Page 23 of Hello Forever
“In fact, he was never here the other night.Etcetera.”
“I didn’t see a thing,” Josh said, eating the rest of the muffin one-handed while the baby drooled on his shoulder. “How do you know him,anyway?”
Now there’s a story. “Back in Ohio we used to be friends, but he moved away in high school.” I left a few crucial plot points out of that summary, ofcourse.
“No way! So you do know someoneintown.”
Yeah, and I kissed him, and now he’s not speakingtome.
“Hi guys!” a male voice called from thelivingroom.
“In here!” Joshhollered.
Caleb appeared in the doorway. “Hey!What’sup?”
“Axel baked muffins. Get in here and try one of these.” Josh lifted the container forCaleb.
“No shit?” He reachedforone.
“Language,” Josh scolded. “What is Chloe doing in the living room? It’s tooquiet.”
“Watching Elmo. And taking apart the cable modem with ascrewdriver.”
Josh rolled his eyes. “You crackyourselfup.”
“Every day.” Caleb leaned over to kiss Josh on the head, and that small gesture made my heart ache. Would I ever have someone ofmyown?
Caleb sat down and told us about his shift at the garage. He and his coworker had made bets on whether a third coworker had proposed to his girlfriend the previous night. But when they called him to verify, they’d learned he’d walked in on her with another man yesterdayafterwork.
“Oh,man,” Josh said. “That is rough.” He picked up a baby’s bottle off the table, tucked the baby boy into the crook of his arm and offered the little guy thenipple.
The way Josh cared for these kids so effortlessly was mind-boggling. I wouldn’t know what to do with a baby if it sat up and gave me instructions. “You’re so good at that,” I said, feeling myselfstaring.
“Isn’t it weird?” Caleb said cheerfully. “Morecoffee?”
I stood and washed my mug. “I should get a move on,” I said. “Leave you guys to yourSaturday.”
“Come for dinner some night next week,” Caleb offered. “It’s not usually this crazyaroundhere.”
I smiled at him over my shoulder. “I don’t mind the crazy. But we will do dinner. That sounds like fun.” I put my mug on thedryingrack.
“Thanks for the muffins!” Joshcalled.
“You can stop over with these anytime,” Calebteased.
“Later, guys.” Smiling to myself, I went up to my quiet little treehouse residence. For want of something better to do, I logged in to check my work email. There was one message, from a personal email account called “Caxtrastrophe.”
DearAxel,
I could only find a work email for you. But I needed to say thank you for dinner. It was terrific, and I haven’t had that much fun in alongtime.
I also wanted to say I was sorry for flipping out and running off without explaining myself. That was pretty ridiculous. You probably think I’m nuts. When I said I didn’t get out much, I obviously wasn’tkidding.
Hope you have a greatweekend,
C.
Iswitchedto my private email and wrote out areply.
