Lacey was balancing another round of drinks, feeling like she’d been there before. Of course she had. She was starting to feel like she had no memories, no real ones, of a time when she wasn’t punching a clock at Geno’s. The hamster wheel went round and round, and there was no way for her to get off. It had been good, seeing Sasha, but bittersweet and humiliating as well. She’d never been so aware of how little she’d made of herself. She’d thought she’d know how she was going to feel about it, but she hadn’t been prepared for the reality. Norman and Sasha were rich, and they were only going to get richer. They were going to be able to anything they wanted. They would have perfect children who would go to perfect schools and create perfect grandchildren. And Lacey would stay here in this restaurant, serving drinks, trying to make ends meet, waiting for her best days to finally start as her youth ran out.

There was a cheer from the front of the restaurant. She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. It was the kind of cheer that only happened in the restaurant when someone scored a touchdown, or when a football player walked in. Even during high school football season, the team got treated like royalty.

“Abel! Get over here! Let us buy you a drink!”

Lacey felt her hands turn into fists. Her whole body tightened, as if every cell in her system had said “Trouble’s on the way!”

Abel was standing by the door, grinning as if he was in charge of the entire world. Had he always been that big? That handsome? He leaned against the doorway briefly and it was so graceful and inexplicably hot that she wanted to spray herself with a mister. Get a hold of yourself she thought. Lacey caught his eye and felt herself blush. She hoped it was dim enough in there so that he wouldn’t notice.

“Hey you!” said Abel. He was moving towards her in slow motion. Whatever song was on the radio vanished as the white noise in her head started to crackle, drowning out everything but him.

It was like she had stepped into a time machine. All of her old feelings for him rushed back as if there had been no lost time. Not one lost second between then and now No one had ever made her feel like he had. She’d felt dainty, and smart, and he’d told her every moment that she was beautiful. He had said it so much that he had constantly been asking if he was saying it too much. I can’t help it, he had always said, you walk into the room and it pops out of my mouth before I realized I’m even saying anything.

The problem was, now she knew his reputation, and she knew that she had probably been one of many girls who had been hearing that from him back then. And now, good heavens, how would she be able to trust anything he said? This was literally a man for whom money was no object, who had ultimate freedom, and to boot, the body of a God.

Be cool. Be cool.

Abel stopped and shook hands with the men at the tables, gently rejecting their offers of drinks, and made his way over to her. Without asking, he took the tray out of her hand, set it down, and hugged her.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” he said into the top of her head. “You smell so good.”

Likewise, she thought. You smell like you. I remember it instantly.

“Thanks,” she said. “It’s not easy to smell good after two minutes in this place.”

“I heard that,” said Geno, walking by on his way to another table. “Hi Abel. Anything you want, on the house.”

Abel’s arms were incredibly strong and he wrapped her up tightly and lifted her off the ground. He seemed genuinely happy to see her. Finally, he set her down. “Wow,” he said. “You look amazing. I can’t say that it’s the most flattering uniform, but you look soooooo good.”

Lacey giggled and hated the sound. She started playing with her hair and had to will herself to stop. He stirred her up like she was a martini. Just keep telling yourself that every girl feels like this around him.

“Thanks, Abel. What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I’m asking the questions here, Lace. That’s all I’ve been doing since I got back. It took some serious detective work to find out where you were. I had to do the whole Magnum PI thing, not to mention a little MacGyver. So what are you doing here? I mean, not in town, but…” He waved his arms at the restaurant. “In here? Is this an experiment for a role or something? I figured that once you got to the conservatory someone would spot you and ask you to start acting. Every time I turn on the radio I expect to hear the latest hit from you. Or the first one.”

“Uh. I wish it was that glamorous. It’s a long story, Abel. You look good too, by the way. And you smell good. Oh brother, I sound smooth, don’t I?”

He threw his chin back and posed as if he were in a magazine shoot. Lacey took an imaginary picture.

“Thank you,” he said. “I’ve been told that I have ‘chiseled goods looks.’”

“By who?”

“Magazines. TV. Women that aren’t as smart as you. Nobody tells me I smell good though, so you’ve got that going for you.”

“Ah. Still a sweet talker. Abel, it was good to see you, but I’ve got tables. No rest for the wicked and all that.”

He put his hand on her arm, which sent chills radiating out from her wrist to her shoulder. “Just tell me what you’re doing here. What’s been happening?”

She sighed. “Abel, the music thing didn’t work out. Just wasn’t for me, ultimately. I’m not happy about it. It’s not my favorite subject. I just kind of missed my home town, you know?”

“Uh, I guess. But that’s not really your style. You’re still a sassy little vixen and the great city of Palmera basically runs on your magnetism.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Come on, I need to hear you laugh. I’ve got to know you still can.”

“Ha,” she said. “Ha?”

She couldn’t believe Abel was acting interested in her. Cocky or not, he was who he was, and he could not have been less like her. What must she have looked like to him? Amazing, he had said. But beyond her appearance…what could he possibly have seen in her? It had to be a game, or at the very least, a habit he couldn’t break. He was probably charming by default, and it always got him what he wanted. Maybe the whole persona was like a tic at this point, and every time someone approached him it set off a wave of involuntary charm barrages.

Still, this was the person she had fallen so hard for in the month before high school ended. Lacey had never known anyone so sweet. She couldn’t have invented someone as sweet as Abel had been, not even if someone had given her a million bucks to write a hero in a romantic comedy. He had brought flowers to her desk every other day at first period, right in front of everyone. And he hadn’t had any money to buy flowers with, so it meant he had hand picked them. He had held her hand and kissed her before dropping her off at each class. At night he tried (badly) to cook for her. He read the books she recommended and tried to learn more about music when he learned how passionate she was about it.

Abel had been just as gorgeous back then, but she had always heard that fame had a way of changing a person. What did she really know about him? She knew better than most that people only real knew what you decided to show them. But he looked so sincere—and, while she was thinking about it, once again, gorgeous—that she wondered if she was being unfair to him. All she really had to go on was rumors about his reputation. Abel the Playboy, who had scored more touchdowns with women than anyone in the history of the NFL. Still, if everyone believed every rumor they heard, she wouldn’t have come out of it looking great either.

Maybe fame would have changed her as well. Maybe her piano-playing wizardry would have turned her into some horrendous diva who demanded that a bucket of kittens for her to pet be presented at every stop on her tour. Maybe getting stuck Palmera was a blessing in disguise.

I would have liked to have at least had the chance for my personality to change she thought.

“What are you thinking about?” he said. “That is one wistful face. You look like a poster for a movie called Nostalgia Girl.”

Lacey didn’t answer.

“Let me guess,” he said. “You were wondering about how you were going to apologize to me for vanishing from my life and breaking my heart forever.”

“Forever?” she said, looking at the ground. “That’s a long time.”

“It was pretty broken,” he said. “But hey, I don’t want to crowd you.”

“Abel, things aren’t great right now. Guilt is not something I can do more of. I’ve got plenty of it, believe me.”

“I do believe you, but I’m going to get to the bottom of it. You can have all the time you want, but I really, really hope you’ll just tell me what happened while you’re here. I don’t have a plus one for Sasha’s wedding, after all, and as it happens, I have literally no prospects. Not any that interest me,” he added before she could say more.

Before she could move, he bent down and kissed her lightly on the forehead. The men at the tables applauded.

“Give her another one!” someone yelled, taking out a camera, prepared to capture this unforgettable moment for his posterity.

Lacey pointed at him. “Put that away. Point it at something worthwhile. Aren’t you all usually taking pictures of your food?”

Abel could have scratched his head with a pencil and they would have cheered him on as if he were fighting an offensive line, not an itch. He waved to them all and went outside.

Lacey breathed a sigh that was a mixture of relief and disappointment. She could still feel his lips on her forehead and his hand on her arm.