Page 98 of The Rebound
“There better be a next time. You disappeared on us! How’s home? How’s your dad?”
“It’s good. He’s good.”
Alison hesitates, finally picking up on his weird energy. To her credit, her smile doesn’t change. “That’s great,” she says. “Do you guys have time to grab a drink or—”
“We should head back,” Luke interrupts. “Get ahead of the traffic.”
“Sure.” She’s surprised. I know she is because I am too and while I have a feeling she wants to say something more to him, maybe she can’t with me there. “Well, hey, anytime you want to invite us for a countryside getaway, that’s fine by me.”
“Definitely.” Luke smiles like he just remembered how to. “It was great seeing you.”
“Yeah. Crazy.” They hug. Awkwardly. And then she turns to me. “Abby! Congratulations, well done, good luck. Maybe I’ll see you in there someday.”
“Hopefully. It was nice meeting you.”
“You too!” She steps back, pressing the button for the crosswalk. “I guess I’ve got an oven to scrub and dry cleaning to pick up. Teenage me would be horrified.”
And with that she’s off, winding her way through the stationary traffic toward a bus stop across the street.
“She seems nice,” I say after a beat.
Luke doesn’t answer, only turns on his heel and walks in the opposite direction, glancing once over his shoulder to make sure I’m following.
It takes me a few seconds to catch up with him and when I do, I have to say, I’m a little annoyed.
“Is she an ex or something?”
“No,” he says quickly. “Nothing like that. She was a friend.Isafriend.” He pauses at another crosswalk, jabbing the button.
“You’re acting like you owe her money.”
“She looks different, that’s all.”
“What did she used to look like?”
“Nothing… it’s not…”
I’ve never seen him look so agitated before. Like he can’t get out of the city fast enough. He reminds me of me in those last few days in New York. When all I wanted to do was escape.
“It doesn’t matter,” I say as he struggles to find the words. “Don’t worry. It’s none of my business.”
And strangely, it’s those words that seem to break through to him.
“I just didn’t expect to see her,” he says. “A million people in this city and of course I bump into one of the few people I know.”
“Louise said you used to live here.”
“For a while.” The light goes green and we walk across together. “I went to college with Jeremy,” he explains. “Her partner. He got me a room in his house share. It was horrible. The back door didn’t lock and the boiler only worked for an hour a day but we were all broke and didn’t care. Especially Alison,” he adds after a pause. “She did not have a job as… whatever it is she does now. When I first met her she was working as an independent tour guide and self-publishing experimental poetry pamphlets. And Jeremy once crawled under the neighbor’s shed as a dare and got stuck. We had to call the fire department. Jeremy who’s now a radio producer at the national broadcaster.”
“People change,” I remind him when we reach the other side. “They grow up.”
“They do. I know they do. It’s just I was supposed to grow up with them.” He glances at me, looking almost embarrassed. “I know you think I’m moving forward, but you’re not the only person who feels like they took a step backward coming home.”
Luke came back from Dublin to help.
I still, remembering what Louise had said about Pat’s accident. I knew he came back because of his dad but I thought he’d stayed because he wanted to. I’d assumed it was where he wanted to be. But what if it wasn’t? What if he cut short a different life here? One I have no idea about.
“I was rude,” he sighs now. “I’ll email her when we get back. Arrange something.”
