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Two people sharing one umbrella should have been romantic, but not when one of those people refused to get close to the other. By the time they hit the open promenade, rain had soaked his suit coat, and his shoes were nearly as wet as hers.
The vendors’ carts had disappeared for the day, and only a few hearty souls hurried along the wet pavement. The wind had picked up, and the cold drizzle blowing in off the water hit him in the face. In the distance, the Statue of Liberty stood guard over the harbor. She was lit up for the night, and he could just make out the tiny lights shining through the windows in her crown. On a long-ago summer day, he’d broken one of those windows, unfurled a no nukes banner, and finally found his father. Now, with the statue standing there to give him courage, he prayed he would find his future.
He summoned up his courage. “I love you, Meg.”
“Whatever. Can I go now?”
He tilted his head toward the statue. “The most important event of my childhood happened over there.”
“Yeah, I remember. Your youthful act of vandalism.”
“Right.” He swallowed. “And it seems fitting that the most important event of my manhood should happen there, too.”
“Wouldn’t that have been when you lost your virginity? What were you? Twelve?”
“Listen to me, Meg. I love you.”
She couldn’t have been less interested. “You should get therapy. Seriously. Your sense of responsibility has gotten way out of control.” She patted his arm. “It’s over, Ted. Throw away all that guilt. I’ve moved on and, frankly, you’re starting to seem a little pathetic.”
He wouldn’t let her get to him. “The truth is, I wanted to have this conversation out there on Liberty Island. Unfortunately, I was banned for life, so that’s not possible. Being banned didn’t seem like such a big deal when I was nine, but it
sure as hell feels like one now.”
“Do you think you could wind this up? I have some paperwork I need to get done tonight.”
“What kind of paperwork?”
“My admission papers. I’m starting classes at NYU in January.”
His gut churned. This was definitely not something he wanted to hear. “You’re going back to school?”
She nodded. “I finally figured out what I want to do with my life.”
“I thought you were designing jewelry?”
“That’s paying the bills. Most of them, anyway. But it’s not what satisfies me.”
He wanted to be what satisfied her.
She finally started to talk without being prodded. Unfortunately, it wasn’t about the two of them. “I’ll be able to finish my bachelor’s degree in environmental science by summer and go right into a master’s program.”
“That’s . . . great.” Not great at all. “Then what?”
“Maybe work for the National Park Service or something like the Nature Conservancy. I might be able to manage a land protection program. There are a lot of options. Waste management, for example. Most people don’t see that as a glamorous field, but the landfill fascinated me from the beginning. My dream job is— ” Just like that, she broke off. “I’m getting cold. Let’s go back.”
“What about your dream job?” He prayed she’d say something along the line of being his wife and the mother of his children, but that didn’t seem too realistic.
She spoke briskly, stranger to stranger. “Turning environmental wastelands into recreational areas is what I’d really like to do, and you can consider yourself responsible. Now this has been loads of fun, but I’m out of here. And this time, don’t try to stop me.”
She turned her back and began to walk away, a grim, humorless, red-haired woman who was tough as nails and no longer wanted him in her life.
He panicked. “Meg! I love you! I want to marry you!”
“That’s weird,” she said without stopping. “Only six weeks ago, you were telling me all about how Lucy broke your heart.”
“I was wrong. Lucy broke my brain.”
That finally stopped her. “Your brain?” She looked back at him.
