Page 15 of Truly, Madly, Deeply
At each stop the cashier was ready with a pink card, and each card held another poem, another hint for the next stage of their adventure.
The next poem led them to a custom cookie store. Behind the counter an older woman seemed to recognizeTommy as soon as they walked in. Tommy grinned at her. “My princess has an order, I believe.”
Annalee was getting used to this. “Yes… I’d like a 2.1 please.” She laughed. “Whatever that means.”
“Well…” The woman giggled. She had to have been in her eighties. This must’ve been the highlight of her week. “Today only… a 2.1 is this.” She lifted a small pizza-sized box from beneath the counter and opened the lid.
Pink writing on a pair of enormous chocolate chip cookies read:
Princess lovely
Girl so fair…
I think we make
A lasting pair!
Tommy winked at her. “Pair… get it? Two cookies. Because we’re the perfect duo!”
Again Annalee laughed. The woman gave her yet another pink envelope, and this one directed the two of them to the Fishers Topgolf, twenty miles northeast of Indianapolis. On the ride there, Tommy played Broadway show tunes. Hits fromHamiltonandDear Evan HansenandThe Lion King.
They sang at the top of their lungs and laughed at how they had been in the school musical together fall of their freshman year. He had been Frank Butler inAnnie Get Your Gunand she’d been Annie. That was how they met.
A “showmance,” they had called it.
The noises in the tube were louder now. Annalee squeezed her eyes more tightly shut.
Don’t think about it. You’re at Topgolf now.
Topgolf turned out to be the last stop on their list of adventures that night. A few times a year, Tommy golfed with his dad and uncles. But Annalee had never done more than miniature golf. That night nearly every time she took the club and tried to hit the ball, she made some mistake.
First, she had accidentally tipped the ball, causing it to roll off the platform in slow motion and down into the scoring area below. As if the wind had blown it off the putting surface. For her next turn, she hit the ball straight at the course map directly in front of her. It had ricocheted off the hard surface and barely missed her face as it settled into the wasteland below.
Both of them had collapsed in a hug of giddy joy, holding each other up so they wouldn’t fall to the ground laughing. When Tommy could finally breathe again, he had looked at her. “You’re the only one who needs a helmet at Topgolf.”
Noises from the scan grew louder again.
Focus,Annalee told herself.Stay with the memory.
On the drive home, she and Tommy sang again and talked about musical theater, their love for it and the reasons neither of them had stayed with it. Annalee had shifted her attention to choir. And Tommy played basketball. Which meant neither of them had time for school musicals.
Still, it was one of their dreams to spend a weekend in New York City. Walk the insanely busy streets and catch afew shows. Tommy was going with his family for the anniversary of 9/11, but that was a different sort of trip.
Annalee could still see Tommy’s profile as he pulled his Jeep in front of her house late that night. He put the car in park, then turned to her. “And that, Annie, is how a princess should be treated.”
Annie.
The noise around her faded, and her heart was filled again with the sound of Tommy’s voice. Calling her Annie. For her, it was a silly nickname, the one Tommy used when he wanted to make her smile.
He was the only one who ever called her that.
Tommy had helped her carry the cookies and her handful of pink cards as he walked her up to the door. He faced her and took hold of her hands. The night air had been chilly, so he stood close. As if he might shelter her from more than the cool evening, but from anything that would ever dare come between them. Whatever might try to hurt her.
They set their things down on the nearest rocking chair and Tommy took her in his arms. “All night… I kept waiting for this. You and me, alone.” He took her face in his hands and kissed her.
Just long enough to tell her what he wouldn’t dare say with words.
Because they knew better than to let a moment like that linger. Instead she had watched the muscles in his jaw flex, something that happened when he was makinga difficult shot on the basketball court. Whenever he had to work extra-hard.
