Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
W hen I wake in the morning, the Full House DVD menu is playing on a loop in the background. This isn’t an unusual circumstance for me—it definitely isn’t the first time I’ve fallen asleep on the couch, comfort-watching this show—but what is unfamiliar is the warm, lightly snoring pillow underneath me.
Kimo . The reality of him, here with me, fills me with a giddy, dizzying level of joy, followed almost immediately by a sharp spike of outrage. This son of a bitch convinced me to sleep platonically with him again, and we still haven’t had sex! My outrage ebbs quickly, though, when I look down to see his face softened in sleep, mouth hanging open. He’s left a little puddle of drool on my throw pillow, and that really shouldn’t be adorable, but somehow it is. When I glance at the door and see his flip-flops lined up next to my heels, it makes my heart go all fuzzy.
Oh, God. This is bad.
Or...is it? There’s never really been a reason for my set no-dating stance, beyond finding most peoples’ personalities repulsive and my inherent distrust of men. But I like Kimo’s personality. I like his cheerfulness, his lack of shame, his generosity, his fierce love for his family. He is the best parts of Uncle Jesse mixed with the best parts of Uncle Joey. He is a real-life sitcom character, in the most positive way possible. I think he might actually be a good person.
Before I can process this realization too much further, though, Kimo’s eyes flutter open. He looks disoriented for a moment, until his gaze lands on mine, and a lazy, happy smile stretches across his face. “Good morning, beautiful.”
“Hi.” I don’t know what I’m supposed to do in this situation. Should I climb off him? I’m probably crushing him, with the way I’m sprawled out across him.
But when I try to push up, he wraps his arms around me, pulling me back down. “Hey. Not so fast. Let me wake up slowly with my Mattie blanket keeping me warm.”
“Oh. Okay.” Even though I’m pleased by the sentiment, I can feel my body going stiff with awkwardness and uncertainty, until Kimo starts smoothing his hands down over my back and shoulders, and my body can’t help but relax at his warm, sure touch.
“Mmm,” he mumbles happily. “How do you not have morning breath? And how are you so pretty first thing?”
“I waited until you fell asleep and got up to brush my teeth and wash my face,” I admit, honest to a fault as always.
Too late I realize what I’m admitting to him—that he was already sleeping, and I could have used that as an opportunity to go to my bedroom and sleep on my own, but instead I chose to come back here. To him.
“So pretty,” he says, tilting my chin up so he can look into my eyes.
Our faces are so near each other. I can tell he didn’t get up in the night to brush his teeth, but his breath isn’t bad, just a bit musky. I like even that about him. I don’t recognize this side of myself. I’m usually so critical of everyone, about everything, so quick to find a flaw. But he could probably belch in my face right now and I’d still think he hung the moon.
“Do you want to come to book club with me on Friday night?” I blurt out without thinking.
Usually we meet on Tuesdays, which would have been last night, but Helen had something going on at the library this week, so we postponed. I don’t know why I suddenly invited him, honestly. I instantly regret it.
“It’s okay if you can’t,” I say quickly, pushing up and off him before he can grab me and stop me again. “It’s not a big deal. I don’t even like books, so...I get it if it’s not your thing. Anyway, I have to pee.”
I race out of the room, shutting myself in the bathroom and squatting down on the floor in a sort of standing fetal position. Oh, God. What have I just done?
Not two seconds later, I hear a knock on the door. Still huddling on the floor, I reach up to pull it open. Looking up, I see Kimo grinning happily as he reaches down to help me to my feet. He cups my face, his thumb brushing the worry lines from my brow, then moving once over my lower lip. “I’d love to come to book club. Even though I also don’t read much. If you’re there, I want to be there.”
I swallow heavily, unable to help my grin of raw, hopeful relief. “Really?”
“Absolutely.”
I give him the time and place, then check my phone to get the name of the book: “ The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon,” I read from Helen’s reminder text. I can’t believe how excited I am about a book, now that I know he’ll be there with me when we discuss it.
Kimo writes the title down, but shakes his head. “I don’t know if I can finish a book in two days. I’m more of a comic book guy myself, you know? But I’ll give it the old college try–-or what I imagine the college try was like, since I didn’t go.”
I wave off his concern. “Don’t worry about reading the book. I never do. I can send you a good summary site so we can fake it together.”
“I might try the audiobook—so I can get stuff done while I listen.”
“The audiobook?” I raise a skeptical eyebrow at him. “Isn’t that just someone reading a book to you—how is that any better?”
Kimo laughs, chucking my chin affectionately, like I’m the most adorable anti-reading gremlin he can imagine. “Nah, they’re way better than that. The narrators do all the voices and sometimes there’s even music and stuff to set the scene. It’s like a movie, but for your brain instead of your eyes.”
That doesn’t sound too bad, actually. I like movies, on the rare occasions when I actually get to sit down and watch them—as long as they aren’t too slow, or have subtitles or anything, because again, reading . “That doesn’t sound so bad,” I admit.
Kimo has to leave so he can help get the kids off to camp, which does sound kind of bad—Kimo leaving, that is, not the children bonding and having fun with their peers. I walk him to the door, and we just sort of stand there, smiling at each other and holding hands. “Today and tomorrow are kind of crazy for me,” he tells me.
“Yeah, me too,” I agree with a sigh, remembering how much there is for me to catch up on back at work.
“But I’ll see you Friday night,” he promises. “I’ve never been so fucking excited to talk about a book in my entire life.” He leans in conspiratorially toward me, like he’s telling me a secret he doesn’t want anyone to overhear. “’Cause you’ll be there, just in case you missed that.”
My cheeks feel all weird, like they’re unusually warm and kind of tingly. And I can’t stop smiling. My mouth actually hurts, but in a good way. “I, too, am also feeling very excited for that.” That came out much stupider than I intended.
Kimo grins anyway. “To see me, right? That’s what you’re excited for?”
My smile, impossibly, pulls even wider. “Yes, you doofus. To see you.”
Kimo nods a sort of hey, did you hear that greeting to Stan out in the hallway, then grins at me before turning toward the elevator. He raises a fist in the air, holding it there. “Whoo—book club!” At the elevator, he winks at me. “See you Friday, beautiful.”
* * *
I’m pretty useless for the next couple days. Luckily, even though I have a lot to do, most of it doesn’t require too much brain power. I’m filing, transcribing notes, and setting up the calendar for the upcoming weeks, those kind of things.
My mind is on Kimo the whole time, though, and on my building anticipation to see him again on Friday night. Wanting to feel close to him, I decide to do something I’ve never done before.
I download the audiobook from the library.
And you know what? He was right! Audiobooks are amazing! I can listen to it as I do the mundane tasks at my job, and as I walk to and from work, and as I cook and clean, and even while I work out at the gym. “Did you know how many audiobooks you can get for free from the library?” I gush to the guy on the elliptical machine next to me, who looks like he could not care less. Whatever—his problem, not mine!
If this is what reading a physical book is like for Helen and Nina, I’m no longer surprised they like doing it so much. I don’t know if it’s the narrator or the story or the fact that I can multitask, but I can’t remember the last time I was so enthralled with a book. By the time I reach the last hour of the audio, I’m not even doing anything else, just listening , waiting to see what happens next.
I can’t wait to share this with Kimo. I can’t wait to talk about our favorite parts and to see if he was as surprised as I was when we found out about the thing that only the people who’ve read the book know about. I can’t wait to see his funny flip-flop walk and the grin he gets on his face when he sets eyes on me across a crowded room.
Friday night can’t come soon enough.