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“You’ve still got that special glow,” Hamilton chuckled. “I’ll take a Jack and Coke since you’re buying.”
After I bought the next round, I listened to their jokes a few more minutes and then I shrugged.
“Fine,” I admitted. “I fell for her. It’s been rough keeping things under wraps when all I want to do is tell everybody I know and then—and then go meet her dad.”
“There’s only, what, three weeks left till finals?” Kyle said.
“We’re trying but it’s really hard,” I admitted.
“That’s what she said,” Rick chimed in, and we all groaned.
“We’re happy for you, Aaron,” Hamilton chimed in. “Even though you were a dick about it when it happened to all of us.”
“He was the worst with me,” Kyle said.
“True, but you nearly fed me my teeth over it,” I said, “so I learned from that experience.”
“We want to meet her. Obviously, Mindy already knows her, and she said Leanne’s great. Good head on her shoulders, loyal, smart as hell,” Kyle said.
“I’ll bring her around and you can roast me in front of her after the semester’s over,” I promised.
It actually felt good to tell them, and for my best friends to get to share in my happiness. I’d found someone. Letting them know about her, that I’d really fallen for her, made it even more real to me. And made me that much more eager for the end of the semester so we could be together openly.
The party broke up early because all my friends had wives and kids to get home to. For once, I admitted to myself that I envied them. That I wanted that for myself, and for the first time I felt like I had a chance. When I got home, I called Leanne.
“Hey,” I said, “I miss you.”
“Miss you, too. How’d it go?” Leanne mumbled, sounding far away.
“I told them about us,” I said, “and they gave me a bunch of shit about it, which I expected, but they can’t wait to meet you.”
“I want to meet them, too,” she said with a yawn.
“It’s like ten, Lee. Are you really that tired?”
“Yeah, I’m wiped out,” she said.
“Are you getting enough sleep?” I asked, concerned.
“I’ve been sleeping a ton the last week or so,” she said with another yawn, “it’s just the end of semester push with everything coming due at once—projects and presentations and stuff. Plus applying for graduation and thinking about what to do and where to apply when I graduate.”
“I don’t think you need to worry about that. I have a good feeling about your future,” I said.
Leanne laughed and said good night.
I almost said that I loved her. But I didn’t want to say it for the first time over the phone. I wanted to be able to look in her eyes when I told her I was in love. That way I could kiss her properly afterward.
CHAPTER29
LEANNE
Ilooked at the bulging tote bag and the overflowing laundry basket of random crap—papers, a jacket, my emergency Pringles that I kept hidden when I stayed at Dad’s because of cholesterol. I glared at them really, proof of unfinished chores and stuff I hadn’t put away yet. I knew I had to finish unpacking eventually since I’d moved back to my own apartment full time. I just got so used to keeping a bag of stuff in my car, carrying stuff back and forth, cramming the overflow into the laundry basket that I kept meaning to get around to unloading and sorting through. When it came time to face doing that on top of school and the internship, I was just so tired.
I ached between my shoulders and I felt so run down. When I told Rina last week, I felt crappy, she told me to get some elderberry syrup in case I was coming down with a cold or something.
“It’s the stress,” I told her. “I had like the month from hell. My dad’s doing better, but the last six week or so have been brutal. I need to curl up and sleep for about ten days and then I’ll be back to normal.”
“You fell asleep in yoga last night, that nap should be plenty.”
