“Then don’t. Stay here longer with me.”
“I have a venue walkthrough Wednesday in Coral Gables. A couple who wants a sky lantern release during the first dance. Two hundred lit lanterns floating up over the reception. It sounds romantic until you remember that a sky lantern is a small open flame attached to a paper bag and the venue is surrounded by live oaks and the fire marshal has opinions.”
“That sounds insane. Two hundred open flames?”
“I know, right? I’ve been trying to talk them out of it for three weeks but the bride saw it on Pinterest and now it’s her entire personality. I need to find an alternative that gives her the same visual without burning down Coral Gables.”
“Your job is insane,” I tell him.
“It is and I love it. But I love this deck more right now.”
He reaches over without looking and finds my hand on the armrest. His fingers thread through mine. The contact is automatic, the way our hands have learned to find each other all the time now. I hold on because tomorrow his hand will be in Miami and mine will be on this armrest.
“We need to talk about how this is going to work,” I say.
“How what works?”
“This. Us. The distance. The flying. How we do this when you’re there and I’m here and there are six hundred miles between us.”
He turns his head and looks at me. His eyes are serious. He’s wearing a plain white shirt that’s mine, too big on him, the collar hanging off one shoulder. He looks younger in my shirt. The eyeliner is smudged and he hasn’t fixed it.
“I’ve been thinking about it,” he says. “The logistics.”
“Tell me your thoughts.”
“I can fly up twice a month. Fridays to Mondays. That gives us long weekends when I don’t have a wedding to do. I can shift most of my client meetings to Tuesdays through Thursdays and do the rest by phone. I’ve been researching something else. The wedding market here is real. The 30A corridor is blowing up for destination weddings. The market is open for a high-end planner and I could build something solid here.”
“You’ve already looked into this?”
“Yeah, I’ve been looking into it since we met actually. I do the research at two in the morning when I can’t sleep. I’m lying in bed thinking about you and the only way to stop is to start planning. And then the planning turns into market research and the market research turns into a business plan.”
“Do you have a business plan?” I ask.
“Yeah, it’s on my laptop.”
“Okay, about the flights,” I say. “I’m buying all of them. Every time. Don’t argue with me about it.”
“Mickey, you can’t buy a plane ticket every two weeks on a cop’s disability pay.”
“I have savings. Nine years of overtime. I can buy the tickets.”
“We’ll split them.”
“We’ll talk about it.”
“That’s your way of saying you’re going to buy them and not tell me until the confirmation email lands in my inbox.”
“That’s exactly what that means.”
He shakes his head but he’s smiling.
“There’s something else,” I say. “I need to talk to you about going back to work.”
“Your work? As a cop?”
“Yes, what’s left of my work. I can’t sit here and watch the water forever. I’m not built for it. My brain needs a job. I need to be useful. I’ve worked ever since I was a kid doing something. I’m not meant to be a deadbeat. Even if the money is still coming in.”
“What are you thinking about doing?” Benji asks.
