“You don’t know anybody there.”
“Not a soul.”
“That sounds nice.”
“It is.”
“I’ve been kind of…craving space lately,” I said. “Peace and quiet. A break from this town.”
“Me too,” he said.
I pictured Richie, Richard Jr., Rosie, and myself at this time next year, in Richie’s apartment, decorating a Christmas tree. I’d be calm there. Relaxed. A small, safe client list, my days spent checking the online activity of workers’ comp claimants or going over nannycam footage. Very little physical interaction with anyone other than the people I loved. My stomach seized up. I felt slightly nauseated. I heard myself say, “The thing is, my life here is tough to quit.”
“I get that.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “I’d never leave Boston for longer than a two-week vacation,” he said. “It’s a pain in the ass here, but it’smypain in the ass. You know? Plus, I love my job.”
“I love my job, too.”
“Even though both of our jobs apparently involve helping out the same dickhead.”
I smiled. “We have something in common. For real.”
“You have a boyfriend?”
“Yes.”
“I figured,” he said. “But it was worth a shot.”
I laughed a little. He laughed, too. “Steve?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
He took one last drag, then dropped the butt to the pavement and stepped on it. “I talk to Rhonda pretty often,” he said. “I’ll put in a good word.”
“You think she’ll ever come back to work?”
Steve shrugged. “I could see her moving away.”
“Scary.”
“Tell me about it.” He gave me a meaningful look. “Of course, everything’s got to end sometime. Otherwise nothing would ever get started.”
“Huh?”
“It’s a quote.”
“Um…”
“The eleventh doctor?”
“Oh, right,” I said. “Of course.”
I thought I caught him roll his eyes.
