First Sight (19 page)

“It was my pleasure,
Maddy
,” he said softly
, his brown eyes gentle.
 
He held my gaze for a moment before changing the subject. 
“
I guess I should
get
going then
.”

“Okay
.
T
hanks
, Travis.
  Let me grab you some money for lunch.
”

I handed him some cash, and h
e smiled and turned to go
.
I felt
bad
as
he
walked away
though
.  He
seemed hurt that I hadn’t
email
ed him
earlier
.  I decided to
write
him back now even though we’d just spoken.  I thought it over
for a few minutes
, wondering exactly
what
the right thing to say to him
was
. 
Obviously I would
thank him
. 
I giggled softly to myself, thinking that I could add
a
little postscript after
that
. 
P.S. I’ve been madly in love with you since the first day
we met
.
 
I shook my head in disbelief. 
Wow, I must be
really
tired
.  I
was
starting to
get slaphappy
,
and there is no way that I would actually write that.  I typed out
a
message and clicked “send” before I could change my mind.

Travis,

Thank
you
for everything yesterday.  It really means a lot to me
that you were there
when I needed you
.

Maddy

P.S.  Thanks in advance for the soup.  :)

I wandered down the hall to the vending machine to buy a soda and happened to run into
Elizabeth
on the way. 
We chatted for a few minutes, and b
y the time I got back to my
office,
the soup Travis had picked up was
already
sitting on my desk
. 
I pulled the container out of the brown paper bag and gently lifted the lid
, watching the steam rise up
.  I
nhal
ing
the deli
cious scent of broccoli cheddar, I decided to w
ait for it to cool a little,
and
I clicked on my computer screen and noticed that a
new message
had
just
arrived
in my inbox.  Surprised, I realized that it was from Travis.

Maddy
,

I’m
always here for you
.

T.

I drove out to my parents’
house on Saturday morning, stopping to buy coffee along the way. 
I was running late, but it had felt really good to sleep in this morning
after such a
long week.
 
I’d wearily gone out to dinner with
Marissa
and
Emily
last
night but had
left
early—not that it had done much good from the way I was dragging today. 
I’d pulled on some casual clothes this morning in
my
hurry to get out of the house, deciding on jeans, a
slim-fitting
black ribbed
sweater
, and
grey Converse
sneakers.
  Now I wondered if I should have picked out something nicer in case we went anywhere but then realized we’d probably just be relaxing at home while my mom got her rest.

I took a sip of my
café mocha
as I drove along
, savoring the taste.  I probably should have picked up something to eat
,
too, but my dad had offered to make brunch for everyone.  My stomach would just have to wait an hour to get any real food in it.
  My cell phone rang
,
and I answered it, unable to see the name on the screen as I kept my eyes on the road.

“Hi
Maddy
,” came my brother’s voice.

“Brian!  I thought it was probably you.”

“Well, you were right
,” he replied with a low chuckle.
 
“
Are you headed over to Mom and Dad’s?”

“Yeah, I’m on my way now.  Where are you?”

“On 66 out by their house.
  I was thinking of stopping off and getting some flowers for Mom.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea.”

“They can be from both of us.  What kind do you think she would like?”

“Hmmm…she does love daisies. 
Maybe
a bouquet
of those?
  I’m sure she’d like anything though.
”

“Sure,
daisies
sounds
easy enough
to pick out
.”

“Okay, I’ll see you in a little while,
Bri
.”

“See you then.”

***

Thirty minutes later I was pulling into the familiar surroundings of my parents’ neighborhood.  The streets were lined
with
mature
trees,
which were
bare
right now
since it was
still
winter
. 
Fa
rther back from the road were
brick Colonials, each
with tidy little yards. 
A few people were outside on this Saturday morning, carrying bags of groceries in
after running errands
or just walking out
now
to get the morning paper. 
I laughed as I saw my parents
’
neighbor out in his bathrobe and slippers.  It didn’t seem to bother him that the whole neighborhood could see him
like that every day
, but you’d think he’d at least put something else on in this cold weather. 
I pulled into my parents’ driveway, under
neath
the tall oak that
shaded it in the summertime
. 
Brian’s car was already there
, so I parked next to him. 
I walked to the front door and
let myself in
,
shout
ing
hello to everyone.

“We’re in here,” my dad called out to me from the kitchen.  I walked in to see my mom seated at the table, wrapped up in a fuzzy pink bathrobe.  Dad was flipping pancakes at the stove, and Brian was attempting to
stuff the
flowers he’d picked up in
to a vase full of
water.

“You have to trim the stems,
Bri
,” I said, watching as he tried to shove the tall bouquet into a small vase.

“Well I don’t know how to arrange flowers,” he said with a laugh.

“
Sheesh
, do I have to do everything?” I joked.  I walked over and gave my mom a kiss on the cheek and then took the daisies and vase from Brian.  “Can you grab a pair of scissors from the drawer?”
 
Brian handed me the scissors, and I started trimming the stems.

“Those are beautiful, kids,” my mom said.  I tried
to
arrange the flowers in the vase so they looked halfway decent and then
carried them over to
the kitchen table.  Someone had already set the table, and there was a
variety of food
spread out
—
a bowl of
fruit salad, bagels
and tubs of cream cheese
,
a variety of syrups for the pancakes my
dad was making,
and
even
a box of
donut holes.

“I hope you’re hungry,
Maddy
,” my dad said
as he
pour
ed
some more pancake batter onto the hot griddle.

“Starving, actually.
  Who made all this?  I could have brought something.
”

“Mom made the fruit salad; I picked up the donuts and bagels,” Brian
said
.

“Well, it all looks great. 
I could’ve brought a fruit salad though.”

“Don’t worry about it, Sweetie,” my mom said.

A few minutes later we all sat down at the table for brunch.  I asked my mom how she was feeling, and she said she was
still
really tired
.
 
She’d been to her doctor for a follow-up appointment, and although she was doing fine physically, he still wanted her to take it easy. 
The
insurance company had come out to look at the car,
which was completely totaled.  M
y parents planned to buy a new SUV for my mom when she was feeling well enough
to
go out and test drive a few different models
.

“I’m not getting another compact car, that’s for sure,”
she
said.

“I wouldn’t either after that,” I
replied, spreading cream cheese on my bagel.
 
“Scary stuff.”

“
Maddy
, have some pancakes
,
too,”
said my dad
, passing the plate of steaming pancakes over to me.  I took one from the top of the pile and put it down on my plate
, before handing the plate to Brian.  He took three and looked over at my mom.

“What kind of car hit you?”
he asked
.

“A huge SUV.
  I don’t even know what
make or model
it was.
  All I saw was this huge black monstrosity coming right at me in the middle of the intersection.
”

“Were they
running a light or something
?” I asked.

“T
exting
on their cell phone,” my dad said, shaking his head disgustedly.

“Texting
?
  That’s terrible.  How old was the driver?
”

“Probably around your age—mid-twenties.”

“What did they police say?”

“Well, the driver hasn’t been charged with anything yet.  They’re still investigating the crash.
  She denied she was on her phone, but I saw her.  The phone companies have records of these things you know.
”

“There’s no way
she
’ll get away with that,” Brian said.  “Hopefully
she’ll lose her
license or something.”

“We’ll see what happens,” my mom said, seeming to want to change the subject. 
She started asking us
questions
about what had been going on in our lives
, and w
e
quickly
moved on to other topics
. 
Brian
told
us
a little
about his new girlfriend
,
and
I filled everyone in
about the new project I’d be working on at the office. 
They seemed excited that our
magazine
was
going to be published
four times per year and spent the rest of brunch peppering me with questions. 
After we all finished
eating
, my dad insisted on cleaning up, telling my mom to sit down and rest.  As he was
loading up the dishwasher and chatting with my mom
, Brian pulled me aside.

“So who was that guy Travis that you were with
at the hospital
?”

“Oh, he’s my coworker,” I said, grabbing another donut hole
and popping it into my mouth
as
I
walked into the living room
, not wanting my parents to hear the conversation.  No sense in getting my mom all excited over nothing.  Brian followed me as I continued
speaking
.
  “I introduced you two, remember?”

“Yeah, I know that.  I just wondered if he was your boyfriend or something.”