Page 64 of Real Forever
Madison skated back from the other end of the pond, laughing so hard her eyes were watering. “Already? Jake, you haven’t even made it a foot away from the bench.”
Jake glared up at her from his splayed out position on the ice.
Madison laughed harder. “Here.” She reached her hand down to him.
It took several minutes of slipping, sliding, and one more fall, this time Jake pulling Madison down with him, but eventually he made it up on to both feet again.
“You’re like a baby deer.” Madison laughed, watching him wobble forward inch by inch.
“I told you I couldn’t skate. I wasn’t kidding.”
She took his hand and stretched up to kiss him on the cheek. “Thank you for coming with me tonight.”
Jake smiled. “It’s beautiful. Even the view from my back was pretty.”
Madison covered her laugh with a mitten. They held hands and fell into a slow but steady glide around the edge of the pond. The trees were full of snow, but the scent of pine and sap still hung in the air.
“Are you okay?” Madison asked. “You’ve been so quiet tonight.”
He had been quiet. He knew he had to tell Madison his move to Calgary was set for February first, and he was dreading it. The little bubble they had been in together for these past few weeks had been magical, and he feared setting an end date would burst the magic. There was also a big, ugly, nagging part of him pulling in the opposite direction, begging him to forget Calgary and stay here with Madison forever. He’d considered asking Madison to come to Calgary with him, but he knew she could never be happy being so far away from Lauren and Maisie. No matter how many times he had whirled it around in his head, he came back to the same horrible conclusion.
“Actually, I need to talk to you about something,” Jake began hesitantly. “I talked to my mom a couple of days ago and she found a great condo for me in Calgary.”
“Oh.” She paused for a moment. “Okay. Well, I guess that’s a good thing, right?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Jake knew once the next words were out, he couldn’t stuff them back in. He closed his eyes. “I move in February first.”
“February first?” She spun in a tight circle on the ice, stopping to face him head on. “The last time we talked about it, you said spring.”
“I know. That’s what I was planning.”
The annoyance rose in Madison’s voice. “Okay, so why the change?”
Jake felt the familiar tightening in his chest. “Well, the new condo is one reason. Also, leaving the office building to sit for the extra months instead of pushing to rally through the hiring and other prep work quicker makes better financial sense. I need to stay focused and stick to the plan.”
“Who’s plan, Jake?” Madison snapped. “Your plan or your mommy’s?”
Madison’s words stuck in Jake’s belly like a hot knife. She was right. The words hung in the foggy breath between them as they stood in silence, each pondering where they go from here.
“Fuck.” Madison broke the silence first. “Jake, I shouldn’t have said that. It was a bitchy thing to say, and I’m sorry. I know your work is your priority.” She bit her lower lip. “You’ve been honest with me.”
“Madison, I’m so sorry. I wish—” He cast his eyes up to the lights swagging across the ice. “I wish this could be different.”
Madison let out a deep, audible sigh. “Okay, how does this sound?” She clapped her mittens. “Let’s break up on January first.”
“What?” Jake’s cheeks burned.
“We’ll do Christmas and New Year’s Eve together and then we say goodbye. You’re going to need time to sort out your place here and pack, and work will be crazy—you’re going to need the last month to focus on all that shit. I don’t want to spend your last weeks here feeling like you’re struggling to fit me in, or feeling like I’m in the way. So,” she wrapped her arms around his waist, “we’ll plan an amazing New Year’s Eve. You’ll make incredible love to me, and in the morning we’ll say goodbye. We’ll let it be a beautiful goodbye on our own terms.”
Jake searched Madison’s eyes. “Is that really what you want?”
She nodded. “Yeah, it’s really what I want.”
“Okay, then. January first it is.”
She tipped her face up to his, and they kissed, sealing the deal.
A little more than a month. That’s all she wants.A large lump formed in Jake’s throat, but he swallowed it down, took her hand, and pushed his skate across the hard ice.
