Page 109 of No Place Like You

“I moved out here. While you two were on your honeymoon,” I explain. “I’m staying with Dexter for now. At least until I figure things out work wise.”

She’s speechless. I can see it in the way her head swivels to face Dexter, then Hayden, and then back to me with her mouth hanging open.

“We talked about moving to LA since Lucy’s work is going to be there, but I can’t right now, not while Janet starts her radiation therapy, but we’re figuring things out a day at a time.”

“Is she okay?” Hayden asks.

Dexter nods. “She got admitted again, but she’s stable now. It was kind of scary at first, but she’s finally off the ventilator, and they moved her out of the ICU. I think her doctor’s going to discharge her in a week or so, depending on some more test results.”

We’ve been shuttling back and forth from Dexter’s apartment to the hospital since I moved and settled in. I watched as Janet regained a lot of her strength and her doctors grew more hopeful about her prognosis. She was ecstatic when we told her I moved into Dexter’s apartment, and she’s been calling or texting me every day since. While she isn’t in the clear in any way, it’s still a good sign that she’s fighting this. She needs as much of her strength as possible before she starts her radiation therapy after she’s discharged.

I look at Nat and watch as she still continues to process everything. “I already talked to Mom,” I start to explain. “She knows I’m out here with Dexter. I told her about the job and everything, and she’s really happy about it. And she’s so relieved we’re all in the same city.”

“Ohmigod,” Nat says through a sharp gasp. “We’re all living in the city.” She grins at me, and her eyes light up. “You, me, and Carmen. We all live in the same freaking city. We’re in the same time zone, and I don’t have to fly across the country to see you!”

I laugh. “Yeah,” I say, grinning at her.

“We have to tell Carmen! We should go straight to her place after this. She’s going to be so excited!”

“Oh,” I say. “About that…”

50

Lucy

six months later

“The champagne is in the freezer,”I yell to Dexter from Janet’s living room. “You should take it out now. It’s been in there for about an hour.”

“What?” He emerges from the kitchen, a half-deflated balloon in his hand and his voice sounding like one of the chipmunks.

Nat and I both dissolve into giggles while Nat pins one side of the large banner that reads CONGRATULATIONS in big block letters. I’m on the other side, my arms getting tired while we determine the banner’s level. “I said to get the champagne out of the freezer,” I tell Dexter. “And don’t get high off the helium. Or your voice will stay that way.”

He sucks in a healthy serving of helium. “That’s an urban myth,” he claims in his silly voice as he turns toward the kitchen.

I tack the corner of the sign and step down from the chair I was standing on, admiring my handiwork. “Now we just need to set up the food once Hayden gets here with it,” I say to Nat.

She glances at the clock. “What time did Charles say they were heading over?”

“In about an hour,” I answer. “He’s treating Janet to some cronuts as her first post-treatment treat, and then they’re coming home. I just told him not to seem too eager or she’s going to catch on.”

After two weeks in the hospital and once Janet’s recovery stabilized her enough to be discharged, she came home on oxygen and further follow-up visits. She completed eight weeks of radiation therapy, fighting an unfair fight, one that felt like the opponent always had an upper leg. And she won. After more waiting, more tests, and even more waiting, we got the final verdict two days ago: remission. She’s still weak, recovering from the aftereffects of her hospitalization and radiation therapy, but she’s returning back to her old self. Enjoying company, laughing and joking with me, teasing Dexter about his pouty heartbroken state before I moved in with him.

There’s a buzz on the intercom, and we all jump. “They’re early!” Dexter screams, bolting out of the kitchen to the door.

“Honey,” I call, trying to calm him down. “They aren’t going to use the buzzer in their own apartment. It’s probably Hayden with the food.”

Dexter smiles sheepishly at me. “Oh, right.” He buzzes the door and surveys the room. The balloons—the ones Dexter didn’t inhale—are scattered throughout. The banner, gold and glittery, is placed so it’s the first thing Janet sees when she walks through the door. And we’ve set up the cake on the coffee table, the words “Fuck Cancer” written in cursive over the frosting.

There’s a low knock at the door, and when Dexter opens it, we find Hayden, his arms full of three large aluminum trays carrying something that smells absolutely delicious. “Jeez. I almost got attacked by a wiener dog that had the face of a pitbull. That was a really weird mix.”

He strains against the weight before he slumps the trays on the kitchen counter, and he and Nat busy themselves to organize them neatly over the space.

“Thank you for helping,” Dexter croons into my ear, sidling up behind me with his arm wrapped around my waist.

“As if I would miss this.”

He plants a kiss on my neck. “Still, you must be so tired after your flight.”

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