He shrugged. “We may have to make some adjustments, but we’ll figure it out.”
“What’s your number three?”
What were his interests a quarter of a century ago? “A PlayStation 2.”
“We can look at that antique store on Center.”
He set his forearms on the table and leaned toward her. “Are you going to make ‘old’ jokes throughout this entire thing?”
“Yes. Yes, I am.” She raised an eyebrow. “Scared?”
“Bring it.”
“I don’t think our generation is allowed to say ‘bring it.’ We need to stick with ‘fo shizzle.’”
He leaned back in his chair once more. “We're only two days into December and have already resorted to quoting Snoop Dogg. This doesn’t bode well.”
“Ooh. That needs to be on my list, too.” She was already writing it down. “I loved Snoop Dogg, and I remember thinking if I wasn’t twenty years old, and married, and supposed to be really grown up, I would get a poster or something.”
“Or something? You mean like a notebook or a lunch box?”
A little color touched her cheeks. “I know it’s stupid, but—”
It was his turn to reach out and take her hand. While he didn’t like that he’d embarrassed her, he always loved the feel of her hand in his. “I didn’t mean to imply it was stupid. These are all things from when we were young. They’re going to seem a little strange to us now, but that’s half the fun.”
“I got married at nineteen. I don’t regret it, and I don’t think I was too young, but there were still some things about me that weren’t—” Her brow pulled as she tried to think of the right word.
“Very grown-up yet?” he suggested.
“Yeah.”
He wanted to know her better. These moments when she talked about her past were like a door being opened, and he had a glimpse of the Celeste he hadn’t known, the woman who’d struggled with so many burdens for so long.
“I cried a lot,” she said, “and I got frustrated at the world for not functioning the way I thought it should. And I— I was so surethat I could simply plan my life and everything would go the way I expected.”
He threaded his fingers through hers. “It doesn’t work that way, does it?”
She shook her head no.
“You write down a Snoop Dogg souvenir, and I’ll think of some immature thing that twenty-two-year-old me wanted. Then we’ll be even.”
“Deal.”
Her phone rang in the next instant. She pulled her hand from his to grab her cell. He immediately missed the contact.
She glanced at the screen. “It’s Kristina.” She tucked back a strand of her dark brown hair as she raised the phone to her ear. “Hi, hon. What’s up?”
Mike should have been concentrating on the next item to add to his list, but Celeste was too big of a distraction. He liked watching her with her kids, even when it was nothing more than a phone call. She lit up when she talked with them. It was little wonder she felt lost not having them around. He’d gone through the same thing when his youngest had left home.
“Talk to the T.A.,” Celeste said, still talking on the phone. “That’s what he’s there for.” She listened to whatever her daughter said next. “Mike is here, actually. Okay.” She held her phone out to him. “She wants to talk to you.”
He took the phone. “Hey. How are you?”
“Okay, so remember that guy I told you about in my Econ class?” Kristina said from the other end.
He leaned back in the dining room chair. Conversations with Kristina could be long. “The one who smiles at you?”
“Yeah. So, I saw him at the student union yesterday and decided to say hi.”
