I hummed and nodded.
“Anyway, you’re human. At our most basic level, we’re driven by the need to procreate. And beyond that, you know, the desire to play with a hot guy’s dick.”
“Can’t argue with that,” I answered.
“So… excited for tomorrow?”
Because Coos County was so sparsely populated, the schools didn’t have enough students to need a full-time music instructor, hence why my schedule bounced me around to three different locations. But I was honestly so happy that I couldn’t care less about the weird and lengthy commutes. I was getting to teach small groups and one-on-one lessons with the younger students before they joined the junior high band at the elementary school, which practiced twice a week in the afternoon. And at the high school, I taught band and music composition every morning.
“Yes! I’ve even picked out my outfit,” I told Scarlet. “I’m wearing my constellation bow tie.”
“Why not the music note one I got you last Christmas?”
“The constellation one glows in the dark.”
“Are you twelve?”
“Sometimes.”
Scarlet shook her head, leaned out of frame, then returned holding a compact mirror and a makeup remover swab. “So why’d they fire the last teacher after school had already started?” She scrubbed at her dark eyes.
“I’m not sure. They were sort of vague, but I got the gist that she might have been having an affair with a student at the high school.”
“That’s so fucked-up.”
“Yeah.”
Scarlet finished cleaning her eyes before looking back at the computer. “Don’t be nervous—you’ll do great.”
“Thanks.”
“Miss you, Bowen.”
“Miss you too.”
Scarlet smiled, pursed her lips together, and blew me a kiss before ending the Skype call.
I sat on the couch for another minute before gathering up my Chinese takeout and putting the leftovers in the fridge. I undressed on the way to the bedroom, hiking up the stairs of my tiny hundred-year-old two-story home, which creaked and moaned under every footfall. My house was still a nightmare of boxes and unassembled furniture, so leaving my dirty shirt and underwear in the hallway didn’t seem like a big deal.
Plus, for the first time in forever, I was living on my own. No more of Scarlet shouting at me to pick up my man-panties.
They weren’t panties. They were briefs. Albeit colorful ones.
Life’s too short to wear black underwear day in and day out.
In my old apartment in New York, we couldn’t control the heat, so in the wintertime, it was always sweltering, and Scarlet and I would have to keep the kitchen window open. Because of that, I was in the habit of sleeping naked—or at least dressed in very little. But now, in a house as old as the century that brought us electricity, not Wi-Fi, the radiators sputtered on when they felt like it and the negative-degree nighttime drafts were felt in every inch of the place.
I flicked the light off and jumped into bed, where the cold sheets gave me another start. I was going to have to invest in flanneleverythingfor bedtime because shivering myself to sleep wasn’t going to become routine, dammit. I reached out long enough to set my alarm before burrowing under the comforter.
Save for the faint illumination of the clock, the room was the darkest dark I’ve ever known. No streetlamps, no signs, no flashing lights from passing police or ambulances. Justblack. And it was so quiet that I found it was taking longer than usual to fall asleep. The occasional passing car, the sighs and whispers of the bare trees bowing in the wind, and the weird sounds the house made as it “settled,” as my realtor called it, would jolt me from the brink of sleep.
But all of this was a good change. I loved New York, but I needed this move.
Somehow I knew, deep into the marrow of my bones, that coming to northern New Hampshire would transform my life.
I wasn’t sure how, exactly, but what’s that old saying—patience is a virtue?
I’d find out soon enough.
