Nothing Good Gets Away

Chapter 63

ROWAN BASS

Maybe it's dramatic and downright not true to say that Los Angeles is ever really freezing when the temperature rarely drops below 50, but I'm always so relieved when spring comes again. And more than that, I'm excited to start having all these firsts with Harry as my boyfriend this year. We've never had a spring, summer, or fall as a couple before, and maybe nothing about any of those seasons will be different just because we're together, but I have a feeling everything about it all will just be better somehow.

It already feels newer and exciting as we pick a spot on the beach and lay out a quilt to have our picnic on, and we got lucky to have a good stretch of sand vacant on either side of us. I let Scout off his leash for him to trot around, sniffing curiously until he finds a spot for himself to lay down on his own.

"Y'know, it's days like these that remind me why everyone in the world wants to live here," Harry says as I pull out our sandwiches and salads that I packed individually for us.

"Because of the weather?" I cross my legs over each other and turn to face him.

"The weather, this," he gestures to the Pacific and the cloudless baby blue sky. "It's pretty close to perfect, isn't it?"

"Completely," I nod and unwrap my sandwich from the parchment paper, "but I think I take it for granted when I remember how many tourists come here from all over the world, or how many people move here from their own hometowns like you did."

His jaw pops out at both corners as he chews the big bite he took from his own sandwich. "I think I could probably say the same about London."

"Oh, you could definitely say the same thing about London," I scoff. "I'm convinced that everyone from Europe and the United Kingdom takes it for granted."

He laughs. "Why's that?"

"For starters, I like it over there more than the US, but also because people always take for granted what they've always known," I explain. "Like...my parents and their money, for example. It took me a long time to know how lucky I was because it was just my normal to live in a mansion and have anything I could have ever wanted when I was little."

"Hm," he nods with that concentrated frown of his. "I get what you mean, yeah. Makes sense."

For just a minute, we sit there in the quiet and watch Scout start to dig a hole in the sand. Harry shakes his head and says that he can't believe he's a full-grown dog when he could swear it was just yesterday he was a little puppy.

"What I still can't believe is how that one event changed our entire lives," I smile to myself as Scout starts to roll around until he sneezes twice. "I'm still convinced that we most likely never would have really been friends if that never happened. I still would have made you a welcome treat, I think, but other than that I think we would have just shared smiles and small talk whenever we'd be in the hall at the same time."

He thinks about that for a second, then says, "That's an incredibly depressing thought."

I laugh with my mouth full, wiping the crumbs from my fingertips. "No, but that just reminds me how insane it is that every single decision we make could impact the rest of our lives. If my mom never had the idea for me to get a dog, I most likely never would have looked into adopting Scout, and he never would have peed on your floor, and we wouldn't be sitting on this beach right now eating sandwiches together."

He starts to smile as he swallows another bite. "I like that thought more."

"Mhm," I move to lie down with my head in his lap, chewing small bites so that I don't choke. "So Tom and Celine are officially dating. Did I tell you that already?"