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Sure enough, my friend was on the other side of the door. I was amazed that she’d waited until nearly five o’clock to come up here. I’d been expecting her to pop into the café at some point, but then again, several other people had, so she’d likely been getting reports on me.
“Hi Evelyn,” I greeted my nosy friend.
“Is that lawyer fella still here?”
“Hi Evelyn,” Nathan called from the couch. “I’m here.”
Evelyn’s eyes went from Nathan to me and back again.
“So...how’s it going with you two?”
“Fine,” we said in unison.
Her eyes swept back and forth again. “You two are together now? That’s good. Very good.”
“Why do you say that Evelyn?” I asked, mostly just to mess with her.
“Well, the road is cleared but he’s still here all cozied up with you on the couch after helping you in the café all day. And you both have the look.”
“The look?” Nathan asked, ignoring me shaking my head behind Evelyn.
“The look of two people who’ve been loving each other up all weekend.”
Nathan’s face turned the most adorable shade of pink.
“Don’t be embarrassed young man you can’t possibly be any worse than that rotten ex-husband of hers. He was terrible in bed.”
I gasped. “Evelyn, I never told you that!” Although she wasn’t wrong.
“You didn’t need to, you never had the satisfied look of a woman who was getting good nookie. Until now.”
“Did you come over for a specific reason, Evelyn?” I asked, trying to redirect her. I should have known better.
“Yeah, I just wanted to see if you needed any more condoms.”
She pulled a strip out of the pocket of her pink puffy coat and tossed them to Nathan, who caught them with one hand. He seemed remarkably unflustered by the whole exchange other than the blushing. He’d really lightened up in the three days he’d been here. I hadn’t seen him frown once today.
“Remember young man, no glove no love.”
And then my friend was gone.
Nathan
Driving away from Liz was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. I didn’t know why it felt so final. We’d already agreed last night to keep seeing each other, and we only lived forty-five minutes away from each other, so it wasn’t going to be that hard to get together. Yet, as I kissed her goodbye in front of the café, it felt like I was saying goodbye forever. Maybe it was just me being anxious.
“This is just you being anxious,” my sister Steph told me the next night at dinner.
“You’ve been texting with her since you left yesterday, right? She’s texted you three times since you sat down at the table.”
I looked at my sister, noting all the ways we looked similar. There was never any mistaking us for anything except siblings. We were only two years apart, and we’d always been close. Steph had always done her best to protect me from what was happening at home, and I was forever grateful for it. She was also the person who knew me best.
“Face it little brother, you have abandonment issues.”
“What are you talking about? No one abandoned me.”
“People don’t have to leave to abandon you. There’s also emotional abandonment. I know Mom was dealing with Dad and trying to protect us in her own way, but she wasn’t exactly the warm and fuzzy remember your birthday type. And Dad, well, you know how he was. Your parents weren’t there for you so now you think no one can love you, except me.”
She popped a piece of falafel into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully.
