He shrugged, one pointy shoulder lifted to the sky. “Maybe I just came back from running a marathon.”

“You don’t look like you could run to the corner.”

He paused for a breath, and then burst out laughing. It sounded like a laugh that wasn’t given freely very often, and something inside me bloomed.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Elliot. What’s yours?”

“Macy.”

Elliot stared at me, pushing his glasses up with his finger, but they immediately slid down again. “You know, if you buy this house I won’t just come over and read in here.”

There was a challenge there, some choice offered. Friend or foe?

I could really use a friend.

I exhaled, giving him a begrudging smile. “If we buy this house you can come over and read if you want.”

He grinned, so wide I could count his teeth. “Maybe all this time I was just getting it warmed up for you.”

now

tuesday, october 3

Elliot still hasn’t seen me.

He waits near the espresso bar for his drink with his head ducked as he looks down. In a sea of people connecting to the world via the isolation of their smartphones, Elliot is reading a book.

Does he even have a phone? For anyone else, it would be an absurd question. Not for him. Eleven years ago he did, but it was a hand-me-down from his father and the kind of flip-phone that required him to hit the 5 key three times if he wanted to type an L. He rarely used it as anything other than a paperweight.

“When was the last time you saw him?” Sabrina asks.

I blink over to her, brows drawn. I know she knows the answer to this question, at least generally. But my expression relaxes when I understand there’s nothing else she can do right now but make conversation; I’ve turned into a mute maniac.

“My senior year in high school. New Year’s.”

She gives a full, bared-teeth wince. “Right.”

Some instinct kicks in, some self-preservationist energy propelling me up and out of my chair.

“I’m sorry,” I say, looking down at Sabrina and Viv. “I’m going to head out.”

“Of course. Yeah. Totally.”

“I’ll call this weekend? Maybe we can do Golden Gate Park.”

She’s still nodding as if my robotic suggestion is even a remote possibility. We both know I haven’t had a weekend off since before I started my residency in July.

Trying to move as inconspicuously as possible, I pull my bag over my shoulder and bend to kiss Sabrina’s cheek.

“I love you,” I say, standing, and wishing I could take her with me. She smells like baby, too.

Sabrina nods, returning the sentiment, and then, while I gaze at Viv and her chubby little fist, she glances back over her shoulder and freezes.

From her posture, I know Elliot has seen me.

“Um . . .” she says, turning back and lifting her chin as if I should probably take a look. “He’s coming.”