Page 129 of Lucky Night

Tell me it’s going to be okay. Tell me what happens next.

What happens next?

Our story, he says. From here on out.

You want me to…?

Tell me everything. Don’t leave anything out.

She strokes his head, his poor head. Their future. Can she do that? Should she?

It’s not a lie. It’s just a story.

Well, she says, we escape. Firefighters find us, they have oxygen and masks, and they lead us down a stairwell right before it collapses. It’s a miraculous rescue, a real nailbiter. But then everybody finds out what we’ve been up to. They’re happy we’re alive—

But they hope we drop dead, he says.

Pretty much. Tom and Caroline dump us. The kids are upset, our friends are at war, it’s gruesome. But after a while? Everybody calms down. They get overit.

Good. Then what?

We get married.

Wedo?

Sure, she says. Marriage is romantic. Stupid and romantic. Likeus.

He finds her hands and kisses them. I love that. Is this the truth?

Well, she says, it’s a story.

But a story could be true. Couldn’tit?

Yes, she says. A story could be true.

So we get married. What then?

You quit the firm and go back to graduate school.

Oh fuck that, he says.

You do, Nick! You give it a shot. And I follow you. We live together in student housing.

Student housing? This is getting worse and worse.

We don’t have much of a choice. Tom and Caroline cleaned usout.

Ah well, he says. They deserve it. How’s the sex in student housing?

Phenomenal, she says. Barbaric.

I like the sound of that.

Our neighbors don’t, she says. They’re furious. We’re exhausted. Your adviser is concerned. I keep missing my deadlines. But somehow? It all works out.

It does, doesn’tit?

He kisses her, hard.

---