SMELLING ROSES

Chapter Seventeen

Wren's mustang was beginning to feel like a piece of me. Every time we took a drive, we got closer, and I became more familiar. He filled the middle console with fast food napkins and guitar picks. I could make a notebook with all the loose paper stuffed into his glove compartment. It was cluttered with lyrics he'd forgotten as soon as the ink dried. How many lives were lived in this car, and how many memories still lingered in its remains?

I wanted to leave something behind for him, or maybe it was the car. I wasn't quite sure who I wanted to remember me.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

I shifted my weight, burying my face into the passenger's window. The paper crumbled in my hands as I scribbled. I pictured him finding it years from now, and how he'd retrace the memory of me. The words I wrote for him, because they were true, even on the days when he forgot.

Your purpose will succeed you.

I folded it and slipped it under the sun visor above me. He tried to read it, but I swatted him away. "It's not for you. It's for the car."

His cheeks lifted like he'd just overheard someone compliment the behavior of his kid. It still amazed me how much he loved his car. It was like they both had been through hell and back and still managed to work perfectly in tune.

"What kind of building are we looking for, anyway?" I asked as we passed another skyscraper.

Another one of his infamous surprises. I started looking forward to them, but I didn't want him to think I'd forgotten what he told me. I was a distraction for him as much as this summer was for me. It was like, as long as we were together, and it was summer, our lives would be on hold. But summer was almost over.

I just didn't know what else to say. He needed to know how strong he was, but I had no idea how to say that and not sound like everyone else. People raved about him all the time. At some point, it was hard to decipher what was real and what was just chatter.

I looked out the window. People were out as if they had no lives to lead by morning. Traffic was tight, the sidewalks were cramped, and night watched above quietly. There were no stars, and the moon seemed to take the night off. It was just city lights, crowded streets, and the smell of pollution. Yet people still loved to call this place home.

"No matter how many clever ways you try to ask, I'll never tell you. You're just gonna have to wait," he said.

"Are we at least almost there?"

His car rumbled against the broken concrete as he turned onto a side street. Cruising the narrow street, he found a tiny space between two trucks. He was going to do the impossible. He was going to parallel park. Even my father broke into a cold sweat at the sight of city parking.

"Wren, it's not enough space."

He gave me a wink. My challenge had been accepted. He put the car in reverse and gave it a shot. He tried and tried and tried, to no avail. After the fourth, I suggested he admit his defeat. He laughed in the face of danger. Before I could declare myself the winner, he made it. By the skin of his teeth, he made it.

Cupping his mouth with his hand, he hissed out the sound of fake applause. "I looked cool, right?"

"You look so cool," I laughed. I surveyed the tight spot when we got outside. "You're never getting out."

A car sped by and a gust of wind fanned over my bare legs. I looked down and smiled. Wren bought me a dress. It was lilac with lace detailing at the shoulders. He even dressed him up too. Simple black slacks, white quarter-sleeve shirt, and a blue vest. Again. He looked good in anything.