“Quit stalling. You’re up, Papa.”
Arthur hoisted himself off the couch, not feeling overly optimistic. He slipped into the dark room, the cries almost deafening, and hurried over to Liam’s side.
“Shh. Hey, buddy. I’m here. Daddy’s here.”
He placed a hand on Liam’s chest and kept it there, felt his little body breathing. The cries stopped. Liam grabbed at Arthur’s fingers, eventually settling in with a firm grip around his dad’s pinky. Liam was fresh out of swaddling, sleeping with free arms for the first time in his life, and this was the first time that he had grabbed Arthur’s finger like this. It was amazing.
After what could have been five or fifty minutes hunched over the bassinet, Arthur was pretty sure Liam was asleep. But when he went to tug his hand away, he felt his son’s grip tighten, and he decided to lie down on the floor—surely, a more comfortable position—until he was fully asleep, hand stuck through the side of the bassinet.
And that’s when everything went black.
Wren startled awake on the couch. The living room was dark, quiet. Someone had thrown a blanket over her, but it was clear that everyone else had long since headed back to their respective hotel rooms. The new apartment was bigger, but not big enough to accommodate a baby and multiple guests.
Wren came to and realized Arthur was sitting next to her; that’s what woke her up.
“What time is it?” she asked, rubbing at her eyes.
“Two a.m.” Arthur said. “I fell asleep in there. Clearly.”
“I fell asleep out here. I don’t remember the party ending.”
Arthur laughed.
“We’re pathetic.”
“I know.”
“We missed New Year’s.”
“Well,” she said, sitting up now, pushing through a yawn. “We’re awake now, aren’t we?”
“Wanna light off some fireworks? Take a few shots?”
“I want to go back to bed. Or a cup of coffee. I honestly can’t tell which.”
Arthur laughed and collapsed, laying his head in her lap. For his part, he fumbled around for the glass of water he’d left sitting out earlier and chugged it greedily before setting it back down.
Wren reached under the coffee table and produced a book,The Princeton Review GRE Premium Prepcourse. “Want this?”
“Ah, thanks,” he said, feeling guilty. He took the book and immediately placed it under his still-sweating glass.
Inthisapartment, they had decided, they would be coaster people.
“You always used to say the New Year was a blank canvas,” she said. “What do you see us painting on ours this year?”
“Honestly?”
“Yeah. Dream as big as you dare.”
“I have absolutely no clue,” Arthur said.
“Really?”
“Really. Do you?”
Wren thought about it. Nothing came to mind. “I don’t.” Then: “Are you sure about grad school? I really thought this year was gonna be the year.”
“I’m sure. I just want to enjoy life this year. Enjoy the kids in my classes. I have plenty of ideas for that, that don’t require me to work and study twenty-four-seven. I realized I don’t need to always be advancing. I can justbe.”
