“Then why is my nose going numb? Why am I out here, instead of in a warm bed with my warm girlfriend?”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “Because my husband wanted a dog instead of a baby!”
Russ barked out a laugh. “Sorry,” he said. “That’s really sad.”
Cherry was standing up again. “I know.”
He kissed her cheek. “You’re cute when you’re pitiful.”
“I must be so adorable, all the time.”
He cocked his head. “Actually you’re unnervingly confident and self-assured most of the time. This is a rare moment.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“Fortunately, you’resexywhen you’re confident. So it’s a win-win situation for me.”
“Oh, okay.” Cherry laughed. She wished she wasn’t holding a bag of warm shit. She clicked her tongue and tugged at Stevie’s leash, turning her toward home.
Russ followed them. He bumped his shoulder against Cherry’s. “I’d have another kid,” he said quietly. “Just for the record.”
Cherry was surprised again. She looked over at him.
He glanced at her, but kept walking. “I didn’t say anything before, when you first brought it up, because I needed to think about it. Liam’s a lot. And he’s always going to be a lot, I think. But... I like being a dad. So. Yeah. I would have another kid. If I was in a relationship I believed in.”
Cherry felt suddenly tearful. “With someone who liked you this time?”
He smiled at her. “Those are the table stakes.”
She watched their feet hit the pavement. She bumped her shoulder into his arm.
An hour or two later, after Cherry had taken a shower, and then Russ had taken a shower, and they’d climbed into her bed, and Russ had teased her about wearing a peekaboo bra to bed when he wasso fucking tired, and Cherry had crawled under the blanket to suck and kiss and feel glad of him, and Russ had pulled her up to lick her mouth and call her a vixen, and Russ had looked at her the way men looked at her right before they said “I love you”—Cherry said, “Do you want to spend Thanksgiving with my family?”
Chapter 34
The kitchen was very empty without Tom.
Cherry stayed up late the night before Thanksgiving, making all their usual recipes by herself.
This was her first Thanksgiving without him.
Even last year, when the connection between them was stretched and strange and ready to snap, Tom had flown home for Thanksgiving and then again for Christmas.
Tom had always spent holidays with Cherry’s family. His family didn’t get into them.
Cherry’s family did holidays to the max. They took them way too seriously—they went overboard. And Cherry, famously among them, went the most overboard. With Tom’s help, she wentway,waytoo far.
Their first Thanksgiving together, Tom had helped Cherry make cheese straws, Sicilian meat pies, squash casserole, and cupcakes that looked like turkeys.
They both liked to cook, and they didn’t have kids, and—that first year, especially—they were high on what they could accomplish together, two artists with lots of free time and a limited budget.
Their whole life was a project back then. They’d filled Cherry’s apartment with secondhand furniture. Tom had built bookshelves for her and a TV stand. They cooked dinner together most nights and brought the leftovers to work for lunch the next day. Everything they touched was beautiful. They were living charmed nights and Chelsea mornings.
Their holiday cooking had only gotten more elaborate over the years. Her whole family teased them about it—but also expected it. There were several dishes that Cherry and Tom brought every year...
It all took twice as long without Tom’s help. Cherry didn’t have enough hands, and she was weighed down by déjà vu. The first batch of cheese straws was brittle and too salty.
Russ had been frank with Cherry about Thanksgiving: He wasn’t ready for her to meet Liam. He wouldn’t be ready for her to meet Liam“until we’re past all the chicken exits.”
