Epilogue
It had been a week since Silas had spoken to Chance. Although she had valiantly tried to reach out to him, he just couldn’t bring himself to talk to her – not just yet. While he didn’t respond to any of her text messages or e-mails, he had actually read each one of them.
“Please don’t shut me out,” her last text message to him read as he sat studying for his Programming Course. “You promised that you wouldn’t, remember? Please let me explain.”
Silas sighed. She was right. Chance had asked him to hang in there after meeting her family and he had clearly told her that he would. From that perspective, he had gone back on his word. On the flip-side, she hadn’t been straight-forward with him about who she was. From her family’s status to her dad’s identity, she had held some important information back from him and – in a real way – it made him wonder what else might be up her sleeve.
“Meet me at Johnny Quicks in 30 minutes?” he suggested, signaling – for the first time – that he was ready to talk.
“Sure,” she replied immediately, curtly.
Silas closed his books and hastily shoved them into his book bag. He wasn’t looking forward to this meeting at all but realized that it was time to have a frank conversation. Instead of driving, he decided to take the 25-minute walk and, along the way, work through his thoughts. Silas reasoned that the fresh air and quiet time would help to clear his mind and lay the foundation for a thoughtful discussion.
The only problem: none of that was true. The closer he got to his destination, the more he wanted to turn around and go back to his study session. At least there, he had the majority of the answers. Here, in this case, all bets were off! When it came to Chance, things were much more undefined and in flux. Despite his reservations, he powered forward and, before he knew it, he’d arrived at Johnny Quicks.
“Table for two,” he said, as he reached the hostess’ stand.
“Would you like a booth or a high-top,” the petite, cheerful hostess asked, grabbing two menus.
“Wait,” Silas said, as a familiar face caught his eye, “it looks like the person I’m meeting is already here.
“Oh, OK,” the hostess replied, putting the menus back in their holder, “you’re welcomed to just go in.”
“Thanks,” he said, reluctantly starting down the well-worn path.
As he walked toward her, Chance slowly realized that Silas had arrived.
“Hi,” she said gloomily, looking up from her menu and placing it down on the table.
“Hi,” he replied void of any emotion, placing his book bag in the booth first before sliding the rest of his body in.
Chance took a deep breath and then switched her glance from the table directly into Silas’ eyes. “Believe me, I get why you’re upset with me. I just want you – I just need you to hear me out. Please,” she pleaded, her eyes sad, blue eyes staring deeply into his.
As he watched her make an appeal to him, the ice that encased Silas’ heart began to melt. Unwilling to let on or change his outward posture in any noticeable way, he simply replied by saying, “OK, I’m listening.”
Chance took another deep breath. “I want you to remember the first time we hung out, that night we had coffee after class.”
“Yeah?” Silas said, as the fog that shrouded that memory slowly begin to lift.
“Well, you asked me why I looked so embarrassed when Dr. Byrne acknowledged our paper and I told you that, throughout my life, compliments have often been empty or – in many cases – given just to get something back in return.”
“OK?”
“Well, because my dad is who he is – and, mind you, that’s something that I don’t have any control over – it’s hard to tell when someone is genuinely impressed with me or when they have some kind of ulterior motive – or just want something from my dad. Byrne included!”
Silas shifted in his seat, diligently trying to wrap his mind around everything Chance was saying.
“That said,” Chance paused, “I – quite purposely – don’t offer up certain information before I get to know someone. I have to wait until a person’s motives are clear to me or until I truly believe that they like Chance Parker – the person – before I reveal any of the other stuff that other people use to define me.”
“Hi, I’m Mazy,” a bespectacled waitressed interrupted, her hands clasped in front of her. “Can I get y’all something to drink?”
“Oh, I’d like water with lemon, please,” Silas said.
“Tea for me,” Chance said with a sigh, mentally transitioning from the heavy conversation that was underway to the much, much lighter task of placing an order.
“Got it! Be right back!” Mazy said, rushing off to get their drinks.
As they were left to themselves, silence dominated Silas’ interaction with Chance – that is, until he made the effort to break the ice.
“Well, I just want to say that I get it. I understand it. I know why you behaved the way that you did. I think, in some way, that I had a rough understanding of everything you just said as soon as I saw Chancellor Parker walk into the dining room. It’s just the – the deception of it all. I’m having a hard time with that.”
Chance exhaled, feeling like she would always be stuck between a rock and a hard place when it came to this particular matter.
“All of this just makes me wonder what else, if anything, you’re hiding from me.”
“Well,” Chance interjected, “let’s not forget that you didn’t tell me about Ava right away. I only found out about her after the plan for Kalyn to pick her up before our meeting fell through.”
Silas looked off to the side and took a deep breath, hesitant to concede Chance’s point.
“Here’s what I think,” Chance began, “no, here’s what I know. I miss you.”
Silas’ ears perked up and his eyes got wide as Mazy brought the drinks back to the table. Knowing how guarded Chance is, he knew that it took quite a bit for her to show her vulnerable side. “I miss you too,” he shared, reaching out his hands and punctuating his sentence with a smirk.
“And,” she replied, reaching out her hands to meet his, “I miss Ava.”
Silas chuckled, and tightened his grip around her hands just slightly.
“So, how can I fix this? How can we go forward?” Chance asked.
“Well, I think we’re off to a good start now. It looks like we both want to make it work!”
“Yeah, I know I do,” Chance concurred.
“So, let’s make the effort to be more up front with each other.”
“I can do that.”
“Good, and let’s try dinner with your parents again; this time, I’ll have a little bit of a heads up about who will be there. Deal?”
“Deal!”
“I know we’ve got to recover and adjust to the circumstances but – I’m – I’m ready to figure all of this out with you.”
Beaming, Silas let Chance’s hands go and quickly got up.
“What’s going on?” she said, genuinely confused.
“Scoot over,” he said to a giggling Chance as he slid in to her side of the booth.
“You are so silly!” she said, marveling about how, just an hour ago they were on the outs.
“You think you’re ready to do this?” he asked, a slightly serious glint in his eye.
“Yeah!” she mused, “You?”
“I am,” he said with a sly smile. “You know what we should do?”
“What?”
“Seal this with a kiss,”
“Oh yeah?” she asked, “let’s do it!”
As he brought her in closer, and eagerly anticipated her tender embrace and loving smooch, the warm feeling and fluttering heart he was used to whenever she was around came back in full force. In that moment he grew more confident than ever that they were at the beginning of an amazing journey on the path to forever.