The Gazebo

The Gazebo
Paul and Serena were at the Apple Bay Orchards by nine in the morning. The day was crisp and nippy. The pair wore jeans. Serena wore a bright red sweater and Paul wore a warm light brown jacket over a T-shirt.

The orchard was meant to open at nine in the morning for business but as the two approached the onsite store, they saw its doors were still closed and Neil's blue truck wasn't there yet.

Serena stood with her arms akimbo. "Do you want to wait by the door or do you want to wait in the car?" She asked.

Paul shook his head and looked around the orchard grounds. He began walking toward her. "Neither," he said as he grabbed her hand and pulled her behind him. "Let's go to the gazebo and enjoy the peace and quiet while we wait."

"The gazebo?" She echoed enthusiastically. "Let's go!"

The two walked side by side in what began as silence which soon became a very serious conversation.

"I was thinking," Paul began. "When you go talk to Iris, I'll talk to Mom about what you and I discussed in Las Vegas."

Serena's head shot toward him as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Are you sure this is a good time? You think she can handle it?"

He sighed burying his hands in his front pockets. "It's now or never," he replied. "I need to get this off my chest and if something were to happen to her and I didn't," he shrugged. "It would eat me alive."

Serena remained quiet but he felt the weight of her doubts and tried to appease them.

"I'm going to be gentle, Serena. I just don't know that there is such a thing as an easy delivery for the subject matter."

She slowly nodded. "Whatever you think is best," she stated simply. "I wasn't the one in your shoes, so I have no insight to offer any advice."

"You already did," he exclaimed as he looked ahead. "And you're right. I need therapy to help overcome this. The bitterness has set up permanent residency in my chest and it needs to be evicted."

They reached the gazebo and walked up the steps in unison. "I don't want to give my past any more power over my future. I'm fed up with waking up every morning and having this feeling of rejection hovering over my head over something that happened fifteen years ago." He grabbed the gazebo's banister and looked straight ahead at nothing. "I want to feel whole for the first time in my adult life."

A strong gust of cold wind blew causing Serena to shiver.

Paul caught the motion through his peripheral vision. He turned to her immediately, wrapping his arms around her. He rested his chin against her temple closing his eyes. She inspired a certain feeling in him- a sense that made him feel complete in every sense. She grounded him when he felt he was losing himself in the world.

"And I think I'm in love with you," he whispered.

She laughed softly as she pulled away from him and walked to the gazebo's wall panel. "Ugh. I know. I know. You love me like a sister."

He chuckled. "After what nearly happened in the Bay?" He frowned as he stared at the back of her head. "You think I have brotherly feelings for you?" He moved to stand next to her. "Serena?"

She sighed and covered her face, which he noticed had turned a certain shade of crimson. "I'm so ashamed of how I behaved - throwing myself at you like that. Not like your male hormones had a choice."

Paul hitched his hip on the top rail. "You think I can't control my sexual urges?" He released a boisterous laugh. "Let me assure you that if I saw Iris naked, I would immediately find someone to perform a lobotomy on whatever part of my brain retains memories." He looked at her soberly. "I don't see you as a sister. I never have."

She smiled for a moment but that smile soon disappeared, making way for a frown. He saw her shaking her head as if she was having an internal conversation with herself.

"What's going on?" He asked her. "What are you thinking about?"

"Then why did you drop me off at the cottage and drive away?" She looked at him. "I felt abandoned and rejected."

He sighed as he propped one backside cheek on the top rail. "I was back in twenty minutes, Serena." He remembered walking into the quiet cottage after noticing her vehicle was gone. He rushed upstairs, lighting the tea lights he had purchased and strewing rose petals all over the floor and the bed. He had been grateful that she had left because it made his task easier to complete without her knowledge. As it got later and later, he grew restless and he began to pace the small room.

"But you went to ask Goose and Midge for a room!" She reminded him.

Paul shook his head.

"Yes!" She exclaimed. "You told me you would be leaving the next day. Those were your news."

"I only said that after I saw the massive hickey that guy left on your neck!" Paul blurted. "It made me angry that it only took you twenty minutes to wind up in that guy's bed! I didn't want to see that mark on your neck every day until it faded."

Serena's hand flew to the location of where that hickey existed on her neck, covering the area. Her face grew sullen. "You were going back to Las Vegas anyway," she said softly. "There would have been no point in anything happening between us." She looked at him smiling. "Besides, sex would have doomed our friendship and I'd rather have your friendship, any day."

Paul was about to speak but she spoke again. "Let's go back to the store, they should be open now."

Serena spun, walking ahead of him, leaving him alone in the gazebo.