She smiled. Like she used to do, before. It made me think that, maybe, she was right; maybe we did get to have glimpses every now and again.

“Tommy?”

“Huh?”

“I, uh—I’ll be right down.”

“No hurry. I’m not going anywhere.”

“You better.”

We both smiled.

About ten minutes later, Emma came into the kitchen. She sat at the counter next to Noah, going on and on about how cute he was and how big he’d gotten. He acted like he always did around Emma, awkwardly trying not to be too obvious how big a crush he had on her. Though in his defense, few people met Emma O’Brian and didn’t develop a crush, platonic or otherwise, on her. I made too many pancakes and drank too much coffee—I also smoked a cigarette or two. We laughed for way too long and far too loudly. We talked about Kim, Ethan, and Alex—her undefined friend from group. For a good hour, we felt like…us. Again.

We were still at the counter, Emma next to Noah and both of them facing me, laughing, when my phone lit up. We’d been talking about the time Emma and I had gotten a bit too wasted with Liam one afternoon and started speaking in French to one another. Only, we did it for so long and acted as though that was how we always talked, making Liam freak out, thinking he’d forgotten how to understand and process language, and he ended up crying like a small child.

I immediately dropped my fork on my plate, then grabbed it, noticing how Emma and Noah shared this look—which I ignored—as though acknowledging how eager I was to find out who was texting me.

I’m about to go in. Any advice?

You’re asking me?

You’re the better swimmer

But I’m not in the best of shape. I can barely have vodka now

Yes, the vodka thing did really bother the fuck out of me.

Vodka? Is that your advice? he texted back. And then, I mean, I guess I could score some before he added, One of the moms must have it

I chuckled. No! Stay away from the vodka

You gotta gimme something and then, (you are definitely fit, btw)

:) I can’t give out advice. But I can provide motivation, if you’d like

Great, motivate me

If you win, I’ll do that thing you liked

I liked all the things you did

Then I’ll do them all over again

I’m bringing you that medal

I smiled, and there was no need to look at either Emma or Noah because I knew that had gotten me, at the very least, a synchronized eye roll.

There’s no actual medal, he texted, and then, I was just making a point before adding, It’s a meet, you know