Break Your Heart Read Free

to?”
    “London.”
    “Are you not going to college?”
    “I am. DePaul, in Chicago. It’s a gap Yeahr program through the International Business College. We start there for six weeks of classes and then travel through five different countries immersing ourselves in their culture and learning their business environment first hand.” He rambled on about the opportunity as if he was reading a brochure.
    She couldn’t tell in the darkness but she th ought she may have seen him roll his eyes. “You say it like it’s a bad thing to have such an amazing experience like that!”
    “It’s not. I wanted to travel the world and my dad wanted me to go to college. A c ompromise at its best.” Grant leapt off the truck, bent down and picked up the bottles below him.  He held up a finger towards her and headed to the deck to toss the empty bottles into the garbage.
    Gina watched him fade away into the dark of the night, then reappear again as a blur in the floodlight. She couldn't help but stare as he made his way back to the truck with two cold beers clenched in his hands. 
    Grant sprung up on the hood next to her with ease, opening a beer and handing it to her, and then opening his own.
    “Thank you,” she paused. “So, how long have you played?”
    He looked at her as she spoke...not staring, but fixed.
    It sent a wave of uneasiness over her. She cracked a
    smile and giggled as an attempt to mask how exciting and nerve wracking his presence made her.
    “Since I was born. My dad plays.”
    “You’re good.”
    “I’m okay. You play?”
    Gina giggled again. Enough with the giggles, G! She wondered how ditzy she must sound from filling in all her awkward pauses with nervous laughs. She regained her composure and settled the childish smile on her face. “No.   Music isn’t my strong point.”
    “What is your strong point?”
    “Hmm. Good question. I guess I really don’t know.”
    “Come on, everyone is good at something.”
    “Is that so?”
    Her confidence and wit struck him. “Sure,” he paused, deciding where to take the conversation, “everyone is capable of being good at something. They just don’t try.”
    “Really?” she replied, taken back by his declaration. The Gina she knew began to emerge, allowing a level of calmness to return.
    “ Yeah, really. I just think a lot of people don’t try.”
                  “Not everyone can be as naturally talented as you, Grant.” She smiled at him again feeling more and more like her witty self as she settled into the conversation.
                  “This is true,” he mocked. “So?”
    “So what?”
    “So, what’s your strong point?” He paused, and then looked back at her with his lips pressed together and the corner of the left side of his mouth lifted. “Or don’t you try?”
    She shot him a half annoyed, half amused look. “Okay fine, dancing, I guess.”
    “What kind of dance?”
    “Ballet, jazz, tap. I love it all. I spent a lot of Yeahrs in the studio while I was growing up.”
    He was quiet.
    Gina peered back at him watching the moment before her, trying to decode what he was thinking of her words. 
    Grant turned back to her with a sly smile. “See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
    She stared back as his deep green eyes caught hers leaving a stillness to resolve between them. Gina felt her heart begin to bump harder and quicker in her chest. She danced from thought to thought of nothing trying to find something of value to say, or perhaps do.  Her mind seemed to be lost in a dizzying wave of excitement taking anything of value for a spin into an irretrievable state.
    “There you are!” A voice shot out from the dark. 
    Gina let out the breath she had been holding in anticipation of the next words or move from Grant. She squinted her eyes struggling to make out the face of the silhouette approaching.
    “Hey,” Gina replied as she recognized Julie stumbling towards her. Julie was making her way through