Page 146 of The Incredible Ordinary

“Does you Mother live in New York?” he asks.

“Italy.”

“She’s not visiting? To meet Rory?”

“Too many complicated feelings and memories. She moved a decade ago, and she hardly ever comes back to the states thesedays. Meeting yet another one of the illegitimate kids of her ex-husband isn’t a top priority.”

He nods.

“I can’t believe I have to go to work on Monday,” he says after a bit. “Can you write me a note?”

“I’ll tell them you’re chained to the bed, naked, and can’t make it.”

He nods thoughtfully. “Yeah, that should get me nice and fired.”

“Maybe. But think of all the free time we’d have to be naked together.”

“Tempting. Do you think they’ll still pay me after they fire me?”

“I don’t see why they wouldn’t.”

“Well, then fire off that email.”

I grin at him and kiss his shoulder. “What did you want to be when you were a kid?”

He glances at me with a raised brow. “What? You don’t think I had aspirations to be a kitchen salesman?”

“You could have, but you already implied a while ago that you didn’t.”

“Yeah, okay.” There’s a bit of silence before he speaks again. “I wanted to be a pizza delivery guy.”

I chuckle. “Really?”

“I liked pizza a lot, but when I was younger we rarely ever ordered it because Mom was all about homecooked meals. I figured as a pizza delivery guy you could obviously eat all the pizza you wanted.”

“Obviously. What happened to that dream, then?”

“Went into the same pile as my unrealized aspirations to become a race car driver, a basketball player, a scientist, and the pope.”

“The pope?” I barely hold back a laugh.

“I went to a Catholic school for a while, and I dared to dream big and not let the fact that I’m not really religious stop me.”

“Why Catholic school?”

“My mom. She wasn’t that strict with her religion, but her whole family was Catholic, and keeping her connection to that part of her life made her feel more connected with her family back in Argentina.”

I comb my fingers through his hair, and he closes his eyes and leans the back of his head on my shoulder.

“And what about now? What do you want to be now?” I ask.

It takes him a while to answer.

“I don’t know. I…” He leaves the thought unfinished until I gently tug at his hair.

He sighs. “There was a point when I figured maybe… counseling of some type? Especially geared toward teenagers who might’ve gotten themselves in way over their heads.” He shrugs. “Sort of figured that I’ve been there, you know?”

“You’d be fucking amazing,” I say. He really would be. I’m immediately excited for him. I want him to do it, and… I want to be there for the ride. I want to be there for him. His cheerleader. I’ll be his biggest champion. His loudest supporter.