CHAPTER 24
CASSIE
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Pia says when she finally pushes off me after minutes and minutes of her weight on my body and her kisses in my hair.
“Kevin was flying in to see Martin. He offered for me to go with. I only have like fifteen hours and then we have to fly back.”
“Only fifteen hours?” she says, looking down at me. Her hair is falling down around her face, and she looks so much like she did that first night we spent together in this position. But also not. There is also something about her that is very, very different. “You came all this way for just fifteen hours. With me.”
“Yes,” I say simply as I reach up and gather her hair into a ponytail at the base of her neck so I can look at her better. I want to figure out what exactly it is that is so very different about her.
“You’re crazy,” she tells me.
“Maybe.” I shrug, and I want to tell her it’s worth it. To see the light in her eyes. To see her unable to stop smiling. To feel the weight of her body on mine. It’s all completely worth every single second on that plane when I’d half-convinced myself she would be horrified I’d come.
“Were you at the show? Martin should have told me!”
“No, I wasn’t there. We literally landed less than an hour ago. The airport is so close to the city here, I didn’t know!”
“It’s your first time in Amsterdam?”
“Yes, and I’ve always wanted to come. It looks so beautiful in all the photos I’ve seen and?—”
“Tough!” Pia says and dives down to kiss my neck. It’s instinctive, reflexive when I tip my head back to give her betteraccess. “If we only have fifteen hours, we’re not leaving this hotel room. So no Amsterdam for you.”
Because her face is hidden, I allow myself to smile as widely as I wish.
“And how do you want to spend that time?” I ask.
Pia pushes back up. “Pardon?”
“You didn’t hear me,” I say and then frown. “How is…Is your hearing still bad?”
I regret the question immediately when it prompts her to sit up, disentangling her limbs from mine.
“I told you before. It’s been fucked for a long time,” she says as she walks across the hotel room to the cupboard. When I hear the suction of the minibar fridge opening, I hold my breath, but then she returns with a can of Coke, leaning her hip against the desk opposite the bed.
“You haven’t had it checked out?” I ask.
“For them to tell me what I already know, that it’s fucked? No. I’ve been a bit busy, you know.” She pulls the ring pull off and throws it in the bin with a perfect aim.
“They have doctors here. Everywhere,” I venture, emboldened by the way she hasn’t shut me down completely.
“I did do something,” she says after a long pause. Putting down the can, she walks over to the pile of luggage in the corner of the room and starts rummaging around in the duffel bag on top of the suitcases. She then throws something at me.
It’s a book.A Photographic Guide to American Sign Language.
I flick through the pages and see black and white photos of hands in various positions.
“You’re learning sign language?”
“Yep.” She returns to the bed, sitting next to me. “It’s kinda cool, you know.”
She holds up one hand and starts to move it. It starts with a wave and ends with her fingers moving in various combinations.
“What did you just sign?” I ask.
“I signed, ‘hello, my name is Pia.’”
