Coney Island

Chapter 2

The next morning was a rush since both Joe and I overslept due to us being up half of the night. I hadn't been able to settle properly, and had gotten up around three am to jot down some lyrics that had come to me suddenly. I wasn't as quiet as I had wanted to be, and Joe had also woken; we'd ended up sitting for hours talking about our plans to move and our upcoming wedding, finally coming to the decision that we would send a mass email to our nearest and dearest inviting them over for dinner, where we would then break the news.

We had even set a date for said wedding, which would be held in thirteen weeks in England. And while it still didn't feel right, I was no longer forcing down bile every time I mentioned the words "marriage," "wedding," or "husband." so I was counting that as a win.  

After a rushed breakfast, Joe had said a quick goodbye before he left for Italy, where he would be giving an interview for a film that would be releasing later in the month. I cleaned up and set about completing my first task of the day, which was calling Tree and informing her of our move, and the wedding, so she wasn't blindsided at the dinner.  

I knew she would have a lot to say about both topics, and I thought it would be better to get it out now rather than there being a scene in front of everyone. Tree hated it when I made impulsive life-changing decisions that would cause a massive uproar among my fans and sometimes even the general public. It made her job ten times harder, which I sympathized with but also she had to earn her wage somehow, and what better way than trying to control the narrative of a surprise wedding, which also included a permanent move across the country? 

I had no doubts she could pull it off, it was, of course, the reason why I kept her on the payroll so long. She was one of the best in the business, and she had never let me down yet, so I had high hopes for how she would handle this particular bombshell. 

I got her answering machine, so I left her a short message to ask her to come to the house because I had some news that I wanted to share with her as soon as possible. I knew as soon as she got the message that she would call me, panicking and wondering what kind of damage control she would have to do. It made me giggle to think of her in a flap, just like she was when Karlie and I were caught kissing at that concert all those years ago. 

However I quickly realised that was the worst thought process I could of had because that only caused me to think of Karlie, which led me to remember the note and the fact that she could be sitting in the cold on a bench in Coney Island wondering if I was going to be a no show, or if she had managed to get in my head again and I'd come running like I always had in the past. 

I looked at the clock and sighed; it was one pm. I only needed to distract myself for another hour and half. It was extremely difficult though and as the minutes ticked by, It was like I was fighting a war inside myself. My head was telling me that I was being smart by rejecting her demands, but my heart was calling me a fool for denying myself the answers I had wanted since she broke my heart. 

Picking up my phone, I made a quick phone call and sent one text before I made my way to my room.

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By quarter to two, I was sitting on the bench in Coney Island cursing myself for being so over-curious that it led me to make rash decisions, like meeting my ex when I swore I wasn't going to. 

Perhaps she wouldn't even turn up, maybe seeing me for the first time in seven years last night caused her to act impulsively by asking me to meet her, and perhaps this morning she had woken up and realized what a terrible mistake she had made. 

At that moment I really hoped that's what had happened. I hoped that Karlie was going to be the rational one out of the two of us and realise how downright foolish it would be for us to actually have a conversation after everything that had happened between us. I hoped that she had confided in her friends and they were successfully talking her out of it, but at the same time, I hoped that she told them she knew what she was doing and, for once in her life, she wouldn't let me down.