Summer Love’s Second Chance

Chapter 5

To Charlie’s surprise, those two days flew by and she was finally back to her normal routine. On Monday though, she would call a lawyer and find out her options. Today was Sunday so she only had to wait until after school tomorrow.

She had refused to speak to Kevin the entire rest of the time he was home. She kept up appearances for the kids but did nothing more than that.

He had had a friend take him to the airport, hoping that by giving her space she would calm down and start speaking to him again. She had no plans of any such thing.

She focused the rest of her energy for the day in preparing for the week ahead, lessons, lunches, and schedules. Everyone would be back fresh from the holiday break so she would have at least 2 days before she had to have her students begin doing any real work. This would allow her to focus on getting everything in place to sever her ties to Kevin.

At the present moment, the house was clean, Christmas had already been packed away, meals we prepped for the week, and the kids were napping. Charlie herself too started to doze as she scrolled on social media on her phone.

Suddenly, she received a friend request. The name was one that made her heart quicken. She had not seen this person in over 15 years and was jolted awake the moment his name appeared on her screen.

Jesse Matthews had been her childhood best friend. He had lived across the street from her when she was in primary school. They did everything together. They sat next to each other on the school bus, had the same classes from kindergarten to 3rd grade, ate lunch together, and played together after school.

After 3rd grade though, Charlie’s family moved away and she did nothing see Jesse again until high school. They attempted to date each other for a few years, but they never worked out. Their lives were too different. He was a popular party boy and she was a focused academic who preferred homework and research over going out.

Last she had heard, he dropped out of school when they had broken up and began attending a trade school. He was planning on becoming a mechanic. He had always had a talent for fixing things that no one else could. The only thing he couldn’t fix was the relationship between him and Charlie.

Charlie had gone off to college, met her now husband and was whisked off to live in the country, leaving her old city life behind.

Why he was requesting to be her friend on social media baffled her, but her heart did a somersault when she saw his name. She had immediately hit the accept button.

She clicked her phone off and set it face down. She needed to get away from it for a moment because she was starting to feel flushed. If she was being honest with herself, she was still madly in love with Jesse. He was her childhood sweetheart and she used to believe he was her soulmate. She always believed that they were destined to be together. Unfortunately, fate had other plans and she was as in the loveless marriage she was in now.

She was curious as to why he would suddenly randomly reach out after all these years, but she refused to keep him away. Even if they were no longer lovers, he was still considered one of her best friends who she missed greatly. Maybe they could catch up and become friends again and reminiscence about the old days when they were just babies. She wanted to share with him how much she had accomplished since they broke up and tell him about the beautiful parts of her life. She wouldn’t dare tell him that she was about to go through a divorce. It was almost embarrassing and a sign of failure for a marriage, especially one that had lasted only 8 years to be coming to an end.

She also didn’t want him thinking she was trying to rekindle anything. She did not need that kind of headache right now with how her life was falling apart. Having someone to talk to about the past would be comforting, but she promised herself that she would not try to get involved with anyone until the divorce was final and she had given herself and her children time to recover after the fallout. She knew this divorce would be ugly since Kevin had already declared he didn’t want it. She did not need Kevin turning into his mother and unleashing all his psycho.

Charlie walked away from her phone and decided to go outside to tend to the animals before she had to get the kids up from their naps. Taking care of the animals should be a respectable amount of time before she checked her phone again to see if Jesse had sent her a message or left her any comments. She didn’t want to see too desperate to reconnect with him. She still had her life to live, even though she desperately wanted stare at her phone and watch for anything from Jesse.

Charlie was more patient and sophisticated than to act like a high school girl with a crush. She was still married, unhappily at that, but she still believed in the boundaries of marriage even if her cheating husband didn’t.

Even though she believed she had been he patience of a saint, Charlie couldn’t think about anything at the moment but Jesse and why he would have reached out now after so long.

It brought her back to the summer before they started dating in high school. He had invited her and her friends to an event at the park that his parents were helping to run. It was for the 4th of July and they were setting up the fireworks display. Charlie and her friends had walked around the park and checked out the vendors and listened to the band playing. Charlie and her friends had given Jesse the code name “fireworks” which was very fitting as it was how he made her feel when she looked at him, and he was currently setting up the fireworks for the 4th of July celebration. They did this so they could talk about him without anyone knowing who they were talking about.

Her friends had never met Jesse so they didn’t know him, but she shared with them how wonderful he had been when they were children and how much she was attracted to him now that they were teenagers. The girls giggled and talked as they came over to help Jesse and his family finish setting things up.

That night had been amazing, the fireworks exploding, her heart bursting with excitement and joy when he finally sat next to her and held her hand for the first time. He asked her out that night and the rest was history. She was smitten and had been madly in love with him since that day.

They had dated for two years before Charlie had to choose between her academic goals for the future and the attention she was trying to given Jesse. He was always a partner, and she just couldn’t stand going to parties. Her grades and academic achievements had won out as more important to her at the time and since he didn’t support her in that, she had broken it off. She could not hangout with him and attend parties with him if she wanted to study to make sure she got into the university she wanted to go to and have the career she dreamed of.