I get myself a Coke from the fridge and stand on the couch in my socks to look at Adam’s books. But instead of choosing one, I stare at the picture of Adam from college, really look at the other guys this time. I wonder where they ended up, because since I’ve been here, none of them have called. Adam hasn’t done more than go to euchre with a few other townies. And even though he smiles at me all the time, it’s a few degrees faded from his smile in the picture, and you can tell he wasn’t quite happy then. I wonder if maybe all you do is meet people and lose them and your smile fades the further you go because you have to carry the space they leave. Maybe it all just turns into old pictures on a bookshelf, engraved rings, memories of sticking stars to a ceiling, and maybe the space gets bigger and heavier every year.

I use the phone number Adam left on the fridge and call him at his office.

“Yo,” he says when he picks up.

“Um, it’s me,” I say. “April.”

“I know,” he says. “Caller ID. I don’t usually say ‘yo’ when I pick up my phone.”

“I’m home early,” I tell him. “Just thought I’d let you know.” It reminds me of when I lived over the Wash ’n Fold and I had to call my dad after I got home and locked the door behind me. That was when he worked at the electric company, before he got fired. When he had a work number I could call.

“Hey, I’m just grading papers,” Adam says. “I can work on them later. Want me to come home? We can go do something. See the falls, maybe.”

I say, “Yes, I’d like you to come home,” and the words don’t feel as strange to me as I’d expect.

Adam picks me up and says we’re going to Tackonick Falls, but when we get there somehow Tackonick is actually the way Taughannock is pronounced.

I like the way Adam looks when he’s driving—his hat pulled back further than usual, a few curls peeking out around his forehead, the scratched wire-rimmed glasses he only wears in the car sit slightly crooked on his nose. I like the way he focuses on the road completely, as if I’m precious cargo and he’s being very, very careful.