Silver Linings Read Online Free

Seagulls circled overhead, their cawing echoing over the parking lot as they waited for the ferry’s arrival.
    “Is Ryan married?”
    Coco stared out the driver’s-side window, avoiding eye contact. “I wouldn’t know.” Heaven help the poor woman who was foolish enough to get involved with the likes of Ryan Temple. Coco felt her friend’s eyes boring into her.
    “You have good reason to hate him.”
    “Why would I do that?” Coco downplayed her bitterness, not wanting Katie to guess how strongly she felt about the jerk. “It was ten years ago. I’ve put it behind me.” That was only half true. With her busy work schedule, Coco didn’t date often. No time, although if the right man came along she’d find the time.
    A silly faraway look came over Katie. “You were the cutest couple. I remember watching you and Ryan walk down the hallway and thinking the two of you were perfect together. Who would have guessed what he was really like?”
    Coco snorted with disbelief, searching for a way to turn the subject away from Ryan.
    “You were,” Katie insisted. “I thought you were, anyway.”
    “That was a long time ago.”
    “Ten years,” Katie murmured. “Can you believe that it’s been ten years since we were all together?” All at once she sat up straighter and her eyes went wide. “The time capsule. We buried one, remember? As part of the reunion we’ll be digging it up, right?”
    “Not until our twentieth class reunion.”
    “Oh right.”
    “If the next ten years pass as quickly as these ten, we’ll be opening that capsule before we know it.”
    The ferry could be seen approaching in the distance. It wouldn’t be long now before they boarded. Thankfully, the car had cooled off.
    “Before we graduated, did you ever think about what our lives would be like in ten years?”
    Coco mulled over the question. “Not really.” By graduation day she’d been sick at heart, confused, and angry. The first two emotions had faded away over the years, but not the anger. Never the anger. It had become a part of her, an extra appendage like a third arm or leg.
    The ferry docked and a long line of cars disembarked, rolling single file into the street with the waterfront traffic. Coco started the car and put it in gear, following the truck in front of her onto the ferry.
    Katie didn’t say anything for a long moment and then whispered, “I’m glad you made me come this weekend.”
    “I’m glad you came, too.”
    “It’s going to be a great weekend for us both, meeting up with old friends and learning about one another’s lives, although I doubt anyone will remember much about me.”
    “They’ll remember,” Coco promised.
    “I doubt it,” Katie countered, “but it doesn’t matter. There’s only one person I want to see.”
    There was only one person Coco wanted to see, too.

As much as she was dreading this reunion, Katie had accepted the fact that Coco wasn’t going to let her back out, especially at the last minute. After so many sleepless nights Katie would finally have the opportunity to explain to James what had happened. This reunion could very well be her one and only chance, and like Coco said, if she gave up now she would always regret that she’d let this opportunity pass her by.
    Without a single word of communication, her high school sweetheart had let it be known that he wanted nothing more to do with her. She’d tried by all the normal routes to connect with him, but he’d ignored each one, shunning her efforts. Katie hated the thought of leaving matters between them as they were. She didn’t expect anything to change, but she just had to have a chance to explain herself.
    Coco drove onto the ferry and parked close to the vehicle in front of her. Cars lined up in designated rows, one after another, in the belly of the boat.
    “Do you want to get a soda or something topside?” Coco asked.
    Katie shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
    “You sure?”
    “Positive. You go ahead