I arrived a few minutes early, so I decided to wait for Carter down at the lake. I started to become nervous as I stood there waiting, then suddenly a car pulled up, and it was him. Immediately my body began to build up a sweat, and it felt like I was burning up from the inside out.

"Ugh...! relax..." I said out loud to myself, as he walked over to greet me with a smile.

"Hey, you look nice," he said, softly.

"Thanks!" I replied, with a smirk, "so do you," I complimented back.

He was wearing a fitted hat with a graphic tee, and a pair of jeans. He wore two earring studs, one in each ear, and a chain with a cross attached to it. He had that look that I've always liked in a guy... (Well that was when I used to date anyway.)

"So, we're back here again...? You must really love this place, how often do you come out here?" he asked.

"Not often enough," I replied, with a slight sigh. He looked at me with a squint of the eyes as I walked past him to stand at the edge of the pier.

"Beautiful isn't it?" I said, as I stood there staring out into the open water.

"It is..." he responded softly, as he walked over to me, "so how was your day?" he asked.

"It was ok," I sighed, as I briefly thought about how my day really went.

"Cool, so how about you tell me a little bit about you," he said curiously, as he stood there watching me.

"Tell you something about me huh..." I repeated, with a smirk.

"Yeah... I want to know about Emery," he insisted, in a flirty way.

"What would you like to know?"

"Anything," he responded.

"Hmmm... Well I'm 24 years old," I said, playfully. He chuckled as he replied back, "ok, well I'm 26."

I smiled, as I nodded my head up and down.

"So, I remember asking you if you had family around, but I can't remember what the answer was, do you?" he asked, as he started to spark a conversation.

"Well, my roommate Jessica, who is my best friend, and Adam who owns the coffee shop, they are my family now."

"Oh, ok... well how about your parents, are they around?"

I sighed as I looked over towards the wooded area. "I'm sorry, did I say something wrong?" he wondered.

"No..." I whispered sadly, as my eyes flashed over to his, "Is your family around?" I asked, as I tried to avoid talking about me. For a quick second, he stared at me with a puzzled look on his face, then proceeded to answer the question.

"Yeah... I have family around, my mother and older brother, and we're pretty close too, well for the most part," he chuckled.

"That sounds nice," I replied, as I sat down on the edge of the pier. "So how do you like your job?" I asked, "it has to be hard to see some of the things that you see."

"It is," he responded, as he sat down beside me and started to explain. "It's a tough job you know, seeing a lot of injured people that you're trying to

help, and sometimes they make it, and sometimes they don't," he sighed.

"That sounds like it's very hard to deal with," I said, sadly.

"It definitely is, it's like their lives are in our hands you know, yeah... it's for sure overwhelming and sad at times," he agreed.

Thoughts started flowing through my mind, and I wasn't sure if Carter was there at the scene last year. A part of me wanted to ask him but I couldn't get the question out, I was too afraid of what the answer would have been. As I sat there trying to keep myself from asking him, I spaced out into another flashback...

"What about you? How long have you been over at the coffee shop?" he asked, changing the subject.

"About eight months now if that," I said, as I slowly snapped out of it, and happy that he changed

the subject. "It's just something for now, actually I've been thinking about taking some classes," I explained.

"Nice..." he grinned, "so what do you want to study?"

"I'm not really sure yet... I haven't made up my mind."

"Don't worry, you will, I have faith in you," he smirked, as he winked his eye.

"Thanks..." I replied.

"No need to thank me," he said, genuinely.

I smiled, then became more relaxed as we continued to sit and talk for hours.