Page 95 of Someone Like Me
God help me, but that’s how I feel right now. How could I not? I’m riding bikes with a beautiful woman, and she wants to be with me.
We speed down St. Patrick Street until we get to Juliette. Evie makes the hand signal for a left turn, and I follow.
“We’ll go down St. Mary and cut through UL, okay?” she calls over her shoulder.
I nod, but as soon as she turns onto the busier St. Mary, I speed up and pull alongside her, putting myself between her and the vehicle lane.
“What are you doing?” she asks, wrinkling her nose at me.
“Trying to keep up with you,” I tell her. She doesn’t need know it’s the urge to protect her that’s spurred me on.
“You weren’t falling behind,” she says skeptically.
I lean into the handlebars and shrug. “It’s easier to talk like this.”
We hear the telltale shush of an approaching car, and Evie’s gaze moves from it to me.
“You’re sticking out into traffic,” she scolds, eyeing me with concern. “A car’s coming. Move behind me.”
“He’ll go around,” I tell her. And I’m right. The car gives us a wide berth, slowing slightly as it passes. Just as I wanted it to. There isn’t much I can offer her, but I do have this. My body to place between her and any harm that might come her way.
“Taurus,” she mutters under her breath, and I smirk. She can think I’m stubborn all she wants. She’s safer this way.
And it gives me a purpose.
I remember our conversation last night. How important it seemed to Evie for me to have faith in her ability to take care of herself. That isn’t what this is about. Of course she can take care of herself. But I know just how precious she is. How rare.
And I know how fragile life is. The best thing I could ever do with mine would be to protect hers.
We pass Olde Tyme Grocery and approach the light at Johnston Street. It’s red, and a couple of cars are in front of us, so we slow. Beside me Evie makes slow zig zags left and right. I stop and set my feet on the pavement. She coasts in front of me and then circles back to pass behind me again.
“What are you doing?” I ask, watching her.
She keeps her gaze on her front wheel, her feet motionless on the pedals. “Trying to see if I can go without touching the ground until the light changes.” The gears click ever slower as she loses momentum. She straightens her legs, toes pointing as she balances. The light is still red.
Coming up alongside me again, barely moving, Evie’s face is set with a calm but determined focus. I can only imagine the core strength it takes to keep the bike balanced. With her legs raised almost even with the handlebars, it looks like she’s performing a circus trick.
“You’re amazing.”
My words make her smile, but they don’t break her concentration. The light turns green, the cars in front of us move, and only then does this incredible woman break her form and start to pedal again, never once touching the ground. The bike never even wobbled.
She takes off, and I follow.
“I want to see everything you can do,” I blurt.
Ahead of me, Evie laughs. “O-okay!” she calls back.
I speed up and ride next to her as we cross the busy street and cut through campus. Evie glances left and right before turning to me, her nose wrinkled. “Did you go to college… you know… before?”
By some miracle, her question doesn’t summon the gut-punch that usually hits me when I think about that time, and I realize with wonder that we passed the entrance to my old neighborhood a few blocks back, and I didn’t even think about it.
“I had my head so far up my ass, college was the furthest thing from my mind.” I shake my head in disgust at the stupid kid I was. “It wasn’t like I’d decided never to go. I just wasn’t interested then in putting in the work. I thought there’d be time for that later.”
I take in the red brick buildings and the oak trees dripping with moss.
“It’s not too late, you know,” Evie says softly.
I look back at her. She searches my face, her eyes watchful, but her expression is gentle, even. A look of pity or one of expectation might have rankled me, but I don’t see traces of either, and I’m relieved.
