Chapter 32 Noah Today
She’s on me in a flash and it takes everything in my power to contain myself.
Because this is all I want. Forever.
In just weeks—but also through years—I’ve missed her so much. The way her hair smells, tickling my skin as it pours over us. The way her mouth tastes, like cold cider. The way her body feels as I lift her up—like she’s my perfect fit.
My other half.
My missing half.
I would happily live here. Among the cereal boxes. Subsisting solely on oats and beer—which is basically also oats.
I would build us a fort on the couch. Build us a pen for the goats. Build us a sex den in the bedroom—which I have yet to see.
Build us a life—and never leave.
But that won’t be necessary because just as our kiss turns to something more, as we tumble toward the sofa knocking over cereal boxes, hands traveling in illicit directions, tearing off clothes, skin against skin, and breaking all the traffic laws, she mumbles something incoherent.
“What?” I say.
“I said I’m coming with you.”
“Coming with me—to the couch?”
From a whisper away, she giggles into my mouth, which just makes me want to do all the things to her—for her.
“No, silly. To LA.”
“To help me pack?”
She shakes her head. “To live.”
“But what about Humbug?”
“Humbug will live forever in our hearts and in infamy.”
I pause for real now. Pull back just a bit, as I peer into her face, threading my fingers in her hair at the back of her neck. “Are you serious?”
“Very. This was all very thoughtful of you. But I hope you didn’t quit your practice yet. Because I’m coming to LA.”
“But… are you sure? I thought you didn’t want to uproot your life for me.”
She shakes her head. “No. I didn’t want you to expect me to do that.
And anyway, I don’t know if you know this, but my best friends live in California.
And I lived there first, by the way, like way before you—so, it’s really my place.
Not yours. And they need art directors there whether at an ad agency or in entertainment.
And also, as much as it will always be home, I need to leave New York before the bodega cat figures out how to make copies of my keys. ”
I look into her face, searching for a hint of doubt. “Are you sure?” I ask her.
“Positive,” she says.
“You’re incredible. Unhinged when it comes to that cat, but incredible.”
“Thank you. You are also okay.”
She pushes up and presses a lingering kiss to my lips, so that I chase her for more. “Oh,” she says, like she’s forgotten one detail, “and I love you too.”
Warmth floods through me, so that I no longer know where she ends and I begin. I am amazed by how fucking lucky I am.
“That’s good news,” I say, unable to contain a massive grin spreading across my face. “There’s just one last problem.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Let me at it.”
“How are we going to ship all this cereal?”
“That’s easy,” she says. “The Jolly Green Giant!”
More like ten Jolly Green Giants.
First love, last love.
That’s what I think as I stare into the face of this beautiful woman, in whom I can still see that girl I fell in love with a trillion years before.
The face I saw across the club, lit by strobes, and couldn’t forget.
The eyes that glanced at me one last time as she hurried toward art class.
The expression of trust and longing she wore for all our shared firsts and that I can’t wait to see again and again—as long as we both shall live.