Joe:Good, because I like you, too. I like you so damn much.
* * *
Another weeklater
Caterina:I hate hurricanes. Are you guys okay?
Joe:We’re fine. I doubt it’s going to get as bad as they’re saying. We’re all boarded up, generators charged.
Caterina:Maybe I should have attempted the trip?
Joe:No, I don’t want you driving in this. I wish you were here with me, though. Storms can be fun with the right company.
Caterina:Oh really, who’s your company now?
Joe:Dom. Not fun.
Caterina:We need to start decorating for the tour soon.
Joe:Can you come in next week?
Caterina:I may have a work event on Saturday, but I’ll see if I can get out of it.
Joe:We have to run out of bad luck sooner or later, right?
Caterina:I can take my phone and run in the shower for FaceTime, that would cheer us both up.
Joe:It would, but I want to see you in person. I want my mouth and my hands all over you. The longer I have to wait the more you better brace yourself.
Rain pelted my window as I stared at the blackened sky. At least Joe and I were both in the same storm together. The straws I grasped at to feel close to him were becoming more pathetic as time went on.
Another weeklater
Caterina:This blows.
Joe:You’re in a suite at Yankee Stadium fully loaded with food and booze. That drop you hear is my heart bleeding for you.
Caterina:It’s a client outing. And maybe it doesn’t blow that much, but I’d rather be with you.
If I had a dollar for every time one of us said “I wish you were here” or “I’d rather be with you” during all the weekends since I’ve been back, I wouldn’t have to work because I’d be rich. The changing leaves taunted me. They were a marker of how long it had been since the summer and how long I’d gone without seeing Joe. We still spoke all the time, but nothing was good enough except seeing Joe in the flesh. And neither of us could figure out how to make that happen.
Joe:I know. I’d rather be with you than do anything else. We’ll work it out.
Caterina:You’re always so sure.
Joe:About you? Always.
As ridiculous as it was considering the time we’d spent together and the time we’d spent apart, I was sure about him, too. It was the whole bridging the separate lives thing dragging me down with uncertainty.
Caterina:As long as we keep trying, right?
Joe:I’m never going to stop trying.
Joe:And neither are you.
38
Caterina
