Anne couldn't quite pin down an appropriate topic for two people who purposely forgot each other.
But this would be a dreadfully long car ride if she couldn't think of anything to say to her estranged friend and current chauffeur.
"How's the biology department treating you?" Anne asked in one breath, jumbling the words together.
Gil inclined his eyes slightly over to her but then turned to check his sideview mirror as he merged onto the interstate.
"Quite well, I suppose," he answered shortly, but openly.
"Well, I heard you were doing quite as well as you always have," Anne said, a smile in her voice. "But I wanted to hear it from the very source."
"So you've been asking about me, Shirley?" Gil replied, his mouth quirking mischievously.
And there it was: a question which—depending on her answer—could shift the entire mood in an instant.
A question she would've lightly turned away as rhetorical a year ago.
A question she could answer toxically to alienate Gil further.
A question she needed to answer before her hesitation gave him suspicions.
"Yes, but only when it's been a really slow news day," Anne responded, matching his mischief expertly.
And just like that, they fell back into place.
Like the day he had whistled past her gate.
Like the day she finally let him in.
Like the day when they had talked of everything and nothing without restraint.
But unlike that day, the reunited pair now left two particular topics largely untouched.
And though Anne felt a clawing need to know just exactly what that raven-haired beauty meant to Gil, she restrained, keeping their conversation just as it would've been in the hazy Avonlea days.
And for the first time in such a long time, Anne felt safe allowing her heart to glow and open for someone else.
Gil simply knew her, past every artifice and denial and wall, and Anne wished for something she couldn't quite understand other than just more time with the man next to her.
"So, tell me, Anne, how are you feeling about Di's wedding?" Gil asked, in a tone she knew required more than a vapid exclamation of happiness.
"I… just…." Anne began unsteadily. "I'm not ready… to lose her so completely. For so long, we've been inseparable, but now… or soon…. But I'm happy for her, I promise! I'm just… in the pits of despair when I think too much about how distant her new life will be."
A brief silence lingered as Anne finished her confession in a low tone.
Her hands tightened around her mug, desperately seeking a distracting, comforting heat from a now empty and cool container.
But then, a warmth she didn't expect.
Gil's hand had come to rest on top of hers.
Startled, Anne glanced at Gil, his face now slightly older, more mature than she remembered.
"It's okay to miss her, Anne," Gil whispered, his eyes firmly on the road. "Di understands more than you realize, I think."
The moment breathed for a second longer: the guilt of Anne's un-whole happiness for Di, Gil's warm hand on her shaking one, his kind, understanding validation.
And then, the second expired.
Anne felt his hand slide from hers slowly, his palm grazing her knuckles, his pinky brushing her thumb.
And before his actions could resettle the icy tension from before, Gil made a jarring lane change and quickly spoke.
"Let's grab something to eat, huh? I don't want to eat an entire rehearsal dinner if I can help it!"
You know how you can't control what your characters do sometimes? What Gil just did, one of those times. Tell me what ya think, and maybe I can get this characters under control... or not...