“No,” I shook my head. “I wasn’t waiting for long. Thanks for asking me to lunch.”
Chloe smiled. She looked so good like the last ten years hadn’t touched her at all. “Yeah, I wasn’t sure if you’d want to, but I thought I’d ask.”
“Why did you—”
Another waiter brought our food which I was thankful for. I wasn’t sure how much more interaction I wanted to have with Tyler. We ate a little before Chloe spoke up.
“Why did I what?’
“Never mind…” It wasn’t worth it to dig into Chloe’s reasons for asking me out to lunch. If I got an answer I didn’t like, what was I going to do? I moved onto something else. “I was curious about how you ended up owning the bakery.”
Chloe put her sandwich down and nodded. “Yeah, it’s not that long of a story, really. After my dad died, my mom and I found out things weren’t as solvent as he had led us to believe. Basically, I had to come home to help my mom and ended up working at the bakery. I was able to save up enough money and buy the store a few years ago, and that’s about it.”
That sounded pretty sad. Chloe was a great dancer, and it had looked like she was really going places.
“Is it too late for you to get back into dance?”
She shook her head. “I’m too old at this point. Anyway,” Chloe looked around and leaned closer to me as if she was telling me a secret, “I don’t really want to. I’m really content with how my life turned out. I kind of even like it.”
“I’m surprised,” I blurted out. “You always seemed so focused on having a dance career.”
I couldn’t figure out why I was pushing the subject so hard. Maybe I had this image of Chloe in my head, and it was hard to wrap my mind around how different she really was.
She shrugged. “I didn’t really have a chance to pick what I wanted. I just fell into the role that was expected. I mean, I loved dancing, but not as my life’s work, I guess.” She paused for a second and got a far-off look before looking back at me. “What about you? What have you been up to?”
“I do coding work. It’s been working out pretty well for me.”
I didn’t go into too much detail. History had shown me that people can get weird when they learn just how much money I had. I didn’t think Chloe would do this, but I had dealt with my fair share of people trying to use me for my money like gold-diggers. Even though I was still a bit geeky, a slew of women approached me because I had wealth and was semi-famous. I knew how to be careful and protect myself at that point.
“That’s nice. Do you like it?”
“I do. I feel like I’m able to help people, and… It’s like a puzzle to me. Whenever I’m able to make a breakthrough or fix a bug, it’s so rewarding. It makes up for all the late nights and headaches.”
Her smile was genuine. “I’m pleased you’re doing so well. I always knew you’d be doing great things.”
“Really?”
Chloe looked a little sheepish but nodded. “Yeah, you were so smart and kind. Life had to work out for someone like you, or else there’s no hope for the rest of us, ya know.”
I didn’t know Chloe had such a high opinion of me. It made me feel warm inside.
We talked for a little longer, but soon we were done eating. By the end, I felt pretty good. I offered to pay, which ended up being a lot harder. Chloe only relented when I said she could put down the tip.
We stepped outside and stood in the parking lot of the diner for a beat. We were heading in opposite directions. I looked down at Chloe and let out a shaky breath as she looked back at me.
“Do you want to come over for a barbecue tonight?” she asked.
“Come over?”
“Yeah, to my place.”
“Uh, yeah, I’m free.”
“Great. I’ll send you my address.”
Chloe waved goodbye as she walked away. I turned back to my grandmother’s, my body feeling light. I had to keep reminding myself that my high school crush was just being friendly.
With nothing else much to do, I decided to wander around a little bit to walk off the extra adrenaline coursing through my body. It was so crazy to me. I hadn’t expected Chloe to be so lovely to me, but I also couldn’t let myself read into it. She was always a nice person. Sure, she never invited me to hang out before, but that was a long time ago. She probably just wanted to be friends. And I could do that. It would be hard at first, but I was an adult fully capable of being friends with a woman I had once had a massive crush on.