Page 65 of Stops Along the Way
“This looks great,” I say as I unbox it and reveal the pieces inside. “Ooh, we get to break everything out of the perforations too. I love a fresh unboxing.” I poke out a few tokens before offering the sheet to Declan. “Oh, I’m sorry. I should let you do a few if you want.”
He laughs. “You look way too thrilled about doing that; I can’t take it away from you.”
“Thanks.” I smile and pop out another token.
Declan fishes around the box for the alien meeples. They’re still cute, but a little generic in their small wooden stature. “Less heart than the ones our siblings made, got to say.”
“Ah, consumerism couldn’t handle that level of handmade charm,” I joke. “I hope I remember the rules.”
He picks up the instruction sheet, pointing to a section I rewrote over email. “This part makes a lot more sense now.”
“Thanks,” I say. “I felt like I had to figure out all the words since you managed all the math and map coordinates.”
We set up our individual boards, but Declan seems to get nervous that this might be our only chance to chat, so he asks more catching-up questions. “So, how have you been doing?”
“Good,” I say, and mostly mean it. “You?”
He nods. “My parents just signed their divorce papers, to everyone’s relief.”
“Even I’m relieved for you,” I say.
“Yeah, my mom just bought a smaller place here in town, whereas my dad’s going to go move in with his brother in Boston for a little while.”
“Guess you won’t need an invite to Thanksgiving, then,” I say, meant to be a friendly callback to one of our earlier conversations, but it does seem a little like I’m relieved to not have to make good on my offer. Which makes me decide to share my own update, though I’m nervous, so I toy with the alien meeple in my hands. “I, um, well, the thing with my eyes, yeah, that happened.”
“Oh,” he says, voice full of concern but not necessarily pity as he gently nudges his arm against mine. “How do you feel about that?”
“It’s ongoing,” I say, avoiding his gaze, but then I turn to face him with a smile. “Yet I’m still me.”
He returns the smile with a knowing nod. “And it’s really nice to be playing with you again.”
“It is.” I draw the first card from the stack and place it face up on the table between us, angling my own board so that we can’t see each other’s coordinates despite sitting side by side. “In a game we created, even!”
“Yeah!” He draws the next card, and our arms brush again, and this time I don’t lean away. We stay close together, huddled over our boards.
Our proximity reawakens a comfort within me. I glance up at him out of the corner of my eye and catch his gaze, feeling the warmth of his presence send my heart racing. I can practically feel the memory of his lips pressed against mine…along with a wild, striking certainty that it won’t be the last occurrence.
I try to hide my blush, but when I discover him matching my smile yet again, I’m positive he’s thinking the exact same thing.
Unable to stop grinning, I refocus my attention to the table—since, once again, everyone else is playing around us while Declan and I are stuck in our own little world. I move my alien three spaces to the left and pick up the sparkling blue dice.
“I’m going to start borrowing your strategy,” I tell him.
“Oh, really?”
I shake them in my hands, ready to roll onto the table. “Let’s see what these dice can do.”
Expansion
Thanksgiving Break—
Junior Year of College
It’s Wednesday afternoon, and the campus parking lot has cleared out, with everyone in a rush to drive home for the holiday tomorrow. It isn’t cold enough for me to be wearing a jacket, but I’ve been standing outside too long and the tops of my ears are frozen since my hearing aids make them stick out from my head farther than they would otherwise. Class wrapped up early this morning. I should be at least an hour or two into my journey back to Omaha right now, but instead, I’m standing here, watching this old sedan get lifted onto the ramp of the flatbed truck to be towed away for good.
My car managed to roll along for a good twelve years, yet now it’s destined for the junkyard. It’s given me a lot of grief, but plenty of good times too.
I video call my sister, holding the phone up so she can take in the whole scene, but Amelia answers with “Hey! What exactly am I supposed to be looking at here?”
