Caught Up in Us(18)

The next weekend he said he’d found the perfect store for me, and he brought me to a cobblestoned block in the Village and held open the door to a tiny little Japanese manga shop. I gave him a quizzical look. I wasn’t into manga.

“Just go in. You’ll see.”

After I passed the shelves of comics, I saw the most fantastic display. A wall full of Hello Kitty jewelry – bracelets and rings and hair clips and necklaces and keychains and every adornment imaginable with the cat.

Bryan was smiling, as if he’d brought me to buried treasure. “I thought you might get a kick out of it.” A nervous grin came next. “But then again, you make such amazing stuff this might all seem silly to you.”

I placed my hand on his arm. “I love it. No matter what I make, I will always love Hello Kitty. It’s a life-long kind of thing we have going on.”

“Good. Pick anything you like.”

I studied the displays, checking out a rhinestone necklace, a white and pink pendant, a silver and black chain. Then rings in all shapes and sizes. I showed him a cute, sparkly ring. “I do love this ring.”

I moved over to the necklaces. Bryan shifted closer and slipped his hand onto the small of my back, touching me underneath my tee-shirt. I closed my eyes because it felt so good I wanted to purr. The slightest touch from him was intoxicating.

“One more week until your birthday,” he whispered.

I leaned into him, savoring the feel of his body against me. That we were in a public place barely crossed my mind. All I could think of was him.

The girl behind the counter cleared her throat. I opened my eyes and managed to choose a sparkly number, with pink stones for the cat’s ears. It was kitschy and that’s what made it so adorable.

“Wait for me outside,” Bryan said.

I did as instructed and a minute later, he left the store, dropped a tiny white bag into his wallet, and then fastened the chain around my neck. “It’s just a little necklace, but I wanted you to have something from me. Something you liked,” he said, and he sounded so sweet and nervous too.

“I love it, Bryan. I totally love it.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

Then, his hands were in my hair, and he kissed my neck, my earlobe, my eyelids. I sighed and swayed closer. I was floating, I was flying, I was in Manhattan with the man I’d fallen in mad, crazy love with.

“Why aren’t we just in your apartment right now?” I whispered.

“Because if we are, I will not be able to resist you.”

“You’re not doing a good job resisting me right now.”

“I know. Can you even imagine what it’ll be like if it’s just you and me?”

“Yes,” I said softly. “I can imagine. I think about it all the time. I’m so crazy about you. I want to be with you in every way.”

“Me too. Let’s go walk around NYU. You’re going to be there in just a few weeks.” He held my hand and squeezed my fingers when he said that, his touch a visceral reminder that we’d be together then. We wandered around the campus for the next hour, and with each building, dorm and classroom that we managed to find open in August, I grew more excited about college.

“I can’t believe I’m going to be here soon. It’s going to be amazing.” We walked along the outside of one of the dorms. “Did you love it here?”

“Yes. I loved it. College is everything they say it is.”

“What do you mean?”

“That it’s the time when you find yourself. When you figure out what you want. And when you have a ton of fun.”

“I can’t wait to start. I know I’m going to love it.”

“You are,” Bryan said, but there was something sad in his tone.

I looked at him. “Hey. You okay?”

“Totally.”

“Because you sounded…”

“I’m fine.”

But he grew quieter as we checked out the campus bookstore, and a cafe where I said I would probably do all my homework, and the library, which was speckled with students for the summer session. His mind was elsewhere, and he didn’t tell me where he’d gone.

At the station on Sunday night, I thanked him again for the necklace.

“You should always wear it,” he said before I caught the last train to Mystic. His voice was wistful, and when he kissed me goodbye, the moment had become melancholy. I didn’t feel like a girl who was returning in a week for her eighteenth birthday. I felt like a girl being sent off with only a Hello Kitty necklace to remember him by.

When I called a few days later to confirm our weekend plans, his voice was different. Strained and distant.

“I don’t think you should come in,” he said.