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She waits a minute and then pulls her hands away from her ears, just a half-inch. “If I unveil my ears, do you promise not to speak about biology?”
I feign taking a vow. “I solemnly swear.”
She lowers her hands.
“So, nice temps today, right?” I tease. “Low humidity. We might be in for a dry summer.”
She laughs, her hand to her chest. Then she knocks into me with her shoulder, gently. “Great. Yes. Let’s talk about the weather for the next five hours.”
I regain my balance and suppress a smile.
Man, it’s nice to hear her laugh, right here in my kitchen.
This room has never really felt homey to me. But now that I’m here with Maddison, and it smells like chicken-flavored ramen, and we’re just hanging out together, the kitchen feels cozy, intimate, and cheerful.
It’s almost like the walls around us are actually now a warmer tone of beige. Before, the paint looked clinical to me. Tonight, it looks like the color of a sugar cookie.
I imagine the house start to thrum rhythmically, like a heartbeat.
This is what being around Maddison is always like, for me.
Magical.
“I can assure you; I don’t haveanyscience textbooks on my shelf back in LA,” she says.
The mention of her life in California sobers me up.
The buzzed, happy feeling ebbs back to wherever it came from. I focus on using scissors to snip the tops off the spice packets so she can’t see me frown. “What kind of books do you have, then?”
“Classics. Poetry. Epic novels. Graphic novels, too. I don’t know, stuff I like. It’s going to suck to clear my stuff out of his house when I go back.”
“Right. To LA.”
She’s not here for good.
I have to remember that.
She brushes her bangs out of her eyes. “Hey, do you remember that night we were hanging out in your dorm room, and your roommate was out of town so we watched three ridiculous comedies back to back?”
I nod.
How could I forget that night?
It was one of the best nights of my life. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed that much. My sides literally ached, like I’d done a thousand sit-ups.
“We went up to the roof after that third movie,” I recall.
“The whole campus was quiet.”
“Yeah. We saw the sun come up.”
“Exactly. Well, I made a promise that night. To myself. To you. To the universe, and the sun.”
“Very poetic. But I have some bad news for you. I don’t think the sun knows about your promise.”
“The sun always appreciates a heartfelt soul-vow, Nick. Even a hard-headed scientist should get that.”
“The sun is a massive ball of gas, ninety-one million miles away from us.”
