Page 10 of The Sweetest Return

Dre’s voice lowered. “I could get drafted somewhere you hate. Then traded two years later. Then cut. I don’t know. You could follow me anywhere, and every time something changes, you gotta start your life over again. I’m not asking you to do that.”

“But what if that means we lose each other?”

“You think I ain’t thought about that?”

“I don’t know what you think when you won’t say it.”

His jaw worked before he looked away.

“I’m scared.”

The anger left me.

Dre did not say things like that easily.

“I’m scared you go up there and build this whole life and realize you don’t need none of this anymore. Pittsburgh. AWU.” His eyes came back to mine. “Me.”

“Dre.”

“I’m scared I get drafted somewhere far as hell and every time I call, you busy. Then we start missing calls, missing weekends, getting mad about shit neither one of us can control.” He exhaled. “I’m scared we fuck this up.”

“So am I.”

The room felt quieter after that.

No argument to win. No perfect answer waiting underneath the next sentence. Just two people who loved each other and did not know what to do with the lives opening in front of them.

Dre looked at me for a while.

“You already been looking at New York stuff, haven’t you?”

Of course he knew.

“A little.”

His brow lifted.

“Okay. A lot.”

“What you been looking at?”

“Everything.” A watery smile tugged at my mouth. “Apartments I can’t afford. Train routes. Restaurants. Which neighborhoods have the best shopping.”

Dre’s mouth moved.

“What?”

“You researching shopping before you got somewhere to live.”

“I contain multitudes.”

That got a real laugh out of him, brief but familiar enough to hurt.

“I also found grocery stores and laundromats.”

“Congratulations.”

“And three places I want to try for brunch.”