The Blind Past

Amy P.O.V

There is a million reasons why Amy should just turn around get back in her car, go home, curl up on the couch and continue her binge watch marathon while eating the cold Chinese food she left in the fridge. But there was one big reason she was wearing her little black dress that always hung in the back of her closet and the red stilettos she bought yesterday on a whim. That reason was her sister, who was also her best friend and would murder her if she didn’t at least meet the man that she had set her up with.

Amy held her breath as she pulled open the door to the small Italian restaurant, she thought of everything that could go wrong, he could be an axe murderer, he could be a car salesman and she would leave tonight signing papers on a car she didn’t need. Or he could be a nice, decent man who she knew she should fall in love with but can’t because she can never settle down. She was turning the big three zero next month, a fact her sister wouldn’t let go of, and she still hasn’t settled down or even gotten close to. But she shouldn’t be thinking about that now.

Looking around she noticed multiple couples tucked away into small booths, their heads leaned in and whispers of words floating around. The atmosphere of the room seemed twinged with romance and the spark of love. Amy wondered why her blind date would pick Micheal’s Italian restaurant as their first date, she heard wonderful things about the small intimate restaurant and how couples waited months for reservations. Walking up to the hostess Amy wondered about her choice to actually come it’s not like she was going to meet her one true love, she already had when she was nineteen and he was gone, someone she would never see again.

“Hello and welcome! Can I get your name?” The hostess seemed to almost whisper the words the room seemed quiet but full of life and love.

“Amy? Im suppose to be meeting a date here?” It came out more of a question, like she wasn’t completely sure that was the truth. The words seemed foreign on her tongue, she hadn’t been on a date in almost two years and who knows maybe he didn’t show because Amy couldn’t see a man standing by himself anywhere in the restaurant.

“Oh! We didn’t think you were real, please follow me your table is ready!” The hostess seemed nervous as she grabbed two menus and motioned for Amy to follow. The walk was short and she was seated at a table in the front of the restaurant, right by the windows where you can see the street and all the small lights that lined the main road of her small town.

“I’m sorry, its not that we didn’t think you were real as an insult to you, it’s just Micheal has never actually been seen with a girl or even on a date.” Her words tumbled out and her cheeks reddened with every word.

“Mel you’re just making worse and also making me sound gay.” The voice deep and familiar belonging to whom Amy assumed was her date Micheal and walking up to the table hearing everything that was being said. The hostess quickly laid the menus down mumbled another apologize and darted back to the door.

“I’m sorry about that she doesn’t mean any harm, I’m just someone really into my work.” Amy looked up at the voice and their eyes connected at the same time and her heart stopped. Her mind raced back to eleven years before this very moment, to the boy with brown shaggy hair and deep green eyes with a smile that just took her breath away, who stole her heart one summer and disappeared.

“Mike?”

Mike P.O.V

“Mike?” Her voice sounded the same to him, her eyes still a piercing blue watered slightly and he saw the shock that reflected his own.

“Amelia?” He dropped into his chair across from her and leaned forward wanting to reach across the table and pull her closer to him, wanting to have her in his arms again.

“I go by Amy now,” Micheal wondered why she did that, shortened her name, he wondered a lot about her, he always had since the day he meet her the summer of his freshman year of college. “couldn’t stand being called Amelia by anyone after hearing you say it.”

“Well in that case, I go by Micheal now” her lips raised into a smirk and a laugh danced in her eyes “ever since someone told me that my full name sounded more handsome.”

She laughed and all he wanted to do was make her laugh everyday for the rest of his life just so he could hear it again. He wanted that when he was nineteen but he was to pig headed to realize what he had.

“So you aren’t gay?” Her smile was infectious and he couldn’t stop smiling back at her and for someone who is told on the daily that he never smiles is something he won’t forget.

“You and I both know that I am not.” He raised his eyebrow and watched her eyes dilate, remembering back to the summer they both shared of firsts.

“A lot can change in eleven years.” Her words brought him back to the present, that its been eleven years since they last saw each other. He could see the changes, the small wrinkles at the corner of her eyes showing him that she laughed a lot. Her hair, even though she had it in a braid that laid across her shoulders was longer than it was before and her eyes seemed to hold a hardness that wasn’t there before.

“Yeah a lot can change.” He thought back to how everything changed, how he has changed, the life events that brought him here, to his restaurant, set up on a blind date with the women he thought he would never see again.

She didn’t respond to his comment and he didn’t know what to say, he was at a loss for words. So much has changed and he was lost eleven years ago at the airport when they were suppose to say goodbye and he was lost now.

“I never thought we would see each other again” her voice was timid, like she wasn’t sure he was sitting in front of her and breathing the same air as her.

“I thought the same thing,” he reached forward and grabbed her hand, the feeling of her skin something he never thought he would feel again. “I looked for you, ya know for a whole year. Even showed up at the lake again and looked for you.”

He watched her body change, the tension release behind her shoulders and then build up again, he knew her like the back of his hand, the way they connected that summer he never felt that with anyone before, so he could tell now that something was bothering her.

“I wanted to look for you, I just didn’t know where to start” her voice was wavering and she seemed to be fighting a war in her eyes “I didn’t have your phone number, address or even your last name.”

“My name is Micheal Anthony Russo” He watched her eyes connect the dots and realized she didn’t know that he owned the restaurant they sat in.

“So you own a restaurant a very famous one” Her eyes darted around the place and finally settled back on him. “I’m impressed.”

“What about you? What has changed for you in the past eleven years?” He leaned forwarded, he didn’t want to miss another thing in her life.

Amy P.O.V.

Amy froze.

She should tell him, her life was different so very different than it was eleven years ago. Eleven years ago she was going Lake Tahoe to have a summer break like no other with her college roommates. Then she met Mike and her whole world changed, she fell in love for the first time and had sex for the first time. Then had her heart broken for the first time and then she went back to college to start her sophomore year.

Or so she thought at first, then her period didn’t come for two months and she blamed her broken heart and the stress of starting her sophomore year of college and finally deciding on a major. Then when month three rolled around and she was finally able to breath without thinking of Mike and her summer and it hit her that she still hadn’t had her period, she darted to the free student clinic and peed on a stick. And her life changed forever.

She tried to stay in college but when she found out that she was having twins, she dropped out and moved back home to Tulare, California. Her best friend, who is also her sister, let her crash with her until she managed to get a job at the local retirement home and get settled into her own place. She took classes at night and tried to finish her degree but time seemed to always escape her. She struggled with raising two beautiful crazy children and over the years they have asked about who their dad is and she never lied to them, always told them the story of Amelia and Micheal but she could always tell they were missing some part of their lives.

But now sitting in front of Micheal and looking back at her life, she wondered how she was to tell Micheal about his kids. She never kept it a secret, she just couldn’t find him and she tried so hard too. But the last three years she was getting better, she finished her degree at night school and her children were on a routine, and she was happy or she thought she was because seeing Micheal, hearing him reminded her how much she missed him.

“Micheal.” She saw the concern his eyes and his back straighten at the tone of her voice. A few tears escaped her eyes and before she could reach up and wipe them away he was already doing that.

“Hey let’s get out of here, okay?” He rose from his chair and pulled her to her feet. Even with the heels he still towered over her and she tilted her head up to look into his eyes, his hair shorter than before and not hanging in his eyes, his ears seeming a little bigger than before just like how her sons ears do the same thing.

Letting him led her out of the restaurant she thought of the million ways she could tell him, but the words seemed to be lodged in her throat. He pulled her down the street and into the ice cream parlor that her kids loved to visit at least once a week. He sat her down at a table and grabbed a few napkins for her to clean her face and went and ordered their favorites, oreo for her and peanut butter swirl for him.

While he was waiting for the ice cream, Amy heard the door swing open the bell signaling another customer entering. And before Amy could look up she heard her children giggling and running up to her. “Mom, Mom, Mom Auntie Ashley brought us for ice cream cause we helped clean up after dinner!!!” They both spoke fast and at the same time, Amy looked pasted them to her sister who was pointing at Micheal and giving thumbs up and big smile.

Hearing the noise, Micheal started to make his way back to the table and his eyes settled on the two kids bouncing around her seat, he tilted his head and then his eyes widened the truth settling in. She could see him realize what she was having trouble saying. Nodding his head slowly he continued his walk to the table and sat down across from her, his eyes never leaving hers.

“You could’ve told me.” His voice broke and he was still holding the ice creams in his hands. She stared hard into his eyes before breaking away and looking at her kids.

“That’s amazing babies.” Her son, Tahoe groaned at being called a baby he has started to remind her everyday that he isn’t a baby and her daughter, Michelle, grinned proudly. “Why don’t you guys go back to your Auntie and get your ice cream, mommy has to talk to her friend okay?” They both nodded and took off to their aunt, Michelle and her pigtails chasing behind her and Tahoe swipping the hair from his eyes.

“How was I suppose to tell you?” She looked back at Micheal and his eyes shone with hurt and the love she thought she always had in her eyes.

“I don’t know.” He seemed broken at that and his shoulders sank, he kept glancing to the counter to the two kids who kept pressing their noses into the glass to see all the choices before they decide.

“They are just going to choice the same flavor they always do.” She laughed under her breath and watched with him as they bounced in their shoes.

“What’s their names?” His eyes connected with hers and she watched him wrestle with the pain, the loss of eleven years and the love he felt even though he just meet them.

“Their names are Tahoe and Michelle. After where I meet their father and their father,” she swallowed the lump in her throat and kept talking " they know about you.” his eyes closed and she knew he was thinking about everything " I told them all about the boy I feel in love with and have loved everyday since the day I meet him.”

His green eyes snapped open, tears trying to escape as he tries to grasp everything he missed. He leaned over the table and caressed her face, dropping his forehead to hers he said the one thing she wished to always hear from him.

“I love you too and I never want to leave you.”