Adam kisses my forehead before hopping into his car with Hank to procure soda and potato chips for the trip to Texas. As they drive away, Rachel and I sit on the front steps of the house.
"I'm going to miss this place," Rachel says, staring behind us at the door to my apartment. "Your apartment was more like home than my own home."
"You certainly treated it like that, barging in whenever you pleased," I say, smiling at her.
"Sorry about that," she mumbles.
"It's okay. I'm going to miss it," I say, and I mean it.
"So, what are you going to do now?" she asks, turning her attention on me.
I shrug. "Keep working at the boutique. I do love it there, and Connie's designs are a really fun challenge to work with. I'm trying to get her to send the designs to some industry big wigs. Between that and working with the theatre on their next production's costumes, I think my calendar's full."
"What are they putting on next? I forgot."
"Wuthering Heights set in a world where robots rule," I mumble. The theatre really loved the spin the director put on Jane Eyre and asked him to come back with a whole series of bonker shows. He decided to give the other Bronte sister some love which means that Wuthering Heights and Terabytes will be opening in July.
"How could I possibly forget that? Jesus. Maybe I can fly in and catch a show," Rachel muses.
"I have some vacation time saved up. I'm going to come down and visit as soon as you get settled. And we're going to go out and find vegetarian barbecue. I refuse to miss out on Texas barbecue just because I don't eat meat," I say, trying to avoid the inevitable sadness.
Next door, a gaggle of frat guys appear on the front lawn hooping and hollering and … having sack races?
"There's at least one thing I won't miss," Rachel says as one of the guys trips and falls out of the potato sack he's attempting to race in. His frat brothers laugh and point and call him a slew of names. The guys hop in their potato sacks and disappear into the backyard. Just a moment later, the bass from their sound system pumps through the neighborhood.
"You're working for a music festival now. You're going to be seeing weirder things in Austin."
The word 'Austin' hangs in the air, and it slams me again that this is really it.
"Shit, this is weird," Rachel says with a laugh as we lean on each other.
"Agreed. But I think you're doing the right thing."
"Me too," she says, taking a deep breath and I think it's to keep from crying. I keep wondering which one of us is going to break down first. She sits up suddenly and shoves a hand in her pocket. "I almost forgot to give you this."
She holds out her hand to reveal my spare house key in her palm. The top is painted in glittery blue nail polish.
I break down first with the tears. I start to take the key from her but stop.
"I think you should keep it," I say, with tears slowly leaking out of my eyes. I sniffle. "Just in case you ever want to surprise me with a visit or a birthday party."
"Okay," she says in a whisper and tucks the key back in her pocket. Her face is wet with tears now as well. We both dab at our face with the back of our hands. "Dammit, I didn't want to cry."
"Me either," I say with a watery laugh.
We stay huddled next to each other until Adam and Hank return, both holding bags full of the worst possible things a human could imbibe. Through the plastic bags, I see chocolate bars, sodas in a variety of colors, and at least four bags of gummy animals.
"With that much sugar, you're never going to sleep again," I say to Hank.
"It's a long drive, Evie," he says, throwing the bags of food into Rachel's car. "And, as much as I hate to say it, we should probably … " He doesn't finish his sentence. Instead, he jerks his thumb out toward the road. He doesn't want to say the words, and I don't want him to either.
Rachel and I stand up and walk to the moving truck with our arms linked together.
"We're going to have to let go of each other sometime, aren't we?" she asks and I only nod as we unlink our arms. And immediately hug each other.
"Call me when you get there, okay?" I ask as we separate.
"I will," she promises.
Hank helps her into the cab of the truck and she slowly merges onto traffic. Hank gives me a quick hug goodbye and reminds me again to pick him at the airport. He jumps into Rachel's car and he is soon on the same route as her.
"You okay?" Adam asks as we walk up to the house, hand in hand. Both of us have such rough hands, his from having to wash them so many times a day at the bakery, and mine are calloused from so much needlework on wedding gowns. And I wouldn't want it any other way.
"Not really, but I'll get there," I say as we walk into my apartment.
Adam leads me to my couch and I soon find my head on his chest. I could fall asleep with his steady heartbeat in my ear. But I can't sleep, not when I have costumes to design for yet another ridiculous play. Still, Adam feels so solid against me that I think I can put the costumes aside for a day.
For just a moment, I think I hear footsteps upstairs in Rachel's apartment, but it's just the house settling. I sigh and burrow against Adam.
"Will you stay with me awhile?"
He kisses my hair. "I'll stay as long as you'll have me."
I don't say anything in response, I just hold him tighter against me. Just this once, I'll let him have the last word.
Epilogue
Three Months Later …
"How's summer in Austin?" I ask as I stare at Rachel through my computer screen. With her swamped with work and me knee-deep in stiff silver fabric and robot parts for Wuthering Heights and Terabytes, we haven't etched a time for me to visit. I'm personally aiming for September. Maybe it won't feel like the seventh circle of Hell down there by then. In the meantime, video calls will have to suffice.
"It's good. It's hot. Oh! And there's this ridiculous bar that you have to check out when you visit. It's circus-themed and-"
"What are you going to do about my brother?" I cut in, even though I desperately want to know more about this circus bar. Unless there are clowns. I don't think I can handle being around clowns while inebriated.
Rachel leans back in her chair and looks at her bare wrist and pretends she has on a watch. "You lasted longer than I thought."
"This isn't funny, Rach. Hank is my brother, and I don't want to see him get hurt."
"That's sweet, sis," Hank says, suddenly appearing on my computer screen as he leans in toward Rachel. There's a stupid grin on his face. As I look back and forth between the two of them, I notice that her smile matches his, and it warms my heart.
It also infuriates me.
"You sons of bitches!" I shout at the computer but I'm also laughing. I don't admit it to her, but my desire to video call her wasn't to actually check in with her life; it was to interrogate her about what she plans to do about my stupid brother's heart. I focus on my brother. "What the hell, Hank?"
"How's it going, Evie?" he asks, taking a bite out of a granny smith apple. I've never seen him look so young and happy.
"You bastard, what are you doing in Texas?" I yell out.
"Apartment hunting. Interviewing for jobs. You know, the usual."
"What?" I ask Hank just as my apartment door opens. Adam appears, a bag of groceries in his hand.
"Should I leave? I feel like I should leave," he says, his hand still on the doorknob. "You have that look on your face."
"What look?" I ask as I contort my face muscles so that I'm not scowling quite as hard.
"That look you get when you need protein and hate everything."
"She also gets that look if you ever borrow her sewing scissors," Hank says to Adam. "God forbid you use them for anything other than fabric."
"You used them to trim your pubes," I remind Hank. He mumbles something about it being a long time ago. Rachel looks mildly disgusted by this news; I call that a success.
"My brother is in Texas," I tell Adam as he heads toward the kitchen with the grocery bags. He turns around slowly to look at me as his cheeks redden. "You knew about this?"
"I was informed of some things," he admits, walking back toward the computer and me. He leans in toward the computer so that Hank can clearly see his annoyance. "And I was told that I wasn't going to face any sort of wrath."
Hank chuckles. "Yeah, Evie. Don't get mad at Adam. I only told him so that you wouldn't suspect anything. I wanted to wait until the moment was right to tell you."
"Does this seem like the right moment?" I shout, my voice so high that I expect my laptop screen to crack. Adam backs away and goes into the kitchen to put away whatever needs refrigerating before he fixes dinner for our date night.
Rachel moves in front of Hank. "Come on, Evie. I'm happy. You're happy … or you will be once you get over the fact that your brother traveled a thousand miles in secret to nail your best friend."
"Thanks, Rach," Hank and I both mumble.
"You're moving to Austin? When? How? Wait- I looked at plane tickets a couple days ago and they were outrageous. Why didn't I know you were spending money on something stupid?"