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“Lasik and a good dentist,” she said. “It’s so good to see you.”
“Likewise.”
“Get in here,” she grabbed my hand and pulled me after her. “It’s been forever!”
For a woman running away from her husband, she sure seemed to be in a good mood.
***
She made me coffee. Good coffee. And we ended up on opposite couches in the living room, enjoying the brew and catching up. She asked a lot of questions, wanted to know everything about my life since we had last met, and gracefully dodged any questions I asked in the same direction. I let it slide, not wanting to press, knowing that any discussion about her marriage would probably be very uncomfortable. Besides, she hardly knew me. To her I was Andy Stetson, the weird kid her brother used to hang out. I was pretty much a stranger to her right now.
“So, have you settled in okay?” I asked. “I can’t imagine what it’s like coming home to your room.”
“Looks just the way it was when I left,” she said. “Didn’t change a bit. Still has the posters up and all. It feels weird and familiar at the same time, you know?”
“I guess.”
“Are you still in that house on Maple Road?”
I cringed at the mention of my childhood house. “No, I sold that thing after my parents died,” I said.
“Oh, sorry,” she frowned.
“It’s okay,” I smiled. “Got myself a place out on Juniper Hill. Invested the rest of the money from the sale. With the job, I live comfortably enough.”
She smiled and nodded. “That’s good. Must be nice.”
“It is,” I agreed. “Close enough to everything, but far enough to give me some privacy. Obviously, the neighbors can be a little bit of a nuisance, but it’s a little price to pay.”
She smiled at that and took a sip from her coffee. We fell into an awkward silence for a few seconds before I cleared my throat and asked, “So, Hartford. How’s life in the big city?”
“Manchester, actually,” Andrea smiled, shifting a bit in her seat. “Not really a city life, but close enough.”
“Big difference from the small town, huh?”
“You could say that,” she nodded. I could tell she was uncomfortable, but for the life of me couldn’t think of anything else to say. The only thing left was to tell her about my sex life.
“I thought you had moved further away,” I said, trying to dance around the same subject. How many ways are there to ask the same question?
“Well, my husband got a job at Ford as a mechanic. They have a branch in Hartford, so Manchester was the closest we could afford.”
“What do you do?” I asked, purposefully dodging any questions regarding Dennis.
She smiled, and the look she gave me was like a silent thank you. “I’m a secretary at KarpTech,” she said.
“The software company?”
“You heard of it.”
I nodded. “Our entire system at the station runs on their software. Pretty durable stuff. Can’t remember the last time something crashed.”
“Yeah, they’re proud of the work they do,” she said.
“You mean we, right?”
She smiled. I could get used to that smile. “Well, I haven’t really told them that I was leaving,” she said. “So, I think that they’ll probably fire me for this little stunt.”
I nodded and took another sip of coffee. No matter what we did, conversation seemed to always circle back to the elephant in the room. I looked at her, met her gaze, and she looked away, biting her lower lip. She looked gorgeous, curled up on the couch like that, cradling her coffee mug. How could anyone lay a hand on something so beautiful?
