“I’m heading home. I’m meeting up with Blue.”
Gianna smiles. “You two are so cute. I loved hearing about how you guys got together.”
Blue, Mila, and I told the story at a Hawthorne party last weekend.
“So adorable,” she says.
I grin. “Thanks.”
Lucy says, “Yeah, you two are my favorite couple.”
Gianna says, “Really? Even before you and my brother?”
I look at Lucy.
She rolls her eyes. “I was his tutor, so yeah. Blue and Melly beat our story by far.”
I smile back at her when she looks at me.
Lucy hugs me. Gianna hugs me next.
When I get to my street, Blue’s truck is parked outside my building.
When he sees me, he gets out and crosses the sidewalk in three long strides. He kisses my forehead and takes my bag off my shoulder and slings it over his own.
I let him carry the bag the way I have, for two weeks now, been letting him carry small things he wants to carry — my bag, my coffee on the walk home from the corner, the bowl of pasta from the kitchen to the couch on Sunday night when Penelope made enough for three. He has been doing it without comment, without performance. He is the kind of boyfriend who does things for the small joy of doing them.
I take his hand, and we walk up the path to my building.
Penelope is on the couch when we come in. She looks up and smiles.
“Hey.”
“We’re back.”
“I see.”
Blue says, “Hi, Pen.”
“Golding.”
He kicks his shoes off and turns to me. “I brought you something.”
He reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a folded piece of paper. He hands it to me. I unfold it. It’s a printed schedule.
Camden Wolves Athletic Training, the small letterhead at the top. Physical Therapy — Golding, Blue. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Four to five. Six weeks. The signature at the bottom is his trainer.
I look up at him in shock. “You told the trainer?”
“I told the trainer.”
I’m grinning. I also might start crying. He pulls me against him.
“Don’t cry.”
“I’m not.”
“It’s just PT. It’s a rotator cuff strain. I have been making it worse by playing through it, but it’s manageable. Liv said six weeks of PT, and I can play through the season. No surgery. Not yet. Maybe not at all.”
