Page 57 of Considering Us

“It was,” he said, pushing me gently against the kitchen counter and sliding his hands around to my lower back. He was still wearing his jacket. I would have to do something about that. “I drove down there after I talked to you last night.”

“You drove to Connecticut after midnight,” I said. “Let me help you take off the jacket.” I unzipped it and slid it off his shoulders.

“You can remove anything you’d like, Dev,” he said. “Yes, I got there at around three-thirty in the morning. I decided not to scare the shit out of them, so I slept in my car in front of their house, which seemed like a reasonable plan at the time, until that scared the shit out of their next-door neighbor, who calledthe police. So, I was awoken at five by a Mystic police officer and my mother in her bathrobe.”

I cracked up. “That’s ridiculous.”

“It was. And then I had to explain that I was there to dig through some bins for a CD and would be leaving immediately after I found it. My parents were really worried about me after Cora left, but now I think they’ve given up completely on any hopes for normalcy.”

“And you found it.”

“Normalcy? I’m working on that.”

“No, I mean the CD.”

“Yeah, I got scared I wouldn’t, but here it is. I listened to it in the car on the way back up here. Good thing my car is old and still has a player in it.”

“The Jeep still has one, too. I haven’t used it in years.” I picked the case up again. “I want to listen to it.” Kyle kissed me again, this time with more urgency, and I felt the blood rush through my body. “We can go listen to it later in the car. Plenty of other things we can do before then,” I said, feeling his body against mine.

“What do you want to do?” he murmured, and I knew what I had to say.

“I really need a shower,” I said. “I’m sure I just killed the mood or something, but I have been traveling for so long. It was like something out ofPlanes, Trains, and Automobiles.”

“Is that a movie? I love your movie references.”

“John Candy? Steve Martin? Seriously, Kyle. It’s a John Hughes film, for God’s sake.”

“I have a lot of movie-catching-up to do,” he admitted. “Don’t you have some amazing clawfoot tub in that bathroom of yours? Am I just imagining this? You know you’ve got the best apartment on campus.”

“I do have a clawfoot tub. Are you suggesting we use it? I’ve never gone in there with anyone else before. You think there’ll be enough room?”

“It’s worth a try,” he said. “It’s Sunday afternoon, and we have nowhere else to be. What do you say?”

I opened the cabinet above my head. “Whiskey sours?”

“This bath is sounding better all the time.”

...

A few hours later, we were in the Jeep headed west to Norwell. Neither of us had been there in years, despite Kyle living so close for so long. We needed to drive somewhere to listen to the CD, which still sounded pretty good after years of sitting in a Rubbermaid bin in the Hollings’ basement.

“This is a really amazing piece of our history, despite the circumstances in which it was made,” I said.

“Oh, you mean that it was abandoned because I met a British woman who turned out to be a complete waste of time, and how I should have told her I was busy and kept making the CD? And sent you the blasted thing?”

“I still don’t know if our timing would’ve been right that fall,” I said, turning into the campus. “What would it have been like for us to reunite right here in late August 2007? What do you think would’ve happened?”

“Oh, I have a good idea what would have happened,” he said. “Something like what happened a couple of hours ago.”

I laughed. “Probably. But would that have been enough in the long run? I wonder. Maybe we needed to go through all the experiences we’ve had to get to this point.” I pulled into a visitor parking space. “And there’s one very important person we’re forgetting.”

“Annie,” he said quietly. “I can’t wait for you to spend more time with her. She’s going to love you.”

“I’m excited, too. Do you think she’ll like baking cookies and stuff like that? I’m not very theatrical, but we can watch all the movies. And I already know she likes ice cream.”

“She does. I know it’s freezing out, but I miss Georgy Porgy’s. May is way too far away.”

“It is. You know I don’t enjoy this weather.” I pulled on my hat and gloves. “You ready to walk around the Loch again?”

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