Read Online Coming Attractions by Robin Jones Gunn - Free Book Online Page B

face.
    “Why are you smirking?”
    “I’m not smirking. I’m remembering. Remembering what I was going through a year ago when I was in your place, trying to finish
     my final semester and plan a wedding on top of everything.”
    “Well, I’m not planning a wedding. I can’t even plan a bracelet.”
    “Plan a what?”
    Katie’s textbook went unopened as she caught Christy up on all the details about Rick and the cuddly, kissy date the night
     before. Katie described the brooch, the symbol of their happily-almost-after relationship and then slipped into the same sort
     of sure-unsure banter she had begun with Nicole that morning in the laundry room.
    “It sounds as if I’m self-sabotaging, doesn’t it? Why would I do that?”
    “Your emotions are on a tilt-a-whirl,” Christy said.
    “I thought you would say my emotions are on a roller coaster.”
    “No. Roller coasters go up and down. You’re in your final semester of college and deep in a serious relationship. I would
     say your emotions are on a tilt-a-whirl. You know, those carnival rides where you spin and fly around in a big circle and
     go up and down all at once.”
    “I know what a tilt-a-whirl is.”
    “So give yourself lots of grace, just like you gave me last year. Have you forgotten how impossible I was to live with?”
    “I don’t remember your being impossible to live with.”
    “Well, I remember.” Christy reached over, and with one hand on the steering wheel, she gave Katie a comforting pat. “Don’t
     try to push yourself too hard. Rick isn’t pushing you. Just let things spin through all their cycles and come to their natural
     conclusion.”
    “Now you sound like Eli.”
    “I do?”
    “Yeah, I was talking to him a few weeks ago about where I was going to live after I graduate, and he said I should go to Africa.”
    Christy laughed.
    “I think he was half-serious. He said I should experience a whole circle of life before I got married, and he thought I would
     experience it if I went some place like Africa.”
    “He didn’t really say ‘circle of life,’ did he?”
    “I thought that’s what he said. Or did I get that from
The Lion King
? My African references are overlapping. Must be that tilt-a-whirl effect you were talking about. Eli says my mind is full
     of wavy lines that wiggle all over the place, and when they intersect with another wavy line, I never know where one line
     stopped and the other started.”
    “Eli said that, did he?”
    Katie nodded. “He’s an observant guy.”
    “Yes, he is.”
    Katie opened her book and made an effort to find where she had left off reading earlier that week. It seemed as if one of
     her wavy lines had intersected another wavy line, and now her thoughts were off in faraway lands where giraffes galloped and
     lions crouched.
    “Do you think I should go to Kenya?”
    Christy looked at her and then back to the road. “When? Why?”
    “I think I have a little crush on the idea of going to Africa.”
    Christy laughed.
    “I think I just figured something out.” Katie straightened her posture and nodded slowly. “I don’t want to miss out on an
     adventure, do I? That’s what it is, isn’t it? I’m questioning my feelings for Rick because I’m afraid I might miss something
     if he and I move ahead and become engaged anytime soon. That must be why I keep feeling hesitant. I know what life will be
     like with him. Rick is a straight line up against all my wobbly lines. He sets a goal and goes after it.”
    “So do you.”
    “I know, but I love having the freedom to decide on a new goal every fifteen minutes. Rick picks one goal, and that’s it for
     months. Years.”
    “That’s a great leadership quality.”
    Katie nodded. “Yes, but we’re still young. There’s a lot of world out there to see. Don’t you remember how great it was a
     few summers ago when you, Todd, and I traveled around Europe?”
    A dreamy expression came over Christy’s face. “I think about that