Page 46 of Puck the Halls
“How was your…flight?” I ask, searching for an answer or explanation as to why she is here. Did she fly, take a bus, drive? Was she already in Chicago for like weeks and weeks and I just didn’t know it? Is she en route to Europe or a Canadian ski resort or maybe she’s moving to Alaska and she’s here to tell me goodbye forever?
“It was on time,” Erika says, sounding amused. “Otherwise, it was winging through the air in a tin can with free pretzels.”
So she flew up here. Recently.
“Excellent. Sounds delightful.”
I hate the way I sound. Awkward and polite.
Erika sounds normal. I need to be normal.
So without thinking anymore about it, I blurt out what’s in my heart, “I’ve missed you.”
“What?” Erika looks surprised.
“I miss you.” I grab her hands. “I’ve missed you so damn much. It’s been thirty-nine days since we saw each other in New Orleans.”
It had been a trip we’d planned together during my fall break. A quick weekend getaway to solidify our relationship.
We’d spent two days exploring the city and having amazing incredible sex for hours both nights.
Then she’d broken up with me and left me crying in the airport.
I’d been working up the nerve to tell her I was in love with her and instead she’d told me that it was over.
Standing by a sandwich kiosk staring at a breakfast sandwich and damn near sobbing.
An elderly woman had told me not to cry—that sandwich vending machines have come a long way.
But now Erika is in Nathan Armstrong’s living room and she says the words I’ve dreamed of for the past thirty-nine days.
“I’ve missed you too. I’m sorry I broke up with you in the airport.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered where it was. I didn’t want to just end things. I thought we could come up with a solution.”
“We talked about it over and over. You don’t want to move. I don’t want to move. What are we supposed to do?”
Erika has her hands in her back pockets and she is staring at me earnestly.
I do the only thing that makes any fucking sense. Putting my arms around her, I say, “I’ll move. I love you, Dragon Lady. More than anything in the world.”
Tears appear in her eyes. “You would move to Dallas to be with me?”
Having experienced living apart from her for the past two years and now being tormented for the last thirty-nine days thinking I had lost her for good, leaving the familiar stomping grounds of Chicago doesn’t seem important any more.
What’s important is the woman I love.
And she’s a Dallas Dragon.
“Life is going to pass us by so fast. I don’t want to waste anymore time being without you. So yes, I will happily and without any reservation move to Dallas to be with you. Though I will not switch my hockey allegiance. Racketeers forever, just so you know. Some shit is sacred.”
Now she’s really crying. “I’m pregnant,” she blurts out.
My mind goes blank. Like, nothing there, man. Just every thought I’d been having dumps out of my brain and onto the hardwood floor.
“What?” I ask. “What do you mean?”
It’s a stupid question.
