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Nolan looks at me in my eyes, setting me back down to the ground to stabilize me, holding my face in hands.
“Do you trust me?” He swipes his thumb across my nose, tracing over my freckles.
“I do.” I answer him, finally being able to admit out loud that I do trust him, fully.
“Can I tell you something that someone once told me?” His eyes bore into mine with a passion I’ve never seen before. Like what he’s about to share with me is important to him and he’s never told anyone else before me.
I nod for him to continue.
“Maybe it has nothing to do with the moment right now, maybe it has everything to do with this moment. But I think it’s good advice to live by and something to revisit whenever you’re feeling unsure of something,” he adds.
“Spit it out.” I smack his chest playfully, smiling at him as he tries to explain.
“You shouldn’t be afraid of falling. Everyone falls. It means that you’re trying. But don’t be afraid to rise, because not everyone can do that.”
Suddenly, I feel as though the air has been knocked out of me while cars start aggressively chiming their horns in agreement with each other that Nolan needs to move his truck.
But his words…
They sound a familiar bell in my head, ringing a toll of repetition and awareness. Those words have played on a loop, a single-track album, over and over again in my head for years.
“I think they want me to move. Call me when you land.” He leans down and kisses my forehead, obviously not seeing my face go pale at his advice.
Advice that I’ve heard before. Advice that I’ve desperately wanted to live by.
But before I can confront him about it, he’s gone. And I’m being unintentionally shoved by a group of people who need to get into the gate.
I throw my carryon above me in the overhead storage. I see that I took too long saying goodbye to Nolan to have any chance at a window seat, so I settle for a spot between an older woman who is leaning her head against the window already asleep and a man who seems to be on a business call. He moves his legs a little, finishing up a facetime call, while I squeeze to get to the seat.
I feel unease settle in my gut as I remember the last time I was on a plane, mixed with the coincidental truth of Nolan’s last words. It all sums up to a bundle of overwhelming nerves and a big plate of piping hot confusion.
Did Nolan know my dad?
I lay my head back into my chair, putting my earbuds into my ear to relax to the lyrics ofPaper Gangsterby Lady Gaga. Something nostalgic runs through my veins when I play her earlier album,The Fame. It reminds me of my high school days, when I didn’t have to worry about things like cheating fiancés, ex-wives, infertility, and life changing coincidences containing quotes that could have easily been pulled out of someone’s ass.
Regardless, here I am, and I need to learn how to face it all. I should be glad, considering. Only one of those issues could majorly ruin my life, and that’s only if I let it. The others are such minor incidents compared to the grand scale of issues I could be facing.
Take my best friend, Sterling, for example. This girl literally got run off the road by a drunk driver causing her to lose her job and our apartment. I mean, things worked out for her in a weird destiny-like way, but still…I’d say I have it pretty easy.
“Oh my God, you made it!”
I look up from my text message, a childish smile spread across my face as I read Nolan’s text response to me telling him I landed. Colorado is two hours behind North Carolina, so I didn’t want to call him thinking he might be laying Aria down for bed about now.
I miss you already..
I can’t help but welcome that familiar feeling of longing as it enters my system. His words feel good to me. Like an underlying vow of something more.
But then I’m bombarded with the arms of my beautiful best friend, her squeals loud in my ear as she shakes me back and forth in her bear-hug grip.
“I missed you so much, Dakota! I can’t believe you’re here!” She squeezes me tight as I wrap my arms around her shoulders.
“Missed you, too, Bestie!” She pulls me away by my shoulders to…inspect me?
“What?” I laugh.
“I just, gosh, I missed you! You’re gonna look so pretty in whatever dress we pick out for you!”
“Miss Cooper.” I hear a formal, weathered voice speak out from behind Sterling, peaking over her shoulder to see that it’s Callan’s driver.
