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“I want you to very slowly extend your legs and roll onto your belly. Then Dax is going to guide one of your feet to the ladder. We won’t let you go, and we will be with you the entire time.”
Dougie closes his eyes and keeps them shut. And just when I think we’re back to square one, he follows my directions perfectly. Left foot. Right foot. Belly wiggle to the ladder.
Dax guides his feet to the rungs, just like I promised. A few shaky breaths later, Spider-Man is once again earthbound, and the city, or at least tonight’s party, is saved.
“Nicely done.” Dax reaches his fist out for a bump. Next to the bear hug, it’s the highest form of Dax-praise.
“My sister has three kids,” I explain. “I also specialize in negotiating bedtimes and making eating broccoli look cool.”
I expect him to mount the ladder or make some sort ofafter yougesture. Instead, he stretches out his legs, folds his arms behind his head, and lies back on the roof, gazing skyward.
I don’t know if it’s the cool evening air mixing with the heat from the roof or the way the patio lights below sort of blur in the twilight, making everything feel surreal, but it feels like a perfect moment. As if the universe got one right.
I stretch out beside him in a matching pose. Two peas. Exactly as we’re meant to be. We watch the sky slowly grow darker, completely at ease with the silence, until the pinks and blues of the summer sky give way to darkness and a million twinkling lights cover the heavens like a blanket.
“I love it when you can see all the stars,” Dax says, more to the sky than to me.
He’s right. The night sky is so clear that you can see the Milky Way, the Big Dipper, and Cassiopeia. A bit of a phenomenon for the city. Something that marks this night as special.
“When I was a kid, I used to think each star was its own world, almost exactly like ours.” Dax glances over at me before returning his gaze to the sky. “Except one thing was different. Like, in one world, everyone wore their shoes on their hands or ate pancakes for dinner and pot roast for breakfast. The idea was a bit out there, but I was convinced I knew the secret of the universe.”
“I don’t think it’s odd at all.” I tilt my head toward Dax at the exact moment he turns his face to mine. Our eyes do that thing again where they lock, and neither one of us looks away. And there’s definitely something between us. Weird energy or a charge.I think I like it. I definitely don’t hate it. It’s just different. Something I need to get used to.
But then he buzzes.
Not Dax.
His phone is tucked into his Hanes underpants. And he’s so close that I can feel the vibrations along the roof.
He slides his phone out and swipes it open.
“Sunny.” He flips the screen to face me. “She made it to the hospital safely.”
I stopped stressing about Sunny and Dax sometime between my first beer and the flip cup game, but now I’m back to wondering if it’s something I should be worried about.
“You two seem really close?” is the least jealous way I can think of to ask,So what’s the story between the two of you?
Dax resumes his stretched-out position. “I wouldn’t say close. Sunny’s great and all, but we don’t hang out all that much outside of curling. She’s a lot tighter with Brandon.”
Sweet relief floods my body. I needed to hear that. I know, new timeline, new rules. But deep down, a part of me hopes that my connection with Dax is special. That it somehow transcends time and space. That there’s some weird little unbreakable thread that connects our two souls.
“I’m not dating her if that’s what you’re asking. I’m not dating anyone right now.”
Heat rushes into my face. “No. Um…that wasn’t what I was asking at all, I’m—” I’m mortified. “I thought she might be your best friend.”
There’s a beat of silence between us. Awkward silence this time. Finally, Dax clears his throat. “Any best friends in your life?”
There isn’t an easy way to answer this.
“I had a best friend for a long time.”
“Feels like there might be abutat the end of that sentence.”
Is there ever.
“But he and I…I don’t know. I guess our relationship changed.”
Dax rolls his head to face me. “Who fell in love with who?”
