he still had fifteen minutes until boarding. He sat by the gate and looked at his cell phone. He wanted to call Megan, let her know that he had found a job and would be okay, but he’d purposely lost her phone number, and even if he could remember it, which he could not, he wouldn’t call her. He’d think about it. He’d think about it a lot over the years. He’d even start dialing Megan’s number. But Ray would never let the call go through, and he’d never see Megan-Cassie-again.
Megan Pierce closed the Sub — Zero fridge and looked at her two children through the bay windows off the breakfast nook. Out in the backyard, Kaylie, her fifteen-year-old daughter, was picking on her younger brother, Jordan. Megan was tempted to open the window and tell Kaylie to stop for the umpteenth time. But today she just didn’t feel like it.
Siblings bicker. It’d be okay.
In the TV room, Dave was sprawled out in gray sweats with the remote in his hand.
“Kaylie has soccer practice,” she said.
“I’ll drive her.”
“I think she can get a ride home from Randi.”
“That would be helpful,” Dave said. “I can’t wait for her to get her license, so she can drive herself.”
“From what I hear, yes, you can.”
Dave sat up and smiled at her. She smiled back. He patted the seat next to him.
“Sit with me?” he asked.
“I got a million things to do.”
“Just for five minutes.”
Megan sat on the couch. Dave put his arm around her and pulled her closer. She snuggled in and rested her head on his chest. He flipped channels, as was his custom. She let him. The images passed by in quick flickers.
It wasn’t perfect, Megan knew. In the long run, it might not even be okay. But it was finally honest. She didn’t know where it would go, but right now, it all felt pretty good. She longed for the normalcy. She liked driving the car pools and making lunches and helping the kids with their homework and watching nothing on television with the man she loved. She hoped that the feeling would last, but history and the human condition told her otherwise. There would be restlessness again. There had to be. Grief, fear, passion, the darkest of secrets- nothing lasted forever. But maybe if she took a deep breath and held on, she could make this feeling stay with her, at least for a little while more.
