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Julia looked up suddenly, her lips parted in wonder. The name slipped off Erin’s lips so effortlessly, and her heart skipped a beat when it did. She hadn’t heard that name in a long time.
“She used to call me Jules,” Julia confessed, a slight puff of air escaping her chest. A pained look clouded her eyes, her hands instinctively sheltering in her lap. She shouldn’t have admitted that. She didn’t know why she said that aloud.
“I won’t call you it aga-”
“No, it’s okay.”
She didn’t admit that she liked the sound when it came from those rosy lips. It should’ve stung, should’ve pulled her back to that dark place where only Marin’s absence lived. But it didn’t. It hugged her instead–the warm embrace of summer air.
They both sat smiling at each other, the silence wrapping them in comfort from across the table. An older Italian man covered forehead to knee in flour approached the table and plopped two slices of cheese pizza on paper plates before them. They nodded with gratitude, but their eyes went back to each other. Intoxicating.
“Is she why you wouldn’t–” Erin paused as if unsure if she should finish her thought, “even though it’s been that long?”
Time can be a peculiar thing. A year can pass in the blink of an eye for some, while a single day can stretch into an eternity for others. For Julia, that year was a relentless storm cloud refusing to dissipate. And yet, a year wasn’t long enough. Two years wouldn’t be long enough. Would a lifetime ever be enough? A lifetime without Marin. A lifetime without unraveling those red strands of hair from the drain, without that raspy melody echoing through the attic.
“I don’t think I realized it at the time, but yes. I’m not,” she hesitated, “not ready.”
“That’s okay,” she whispered softly, reaching her outstretched arm across the table. Julia kept her hands in her lap and the disappointment was written plainly across Erin’s face. “Your pizza is getting cold.”
“Right.” Julia swallowed.
They both smiled weakly, and then Erin pulled her hand embarrassedly back, but she hid it well. Taking the pizza, Julia nibbled on the edge. Erin, on the other hand, folded it in half and took the biggest bite she could manage, the grease dripping onto the paper plate in orange stained blots. After the first bite, she folded the pizza the opposite way and then took another bite.
“Eating a slice of pizza like that should be criminal!” Julia smirked, hiding her amusement with a hand over her full mouth. “What kind of strategy is that?”
They sat down their slices and laughed, tears forming in the corner of Julia’s eyes. It wasn’t a small laugh that a napkin could hide; it was a laugh that threw their heads back, their mouths agape as they held their stomachs. She needed that. Oh, she didn’t realize how badly she needed that.
“I know,” Erin said through broken laughter. Her cheeks began to turn the crispest color of pink. “It’s the worst habit I picked up from my father!”
“I can never unsee that,” Julia teased.
It took a few minutes, but after the bubbling in their stomachs settled, Julia spoke first. “I have to ask, why do you walk so much at night, alone? That’s not safe, even in these parts of town.”
“Dr. Jenner, are you concerned for my well-being?”
“A little, actually,” she admitted, once again unsure how to keep her thoughts to herself. Erin looked up at her with a slight smile.
“I’ve always walked a lot. I guess it is my form of stress relief. It keeps my figure.” Erin shrugged her shoulders and then chuckled, but Julia had to fight the flush in her cheeks as she thought of that figure. “I sometimes park my car in parks and walk around the neighborhoods. That’s how I found this place.”
“Are you from New York?”
“Oh, no!” Erin’s head shook vigorously as she swallowed another bite. “I would never move to New York.” There was that smile again, one that could fill a room of any size. “I’m from Virginia where it is nice and warm. In the summer when I’m not working, I feel like I live in the ocean.”
Thoughts of Erin in a tiny bikini crept into Julia’s mind, and her eyes went wide with horror. She had to get it together. This will be fine.
“Do you travel a lot for McSellen, visiting other states,” Julia paused, a playful grin curling her lips, “that aren’t as frigid as New York?”
“Actually, it is pretty even in the warmth distribution. Although, of course, I’ve had to stay in the lovely arctic of New York for the past year.”
“I wouldn’t wish that upon my worst enemy.”
“How does it get so humid in the summer and so cold in the winter?” Erin smirked.
“Probably the same reason why we have at least four false springs before actual spring each year.”
“Luckily, I have just four months left of my contract here,” Erin said, sitting up a little straighter, “and then I can head back home.”
“Well, at least your last four months will be a breeze! Kleinton High is quite prestigious, if I do say so myself.”
