Page 122 of Business Casual
I trace the shell of her ear and the ink right beneath. “What?”
“Looking at me like I’m going to disappear.”
I frown. “I’m not.”
“You are.”
I huff and shift beneath her. She goes rolling sideways until I tug her back. I didn’t realize that some of my internal panic was bleeding through. “I don’t want to leave,” I confess.
A sad smile ghosts across her face. She leans up until she can rest her chin on my chest. “When will you be back?”
I lift one shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t know yet. I’ve been away for a while. I’ll have to get some stuff sorted in the city. Is that—” I drag my hand through my hair and then rest it beneath my head, trying to get a better look at her face in the shadowed light. “Is that all right?”
She mirrors my frown. “What?”
“Is it all right that I don’t know when I’ll be back?”
She searches my face carefully. “You’ll text me right?”
I nod.
“And call?”
I nod again.
“Then, yeah. Everything will be fine.” I accept the kiss she brushes against my mouth and will myself to settle, to believe her, to trust that I can be good at this. Mine to have and mine to keep. Isn’t that what she said?
“We’ll figure it out as we go,” she says, yawning into my chin. Her hands pat at my sides. “Keep talking to me and we’ll do it together.”
She rolls out of the bed without another word, taking all the blankets with her. I watch her as she sleepily shuffles across her hardwood floor to her bathroom. The door clicks shut behind her, and I dig my thumb in the middle of my forehead.
“Together,” I repeat.
Together is exactly where I want to be, but it feels a million miles away from where I’m going.
26
CHARLIE:This gas station has ketchup chips!!
CHARLIE:Chips that taste like ketchup!!
NOVA:Why don’t you just buy ketchup?
CHARLIE:Ketchup in the car is not the move, Nova girl.
NOVA:How many gas stations are you going to stop at?
CHARLIE:It’s only my sixth stop.
NOVA:In a three-hour drive.
CHARLIE:I am quite literally dragging my feet all the way back to New York.
NOVA:Did you order me a pizza?
CHARLIE:Depends. What’s on the pizza?
NOVA:It is a heart shaped pizza with extra sauce.
