7 Years Later
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Lindsay Hope
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Seven years should be enough to forget a first love, but Cassidy knows better. She builds a life that looks steady on the outside, carefully stitched together with routine and quiet resilience. Then Matteo walks back in, no warning, no mercy, and very much not alone. Now their worlds overlap in ways that feel almost unfair, where polite smiles hide old sparks and every glance carries a little too much history. Cassidy tells herself she has moved on, that she can handle this, that time has done its job. But love like theirs doesn’t fade politely. It lingers, teases, and tests every boundary she thought was solid. And as the past presses closer, she begins to wonder… can you really outgrow the one who once felt like forever?
Prologue: Seven Years Earlier
Strawberry cheesecake ice cream, please be here.
After today, I need you.
I stood in front of the freezer full of all different Ben & Jerry’s ice cream pints and scanned my eyes over all of them until I saw the section that had the “Strawberry Cheesecake” tag was…empty.
“Dammit,” I mumbled.
Guess it’ll have to be my second choice, Karamel Sutra.
I grabbed the ice cream and made my way over to the only other aisle I needed to go down, which was wine and spirits. As I looked over the bottles of cheap, sweet wine, a woman next to me who looked around my age with shoulder-length chocolate-brown hair and a pretty floral dress said to me, “I recommend this Prosecco. It’s really good.”
I turned to look at her and asked, “Is it sweet? I prefer my wine to taste like juice that I can get drunk off.”
She laughed and smiled, showing pearly white teeth. “It’s sweet, yes.” She then looked down at the ice cream in my left hand and me grabbing the bottle of wine with my right hand. “That kind of day, huh?” she said to me knowingly.
“Wine and ice cream? Most definitely,” I responded.
“Well, I hope you like my recommendation,” she said, grabbing a bottle of Prosecco as well. “Have a good night.”
I turned and watched as she walked away to a man who also looked to be my age who was standing at the end of the aisle. I then looked at the man for an extra second and damn near dropped the bottle of wine.
Matteo.
Nothing could have prepared me for this moment. A moment that I never thought was going to happen, let alone in a grocery store. As the brunette woman got closer and closer to him, he caught my eye.
And I saw his green eyes widen slightly, like he couldn’t believe it was me down the aisle from him, but he also had to keep his cool. The woman eventually reached him, and he looked down at her.
He was quite a bit taller than her, as he was with me. She held up the bottle of wine, and I saw him give her a smile.
As he smiled down at her, a wave of emotions came crashing over me.
That could have been me.
The woman started walking, and he followed behind, not without giving me another glance, and then he followed behind her. I didn’t close my eyes for a moment until I realized how fast my heart was pounding.
I wasn’t sure if I would ever see Matteo Edmonds again.
Chill, Cassidy. It was probably a one-time thing, where you ran into him.
However, deep down, I knew this was going to be the start of a whole new chapter with him. If he was back in town, there was no way in hell we were going to avoid each other.
SEVEN YEARS AGO—HIGH SCHOOL
“Class, welcome to creative writing. As this is your last semester of high school, I know you are all eager to graduate and be out of here. Still, I encourage you to let all of the assignments and information in this class sink in.”
Mrs. Delvecchia, who had been my English teacher in the past, was now my creative writing teacher for my last semester of high school. While I knew some would treat this class as a joke, on the contrary, I felt like it could be a time for me to shine in school.
Finally. After struggling all throughout school, I finally was going to be able to pass a class with flying colors that wasn’t a cooking class.
Hopefully.
“Each of you are going to have a writing partner,” Mrs. Delvecchia said. “You’ll use this person to bounce ideas off of and share your writing with before you hand it in.”
I had this class with one of my friends, Ashley. She immediately glanced my way as she sat next to me, and I nodded to let her know that we would be partners.
“I understand that you all might have friends in this class. But I am going to be pairing you all up. You never know, you could make a new friend this last semester. Someone you may not have expected to talk to before.”
Okay, I guess I won’t be partnered with Ashley.
There were other people in the class that I was acquaintances with, so I hoped that I would be paired with them.
Mrs. Delvecchia started reading off the pairs.
“Ashley Miles and Dana Lee.”
I saw Ashley grin at Dana, who was someone she was friendly with. The names kept on being read off, and eventually Mrs. Delvecchia said, “Cassidy Sharpe and Matteo Edmonds.”
Who?
I felt ashamed for a moment that I did not know who Matteo Edmonds was. I can’t even picture him.
Then again, our graduating class did have around three hundred students, so I couldn’t be expected to know who everyone was.
“All right, you can all get up and go sit with your writing partners,” Mrs. Delvecchia instructed. “Put aside any and all premonitions you might have about the person you’re with. I guarantee you’ll know a lot more about each other by the end of the term.”
I stood up, not knowing who I was even looking for. I stood at my desk for a moment until I then noticed a young man walking toward me.
He had golden brown hair that was shorter but also grown out enough that I could see waves forming. He had on glasses, a gray T-shirt, and jeans. His skin was olive toned, and he was slim.
I don’t think I’ve even seen him before.
He stopped in front of me.
“Cassidy?” he said, looking at me.
“Are you Matteo?” I asked him.
“Yeah,” he said, and then he looked down before he said, “Guess we should sit down next to each other.”
I sat back down at my desk, and Matteo sat down where Ashley had been sitting next to me.
“Slide your desks close to each other!” Mrs. Delvecchia encouraged us. “Don’t be strangers!”
We are quite literally strangers.
In a swift motion, Matteo lifted his desk, slid his chair, and then sat down closer to me.
“All right, class. Now that you’re with your partners, I want you to talk about your first assignment. I want you to choose a song that means a lot to you. It can be any genre. It can be not ‘school appropriate,’ most of you are adults here. I want you to write about why it means a lot to you. Bounce your ideas off your partners,” Mrs. Delvecchia said. “I commence your first assignment!”
Everyone was silent for a moment, and then I could hear chatter begin. Matteo didn’t say anything. He was still looking down at the desk, fiddling with his pencil. He had a Five Star notebook in front of him.
“So,” I started, “what kind of music do you like?”
Matteo shrugged. “I don’t listen to a lot of music.”
“Come on. You have to listen to something.”
“I like some rock songs,” Matteo responded. “Mostly songs from the nineties.”
“Is there one that you can think of that you’d want to write about?” I asked.
Matteo glanced at me and said, “Uh. Maybe.”
I gave him an encouraging smile. “Name some.”
I could already tell that Matteo was not one to open up, and I was trying to get him to. Even if it was just slightly.
“‘Scar Tissue’ by the Red Hot Chili Peppers,” Matteo said, quicker than I thought. “I could write about that song.”
“Okay. I don’t think I know it.”
“Listen to it sometime. It’s good.”
He then looked at me, and I couldn’t help but notice that behind his glasses, he had really nice eyes. They were green, with little hazel flecks in them.
“I will when school is over. So I can really listen to the lyrics. What about it means something to you?” I asked him.
“My dad used to always play it when I was a child,” Matteo said.
He didn’t say anything else after that.
“Nice. I’m sure it’s nostalgic.”
Matteo nodded. He then looked at me and asked, “How about you, what song are you going to choose?”
“I actually have no idea. I mainly listen to music just for the rhythm.”
“Try to think of something nostalgic as well,” Matteo said. “If you can.”
I sat for a moment, thinking about what song I could choose that meant a lot to me. I didn’t have to think for long either.
“‘Yellow’ by Coldplay,” I said.
Matteo looked at me. “I know that song. Why is it special to you?”
As I realized why it meant a lot to me, I figured I would probably sound stupid to Matteo. “I just think it’s a really beautiful song.”
“That’s all?” he asked me. “You may have some trouble writing a paper then. Doesn’t it have to be why it is special to you?”
“I can think of a few reasons why. You’ll see when you look at my paper,” I said.
Matteo nodded. “Fair enough.”
Mrs. Delvecchia stood in the front of the room and clasped her hands together. “Only a few more minutes with your partners! You’ll have time together in each class, today is just introductory.”
I looked at Matteo and asked, “Have you been at this school all four years?”
Matteo nodded. “Yes.”
“It’s so crazy how we can be in the same grade and be so unaware of each other.”
Matteo stared at me for a moment. “I’ve been in at least two other classes with you, Cassidy.”
My stomach dropped.
“Oh,” I said, trying to laugh it off. “I can be so oblivious.”
“Uh huh.” Matteo nodded.
And for the next few minutes, he didn’t say anything to me. He was writing in his notebook. Even when I tried to glance over to see what it was, I couldn’t see.
When it was time for us to go back to our original seats, he barely even looked at me when he walked away.
Next period was lunch. I sat with Ashley, as well as two of my other friends, Danisha and Erin.
“How was working with Matteo?” Ashley asked me at lunch. It was our second day back from winter break, and everyone was still exhausted.
“He’s pretty quiet,” I said. “I mean, this was my first time talking to him.”
“Matteo who?” Danisha asked me.
“Edmonds. He’s my writing partner for creative writing.”
“Oh. I know him, he’s been in a bunch of my classes,” Danisha said. “He is quiet. Very smart, though.”
Now that makes sense. Danisha is in AP and Honors classes.
“Apparently he’s been in a couple of classes with me. I had no idea,” I said, biting into my salad.
“Cass, he was in our gym class last year.” Erin looked at me.
I started to feel even worse than I had. “I honestly feel bad that I didn’t notice,” I said.
I kept thinking about Matteo all day, and I had no idea why. I had this guilt that I couldn’t shake for not ever noticing him.
Even as I drove my younger brother, Garrett, and I home from school, I couldn’t help but feel bad.
“Are you okay?” Garrett asked me.
Garrett was a junior, he was only a year younger than me. “I’m all right. I just feel kind of bad. I got partnered with someone today in my creative writing class, and I had no idea who he was. Even though he’s apparently been in multiple classes with me.”
“Who is it?” Garrett asked me.
“His name is Matteo Edmonds.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I have no clue who the guy is.”
I rolled my eyes. “Not really, but thanks.”
“Cassidy, you’re popular,” Garrett said. “If he isn’t, I wouldn’t expect you to even look his way.”
Well, that makes me feel shallow. Am I shallow? I’m going to make Matteo think I am not shallow. I promise.
