Second Time Around
Chapter 13
Haley and Nathan sat in a corner booth at Karen's café looking at the menus in front of them. A woman in her early twenties came over to take their order. They both ordered the breakfast special with a coffee. As they both sipped their coffee that sat in an uncomfortable silence for a couple of minutes until they both broke it.
"So--" They both laughed and some of the tension between them dissipated a little.
"Um, you go first."
"Okay…wow, I knew we needed to talk, but I never thought about the details of it. Okay, I guess maybe we should get to know each other again. I know that sounds really stupid, but I don't know, it's just that we haven't seen each other in six years. So,… I went to Columbia and graduates with a Bachelor's in Journalism and got a job at the New York Times, which sounds great, but I pretty much never left the copy room. So me and my two roommates, Melissa and Jessica, who both had crappy jobs similar to mine, decided to start a magazine. We all still live together, but our apartment now is a whole lot bigger than the one we lived in during college. Melissa is a total sweetheart and Jessica reminds me a lot of Brooke, well Brooke when she was in high school. But anyways, Chic became big and now here I am, which I guess leads me to last night. My mom, sisters, and I were at a Spa night for Taylor's bachelorette party and my mom basically told me I'm a disappointment because I don't have a husband or kids. So I kinda freaked and left, and then you know the rest." Nathan couldn't help but notice how her face brightened up when she talked about New York and her roommates. Every other time he has seen her she has had this sadness in her eyes that wasn't there in high school, and it broke his heart.
"I'm sorry Hales. You aren't a disappointment. You have come so far I am so proud of you."
"Thanks. So what about you?"
"Well, I graduated from UNC with a degree in Business and went to work for my dad. By then he owned basically everything in Tree Hill that had to do with cars. After his third heart-attack last year the doctors told him he should probably retire because the stress was not good for him, so he left the business to me and Luke. Luke didn't want to give up his job at the school, so I bought his part of the business, and am now running it. That's about it." Just as he finished the waitress came up with their plates of food and sat them down in front of Nathan and Haley.
"Are you busy today?"
"No, I don't need to go into the office today. You?"
"Nope. Just have the rehearsal dinner tonight. So we have things we need to talk about, I just think maybe here isn't the right place after all."
"Do you want to head down to the docks when we're done here?"
"Yeah. That sounds good." They both finished their breakfast then walked toward the docks. They both immediately walked over and sat down at the table that held so many memories for them.
"These past couple of days have kind of thrown me for a loop. I knew coming here wouldn't be fun with my family because, well because they're my family. But I hadn't planned on running into you. After I caught you in Florida I have tried to forget about you and forget about any feelings I had for you, but I couldn't. Senior year was one of the best years for me, and in my heart, I know that I will always love you, no matter what. And that's why this is so hard for me. I can't bury that feeling I get when I am around you. I can't stop my heart from pounding in my chest when I see you. I can't stop thinking about you." By now Haley was up pacing around the table trying to put all of her feelings into words. "I'm just so confused. My heart is yelling at me to run into your arms because that's where everything is perfect, but my head…my head is screaming at me to just stay away. And I don't know what to do. I still love you, I always will, but I still don't completely trust you. I mean after you helped me last night that gave me some confidence that you are the man I fell in love with, but there is still that question of your loyalty. Then there's the whole distance thing. I'm in New York, you're here. If something did work out, what would we do? And I am so sorry, I am totally freaking out and I don't even know how you feel. For all I know you want whatever we had to be in the past and ---" Haley was stopped as Nathan's lips melded with her own.