I put my sunglasses on top of my head, threw a bottle of water in my purse, and then went downstairs to wait for my ride.

The loudest, yellowest convertible was idling out front. I tried not to make eye contact with the driver because only a douche would drive a car like that.

Then I heard my name being called and I had to look.

Charlie waved both arms over his head. “Eliiiiiza!”

My jaw dropped in disbelief. “What in the world?” I asked as I approached the car.

He reached across the passenger seat and opened my door. “Get in! Our adventure awaits.”

I looked from the door to his excited face. “What is happening right now?”

“I bet you’ve never been in a yellow convertible,” he said, as if that explained anything.

I got in the car tentatively. “I haven’t. I can’t really say I’ve had the desire. Don’t tell me this is your car.”

Charlie put the car into drive and winked at me before we started moving. “Fine, I won’t tell you.”

I slapped his bicep with the back of my hand. “I don’t believe you.”

He laughed. “Okay! I rented it. Everyone needs to ride in a ridiculous yellow convertible at least once in their lives.”

“Is this your first time?” I asked.

“I’m offended you even have to ask,” he said.

Charlie and I had been running together for a week. We had officially signed up for the Baltimore Marathon and had almost two months to train. It seemed like a long time since I was already a runner, but that 26.2 miles was more than a little daunting. We were following a marathon training schedule, which had a lot of shorter runs with only one long run a week. It was hard for me to get used to not pushing myself beyond my limit, but Charlie was ecstatic when I told him we could start our runs at seven in the morning instead of six-thirty.

I still wasn’t sure how any of this had happened. Somehow, I went from only thinking about Charlie when I wanted to torture myself, to actively avoiding him, to training for a marathon with him and riding in a yellow convertible.

“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”

“You’ll see soon enough, Miss Eliza.”

I leaned my head back on the headrest and smiled. “We’re back to ‘miss’ now? I’m not even fancy today—I’m wearing jeans!”

He glanced over at my legs. “Don’t think I didn’t notice. You took my breath away when I saw you standing on that street corner. But then, you always do.”

I pursed my lips, not sure how to take that. Charlie always edged around flirting with me, but I wouldn’t say he was flirtatious. What we were building felt like friendship, even though I was undeniably attracted to him.

“I think you might be trying to flatter me to avoid answering where we’re going.”

Charlie waggled his eyebrows. “Is it working?”

“Not even a little!”

“How do you feel about horses?”

“Horses are...big? Pretty? I’ve never really delved into my feelings on the subject.”

Charlie chuckled and squeezed my knee. “Horses are big and pretty? I can’t get enough of you.”

There he went, making me blush again.

“Is this line of questioning going anywhere?” I asked.

“I’m taking you to the horse races. We’re going to test our luck.”

“What? Are you kidding me? I’ve never been to the horse races!” I was actually excited. I’d watched all the big races on TV and been to countless Preakness parties, but I had never even thought of going to watch in person.

“I had a feeling you’d say that. I also have a feeling you’ve never placed a bet or gambled either.”

“Never. My ex was an accountant and the idea of gambling was preposterous. He said you might as well burn your money.”

Charlie scoffed. “What a dick. The second I met him last fall, I knew he was a dick. What did you ever see in that guy?”

I looked down at my hands. I hated this question. I felt stupid enough for spending years with Edward, but when the inevitable question of why I stayed so long was asked, I never had a good enough answer.

He tapped my forearm with his fingertips. “You know what? Forget I asked. You don’t have to explain it to me. Just know we’re gonna waste some money today and we’re gonna have a fuckin’ blast doing it.”

The tension that had been building in my chest was gone just as suddenly as it had appeared.

“I can’t wait to waste money with you, Charlie.” I found myself smiling at his profile, watching the wind whipping his hair around, his lips curved up in his almost ever-present grin. I liked the way he was always relaxed, even when driving, his arms and shoulders loose. Sometimes, I felt like I never relaxed, like I was always on edge, but just being next to him made my mind slow down, as though I was absorbing some of his laid-back nature through osmosis.

The wind was being kind to Charlie’s hair, but mine was all in my face, sticking to my lip gloss. I pulled all of it up into a ponytail, but my bangs were still in my eyes, driving me crazy. I had to remember to put a trim on my to-do list.

Charlie slowed down and turned into the entrance of the race course. We drove under white arches with statues of horses on either side and then parked in a grassy parking lot.

When we got out of the car, he tugged the end of my ponytail. “I like your hair like that. I wish I could see your eyes, though.” I stood frozen while he lightly brushed my bangs to the side and skimmed his fingers down my cheek before he dropped his hand and tucked it in his pocket.

“Ready?” he asked, as if that small touch hadn’t just taken all my breath away and turned my knees into liquid.

I forced a small smile. “I think I am.”

The day was lovely, and something about the race track made me feel like we’d stepped back in time. A sign said the track first opened in 1911, and I could almost picture ladies in long dresses and parasols strolling along with their husbands, in their suits and straw hats, on the same path we were walking.

Charlie scanned the schedule in the program he’d picked up. “The first race is in thirty minutes. Let’s place our bets.”

We stopped in front of a machine that had so many choices on the screen, my eyes crossed. Charlie tried to explain odds and handicaps, but it went in one ear and out the other.

“Just put me down for Secretariat,” I said.

Charlie leaned his head back and stared at me. “You mean the horse that won the Triple Crown in the seventies and died almost thirty years ago? Sure.” He pretended to push buttons on the screen, making me laugh.

“Which one has the best name?” I leaned over his shoulder and read the list of names. “Oh! I wager all my money on SorryNotSorry!”

“Okay, so five bucks, right?” He pressed the screen and entered my bet.

“Who are you picking?”

“I’m kind of digging Easy Sunday,” he said.

“Because of the song?”

And right there, at a busy race track with people all around us, Charlie turned to me, looked into my eyes earnestly, and belted out, “I’m eeeeeaaaaasy…”

I melted, the heat of embarrassment turning me into a puddle on the ground. Charlie was the least self-conscious person I’d ever known, and I may have been the most, especially when it came to strangers looking at me.

“Your cheeks are awfully pink, Miss Eliza.”

“And you’re awfully loud,” I said.

“When you’re with me, people are going to stare. You just have to accept and embrace it,” he said, matter-of-fact. He had said he was going to pull me out of my comfort zone, and apparently, he really meant it.

“This is our first public outing. You have to give me a chance to acclimate,” I said.

Charlie rested his hand on the small of my back as we made our way outside to the general admission area. There were stadium seats further back, but we sat in the rows of white seats right in front of the track.

I perched on the edge of my seat, scanning the dirt-packed track for the horses.

Pointing to the far end of the track, I said excitedly, “There they are!”

I turned to Charlie, and he was watching me with an amused expression on his face. “I love how excited you are.”

“I love that you brought me here.”

“You seem to have forgotten to mention I brought you here in style.”

“Like I said, I love that you brought me here.”

I bit my bottom lip to hold in a laugh when Charlie clutched his chest and slumped sideways. “Dagger to the heart!”

When the horses were lined up in their starting gates, Charlie and I stood by the fence separating us from the track. With the ring of a bell, the horses were off, and I got so caught up in watching, I started yelling right along with the rest of the crowd.

“Go, SorryNotSorry! Faster—go, go, go!”

My horse pulled in front of the others, and I jumped up and down with glee. I gripped Charlie’s forearm on the final stretch.

“Charlie, I think my horse is going to win!”

I dug my fingers into his arm and held my breath. It was close, so very close. My horse was nose-to-nose with another horse. And then he seemed to pull something from deep within himself and sped up, crossing the finish line a full second before the next horse.

I threw myself on Charlie.

“He won! I won! I’m rich!” I wrapped my arms around his neck and he held me loosely around my waist as I jumped up and down in front of him.

He was shaking with laughter when I calmed down, so I swatted his chest. He held up his hand, and said, “I hope you didn’t call your boss and quit your job. I think you won about seven dollars.”

I kicked his toe with mine. “Damn. I’ll have to tear up that resignation letter.”

He slung his arm around my shoulder. “But now that you’ve come into money, I could really go for a pretzel.”

I elbowed his side and narrowed my eyes at him. “I knew you had ulterior motives. You’re after me for my fortune.”

He squeezed me closer before he let me go. “Come on, moneybags, let’s go get a pretzel.”

Once we had snacks and beer and had placed a bet on the next race, we went back to our seats in the sun. Whether it was the high from winning, the beautiful day, or the surprise of it all, I was having more fun than I’d had in a long time.

“Do you come here a lot?” I asked.

“Are you trying to pick me up?”

I groaned. “I did just use a classic pick-up line on you, didn’t I?”

“You did. I’ll let it pass this time. When you hit on me, I want you to really mean it. And to answer your question, I used to come a lot with my parents as a kid, but not lately.”

“Why not lately?”

He shrugged. “No one to come with. And now, I think you’ve ruined me for coming to the races with anyone else. No one else could possibly be as fun.”

A warmth spread across my chest and we smiled at each other.

Then he tapped my nose and said, “Boop!”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Charlie…”

“Eliza…”

I laughed and kicked his foot. “Are you still close with your parents?”

He absently traced a finger up and down the tattoo of Victorian-style shears surrounded by colorful flowers on my inner forearm while he thought about his answer. “Pretty close. They live in Japan now, so I only see them about twice a year, but we email and FaceTime regularly.”

“When did they move to Japan?”

“Ten years ago, actually. When my mom graduated college, she went to Tokyo for a year to teach English and she met my dad, fell madly in love and dragged him back to the states. They made a deal they’d move back there when my sister and I were grown up and living on our own, and they did.”

“Do you speak Japanese?” I asked.

He nodded. “Hai.”

“Will it be incredibly annoying if I ask you to say something in Japanese?”

“Not incredibly annoying…”

I swatted his arm, and he laughed. “What do you want me to say?” he asked.

“Anything!”

Charlie looked up at the sky and exhaled. “Okay. Mitame yori naimen no hō ga zutto suteki desu.”

I had no idea what he said, but the sound of the words leaving his mouth had goosebumps blossoming on my arms.

“Thank you, Charlie. You may have just told me I have octopus breath, but it sounded lovely.”

He continued tracing my tattoo. “That’s exactly what I said. How’d you know?”

“Do you want me to teach you Hebrew curse words? They’re the only thing I remember from all my years in Hebrew school.”

He jerked his head back as if in shock. “Do you really need to ask? Of course I do.”

We spent the rest of the afternoon trading curse words and betting on races. Sadly, I didn’t win again, but like Charlie, I too was ruined. I could never go to another horse race and have as much fun as I did with him. Everything felt lighthearted and any concerns and worries I had fell away while we were together. And maybe that wasn’t realistic or maintainable, but it felt so good, I didn’t want to question it.

Charlie drove me home in the yellow convertible, and this time, I fully appreciated the experience.

“I think you were right about the convertible,” I said.

“Was I?” He sounded quite smug at my admission.

“Yes. Thank you for doing this for me. No one has ever done anything like this for me.”

He reached over and squeezed my arm. “That’s a real shame.” His hand lingered, softly resting there, until he finally pulled away and placed it back on the steering wheel.

When we pulled up in front of my building, we turned toward each other.

“This was one for the record books, Charlie.”

He leaned over and pushed my bangs to the side, just as he’d done at the beginning of the day. “Just wait for all the things I have in store for you, Eliza.”

The moment was perfect. And because it was so perfect, I had to ruin it by being awkward. Just as I stretched across the console to kiss Charlie’s cheek, he leaned back in his seat. So there I was, lips pursed, hanging there all by myself. I tried to play it off by blowing him a kiss, but I could tell I wasn’t fooling anyone. I wanted to curl up and die right then and there.

Instead, I got out of the car as quickly as humanly possible and ran up the steps, yelling, “Bye, Charlie!” over my shoulder. When I went inside, I pulled back the curtain of my front window to peek out. Charlie was still idling by the curb, his head on the steering wheel.

Instead of Miss Eliza, I should have been known as Eliza Goldberg, Ruiner of All the Things. Because obviously I could never see him again, no matter how perfect our day had been. Game’s over; pack it in. I was much too humiliated to go on.