Chapter 49
Chapter Forty-Nine
KAMILA
Friday at Roxy’s
“ H e knocked somebody over?” Emma lets out a giggle.
“Oh yeah, it was terrible. I had to yell at him to get as far away from the group as possible.” I take a long sip of my drink.
“Then he left you a love letter?” Levi asks.
“Yeah, let’s not talk about the letter. I’m still processing that one.” And it’s true. I’m confused, surprised, touched, and yet, still pissed.
“Well, I wish I could’ve seen him making a fool out of himself,” Jake states.
Levi mutters in agreement. He scans my face to the point where I start to fidget in my seat. His lips tilt up slightly.
I stop mid-bite. “What?”
“He said the first of many gestures to come.”
Em slaps me on the shoulder. “Oh, he’s groveling. Like movie-style groveling.” She does a little dance of excitement, and I can’t help but smile. Em’s happiness is always contagious. “I wonder what his next move is. ”
Just as the words escape her mouth, our waiter pulls up next to the table, holding a large tray.
“Here you go.” He sets down four huge ice cream sundaes in front of us.
“Oh, we didn’t order this,” I say.
“It was sent by that man over there.” He points to a table towards the front of the diner where Cameron and Will are sitting. “Cameron told me to tell Kamila that this is merely another gesture to earn back her trust and to say that he is sorry. He also requested extra hot fudge, chocolate chips, and cherries since they’re your favorite toppings.” The waiter looks directly at me and sticks his hand out. “And finally, here’s your card.”
A simple piece of folded paper is set in front of me. I open the card aggressively, ignoring how well he still knows me and remembers the details of what I love. Showing me how little and yet how much we’ve changed.
Kamila,
Enjoy the sundae.
I wish you were sitting on the other side of the table so I could see your reaction to all of this, even if it pisses you off.
Please turn around so I can see that beautiful, annoyed expression you’re wearing.
Love always,
Cam
P.S. Yes, I know this is a cheap ploy to get your friends to like me too.
He’d had to have written it within the last half hour. Cam and Will were nowhere to be seen when we got here.
I tsk. “Smooth Kahlo, very smooth.”
Reluctantly, I turn my head with said annoyed expression, correction, the beautiful annoyed expression that he predicted. The second our gazes clash, his mouth breaks out into a wide grin. It’s a sad yet hopeful smile, which then turns into a sexy smirk, and he ends it with a wink right as I’m turning back around.
“Asshole,” I mumble to myself while holding back the tiniest of smiles. Thank God he can’t see me.
When I look up at my friends, Levi and Jake are already a quarter of the way done with their sundaes, while Em is holding a cherry up to her lips.
“If we also get perks out of this, don’t ever forgive him.” Em stuffs a spoonful of ice cream into her already full mouth.
The sound I’ve been suppressing finds its way out and surprises everyone at the table. It’s the most genuine laugh I’ve had in almost a week, and I can feel Cameron’s gaze on me.
Smug asshole must be so satisfied with himself right now.
“You guys are a mess,” I choke out.
Em, the second to least messiest, ignores me. So does the messiest of them, Jake, but Levi’s face turns into a light shade of red.
He points to his mouth. “Do I have something on this side or that one?”
I shake my head. “It’s everywhere, Levi.”
Picking a napkin up, I assist him with the fudge coating his lips. We cackle when I eventually give up. I can’t help but think that this happiness, this lightness I feel is because of Cam.
“He is so satisfied with himself,” Levi whispers to me. He grabs one of my hands when I roll my eyes. “I’m not telling you to forgive him yet because there is still a lot to be done, but his feelings and intentions are genuine, I can see it.”
Levi leans back over to look at Cam. After a couple of seconds, he’s pressing his lips together, laughing silently. “He also looks like he wants to kill me for holding your hand. ”
I can’t help but grin. “Doesn’t surprise me one bit. He’s territorial.” Not that I mind.
“Something that we have in common when it comes to the people we like,” he mumbles to himself and smiles devilishly at me.
Saturday
There’s a knock at the door while I’m in the middle of writing an essay.
“Emma, it’s your turn to answer it!” I yell from my room.
“I’m in the middle of studying for a test!” she yells back.
“And I’m in the middle of writing a paper.” Em knows that once I’m in a good flow, I can finish a long essay within two hours. She lets out a groan and stomps to the door.
My mind and eyes stay focused on the computer screen until I hear my full name being called.
“Is Kamila Isabela Morales here?” a deep voice asks.
“Um, yes?” Em turns to me with wide eyes. “Kamila, it’s for you.”
Shit. I finish typing the paragraph I was in the middle of and saunter to the door.
Once there, I come face to face with a group of four guys wearing red hats and white suit jackets with vertical red stripes, who look slightly familiar. I’m not sure what to say about this, but apparently, I don’t have time to respond at all because one of them starts talking.
“Hi there, this is a message from Cameron Kahlo. We hope you enjoy it.”
One of them blows on a harmonica and I instantly recognize them.
My mouth falls open in horror.
The acapella group on campus dressed as a barbershop quartet .
“Oh. My. God,” Emma says, still standing close behind me.
My thoughts exactly.
Once they start singing, other students come out of their rooms to watch.
Cameron is a fuck up who feels extremely ashamed
And he wanted to make sure that it was properly proclaimed
Now, Kamila he knows you’re way out of his league
But he does still hope that you’re mildly intrigued
Even though he’s an idiot and he’s very well aware
He has tried to make up for it with extraordinary flair
We are coming to the end of this expression of regret
All Cameron can do now is hope that you’ll forgive and forget
And now he’s panicking, running out of words to rhyme
So he’s letting us come up with the very last two lines
Unfortunately, us four guys do not know the whole sad story
But secretly we hope that one day you’ll accept his sorry
Laughs and chatter come from down the hallway while the guys finish the song, hand me a card, and walk away.
“Thank you?” I say too stunned for any other words.
Emma quickly shuts the door and looks at me wide-eyed.
“Permission to laugh?” She attempts to hide her smile and fails.
After a long exhale, I can’t help but give in. “Permission granted.”
We both burst out practically roaring until tears are streaming down our faces. Once again, Cam has made me topple over during the most stressful time of any college student's life.
“A barbershop quartet,” Em wheezes.
“I wonder how much he paid them,” I choke out.
Emma points to my hand. “Read that right now.”
Kamila,
Cameron already wrote the song, so we only found it appropriate to help him with the card.
We apologize for all the people who were probably staring and recording everything .
If it makes you feel any better, he made them sing it in front of all of his friends, including Ethan, to earn our approval. You can only imagine how that went.
Hope it made you laugh like it did us.
Will
P.S. Don’t forgive him too quickly but just know that I’ve never seen any man put this much effort into an apology. - Zoey
“He’s good,” Em scoffs.
“He’s making it very hard to stay angry at him.”
It might’ve been embarrassing, terribly written, and over-the-top cheesy, yet it reminds me of the old us.
He’s trying. Really trying.
“Stay strong, I want to see what he does next. This is way too entertaining to stop now.” She takes a step toward her room. “Also, make sure he doesn’t pursue a musical career any time soon.” Em wrinkles her nose.
We exchange a giggle and go back to studying.
Cameron fucking Kahlo. The only man who can get away with a stunt like this.
Sunday
Jake drops Em and I off in front of our dorm after getting food on campus. Levi and him practically fell off their chairs laughing after seeing the video she took of the song yesterday.
Yes, she took a damn video.
I couldn’t help but grin when I saw my face at the end of the song. The look I had the entire time was priceless, and my face was beet red. I’m sure Cam has seen a video of it by now and is wondering how I reacted after we shut the door. It must be torture for him waiting for my response to any of these gestures. I know he’s not expecting one, but he’s not so secretly hoping I’ll cave in sooner rather than later. Although, every day, it’s getting a little harder to stay away. It would be easy to forgive him, and that terrifies me because that piece of my heart he used to own was and always will be his.
I must remain strong. It’s only been a little over a week since I found out about David. The wound is still fresh, yet somehow it feels as if it’s slowly getting stitched closed with every kind thing that Cam has thrown my way.
Even though so much of what went down could’ve been avoided, I believe everything happened the way it was supposed to, no matter how much of a disaster it was.
“What are you studying for next?” Emma asks, dragging me back to the present.
“The essay I was working on yesterday is done, so now…”
My voice trails off as we step into our room. I hold on to Em’s hand and swear that I feel my heart skip a beat.
The only lighting in the living room is from the multiple tiny star string lights hanging from all four walls. The color is warm and inviting. They’re not tacky looking, cheap, or over the top, they’re perfect.
“This is…”
“Beautiful,” I finish Emma’s sentence.
“There’s a flower too, look.”
She runs over to our small coffee table, where a single red tulip sits in a small vase. My favorite flower in my favorite color. And, of course, there’s a card.
Kamila ,
There are exactly eight-hundred-star lights hung up on your walls.
One for each day that we spent apart.
From the night I last saw you on that beach until the day we reunited here in Driscoll on August 29th.
There were too many starry nights when you weren’t by my side. Every day without you in my life, whether the sky is full of those tiny lights or not, they will never shine properly when you’re not beside me.
I want all of my starry nights to be yours and yours to be mine.
And when it’s cloudy, we’ll make our own.
Love always,
Cameron
“I just have one question before you get all teary-eyed.” Em stares at the door. “How the fuck did he get in?”