Page 44 of Distant Shores
I’d been studying the blurry wall of the living room and scrunching my nose at the vaguely musty smell of disuse. I put on my glasses, and the framed watercolor seahorse cleared.
“Yeah?”
“Jillie had to go, but I have the lease.” She held up a manilla folder.
“Great.”
“She also said we can move in today.” She held up three keys with her other hand and a triumphant smile.
“Super.”
“Wanna start the paperwork?” She waved the folder at me.
“You bet.”
“Why are you talking like a boomer?”
“War on Christmas.”
Delly giggled and tugged my arm. “Come on, let’s do the paperwork. Then we can start unpacking!” Her giggle turned into a squeal, and I did my best to meet her enthusiasm by smiling as big as I could.
She sat down at the kitchen table and opened the folder. I took the chair beside her, and we got to work.
“Wow,” I breathed as I looked at the rent price. “That’s generous of them.” I pointed out the figure with my pen. “Work for you?”
Delly glanced at it, then nodded. “Yup.”
Just as we were finishing up, Delly sat back in her chair and sighed. “This might put a damper on that hot summer fling I was hoping for.”
I signed the last page, then dropped my pen on top. “Is that so?”
She nodded seriously. “I’d already imagined the beautiful stranger I was going to meet on my first day here. He was going to be broody and mysterious but an exceedingly tender lover.”
I died on top of the table, my forehead banging the glistening hardwood on impact.
Delly patted my back, and I turned my head toward her carefully so I wouldn’t bend my glasses. “Please don’t say the word ‘lover’ to me.”
“How about ‘consort,’ then?”
I revived and sat up in my chair. “That does seem more… respectable. Do you, ahh….” I scrubbed the back of my neck. I’d always straddled the line of parent and brother with her, but the fact was, if I didn’t say hard things to her, no one would.
Straightening my shoulders, I looked her in the eye. “Are you up-to-date on your birth control? I can take your blood pressure, and we can use that app to order more if you need it. But if you don’t want the pill, I can schedule you an appointment with a clinic for whatever you might prefer instead.”
There.
“You know,” Delly said after a thick beat of silence, “I want to act surprised by your you-ness or even pretend to be flustered, but you’ve conditioned me to this sort ofthing.” She smiled ruefully. “Remember when I got my first period, and you sent me YouTube videos for how to use pads and tampons?”
“My targeted ads were messed up for a whole year,” I grumbled, crossing my arms over my stomach. “I couldn’t watch anything without suffering through a tampon ad. But seriously—” I gave her a stern look. “I know you want to be a mom, and I also know you’ll be the best mom to ever mom, but… let’s not make that happen this summer, yeah?”
She nodded. “Sounds like we need to go to the local CVS and stock up then, right?”
“Yes. Because condoms may be balls, but I’ll have the balls of anyone who gives you an STI.”
She gagged. “I won’t say ‘lover’ if you don’t say ‘condom.’ But yes, maybe we go get a value pack of condoms so neither of us is a parent before we’re ready. Though… the clock is ticking down for you, Addy.”
Delly giggled as I whipped off my glasses and died again—this time into my open palm, my elbow braced on the table.
A voice cleared from behind us, and Delly’s giggle cut off as we both whipped toward the sound.
