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She started to scramble back, and he caught her, pulling her under him while he hovered over her. “Hey, you have already been in my bed once and you’ve handled Fungi, so if you were going to get it, it would have happened already.”
She stuck her tongue out at him, but stopped struggling. “You are so lucky I like you.”
Once he was sure she wasn’t going to bolt, Chris laid back on the bed, waiting for her to snuggle against him. On his unaffected side.
The alcohol hit Chris harder as they lay there, breathing softly, his hand stroking her skin.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I know,” he mumbled automatically, just before he drifted off to sleep.
Chris sat on an old swing, like the one at the park Ray and he had played on as kids. He kicked his legs in the air as he went higher and higher.
“You better not jump or your mom’s gonna be mad.”
Ray’s voice startled him, and he dragged his feet to stop, staring at his friend next to him. Ray was wearing his big, blue parka and Sacramento Kings beanie he’d worn throughout fourth grade, but looked like he did at twenty-one. His hair was shaved close to his scalp and underneath he wore his standard army fatigues.
“You scared me.”
“Sorry, just figured we wouldn’t have much time to talk. It’s gonna rain soon.”
Chris squeezed Ray’s shoulder. “I know you were worried about me hurting Kelly, but we’re good.”
“Really?” Ray’s voice was thick with skepticism.
“Yeah. I told her some of my concerns and she voiced her frustrations. It’s great.”
Ray stood up on the swing, arching his body to go higher. “So, when she told you that she loved you, something that she’s never said to another man since me, how did you respond?”
Chris tried to remember what Ray was talking about, and suddenly, the memory came rushing back.
“I said ‘I know’, but she didn’t mean it like that. She was just doing our bit.”
Ray watched him around the chain of the swing, his face shifting from left to right. “How did you know she didn’t mean it? Did you ask her?”
“Well, no, but she would have said something if she did, right?”
Ray shook his head. “You, my friend, have a lot to learn about women.”
Suddenly, Chris panicked. Did Kelly really love him? Was he in the same place as her emotionally? And if he wasn’t, how did he come back from that?
“What do I do?”
Ray jumped from the swing and landed in a crouch, breathing hard. When he stood up and face him again, his expression was blank. “That’s up to you. Do you love her?”
“Of course, I love her. This is Kelly we’re talking about.”
“No, I mean, do you love her in the ‘til death do you part’ kind of way?” Ray asked, punctuating each word with his hand. “Because that is what she is looking for and if you can’t give her that, you should let her go.”
“What if I can’t?”
Ray watched him sadly, and Chris gripped the chains on the swings as large, white wings spread out from the back of Ray’s jacket.
“Then you were never the guy I thought you were.”
Ray turned his face up to the sky and with bent knees, shot upward. The ground shook beneath Chris and Ray disappeared into the clouds.
Chris woke with a start, and reached out to pull Kelly closer, but his arms touched nothing.
