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“Are you OK?”
“Yup.” I hang up, knowing I should call Georgia to let her know, but my fingers text Will.
ME
Have you heard the good news? The bad guy was caught. You don’t need to worry about me anymore.
WILL
Says who?
ME
Aziz, my security guy, just told me.
WILL
I mean, about worrying about you. I will always worry about you.
I look up and take in the room. Its bones are the same as every office in this building. Gray concrete interior walls, glass exterior walls facing more concrete and glass, polished concrete floors. A splash of color in a framed print behind a desk, in the upholstery of a chair, on the plant stand.
How do people spend eight hours a day for their entire lives in spaces like this? With windows that don’t open, hearing the constant white noise of forced air through ducts in the ceilings, seeing everything in light that doesn’t trigger their bodies to produce a single microgram of vitamin D?
When Will was in the space with me, I could look beyond all that’s lacking, but without him, I feel like an air plant in a vacuum or maybe seagrass trying to survive in tap water.
Will has adjusted to surviving in this foreign planet environment. But it’s not living. He may actually be right about dying before he makes it to forty-four. I know it would kill me.
ME
I worry about you too.
WILL
When I get back, can I take you to Lily Valley again? Just the two of us. Well, us and just one guard who keeps his distance. And a chef.
The memory of Will trying to whip up pancakes, bacon, and eggs makes me laugh. Any one item I’m sure he could have handled and made delicious. But he didn’t consider the cooking time or know what temperature to set the oven to keep the eggs warm while the bacon rendered its fat. And the pancakes? The first one is always a tester you expect to throw away, but by the time Will passed the test stage, we only had two small pancakes left, some very crispy bacon, and scrambled eggs that were so dry, they cracked like toast.
ME
Sounds perfect.
WILL
If you can envision it, you have the power to make it so.
I know Will is being playful with his motivational quote, but its irony thrusts me back into reality. I can easily envision a perfect life, but I don’t have the Power to make it so. I’d need Will beside me, and a weekend a month in Lily Valley wouldn’t be enough to keep me from losing my mind, spending so much time in this thirty-two-story crypt.
ME
It’s late there. I should let you sleep. Buona Fortuna tomorrow. Not that the formidable Will Power needs good luck.
WILL
You’d be surprised. Can’t wait to see you. xo
ME
Night, Will. xox
