“Does Ryder ever come up to visit?” I asked as we sat in traffic to get over the Zakim bridge.
“No. He and Tate don’t get along. It wouldn’t be a good situation, with the girls there, so Ryder avoids it. Which is probably a good thing. If you wanna plug in your phone, you can. I rigged it up to play through the speakers.” I got out my phone, plugged the cord in and turned on the radio. Simple Minds blasted through the speakers and nearly deafened me.
“Yeah, I forgot to tell you that I like to listen to music pretty loud when I drive,” Lucah said, turning the volume down. “What’s up with the song?”
“Sloane and I watched The Breakfast Club the other day, so I had the song stuck in my head.” I put the music on shuffle and skipped to the next song, which turned out to be a version of “Clarity”, similar to the one that we’d listened to when we’d danced at the ball. I watched Lucah’s face and he smiled when he recognized it.
“I never saw the appeal of a ball until I saw you coming down the stairs in that dress.” It was at Sloane’s studio now because she could store it much better than I could.
“I could get it from Sloane and put it on again and we could have a reenactment.”
“I like this plan. Can we reenact the part after the ball? Not that the dancing wasn’t fantastic, but the removing of the dress and so forth was more fantastic.” My ladyparts quivered with the memory of that night. We broke some new sexual barriers after the ball, and I was pretty sure I saw through space and time a few times.
“That was pretty fantastic,” I said, putting my hand on his, where it rested on the shifter. Was there another term for it? I had no idea. It didn’t really matter.
We crossed the bridge and hopped on the highway and I realized how few times I’d left the city in the past few months. I’d always wanted to travel, but I’d always been working, so the only travel I’d done was for work, and I’d been either stuck in a boardroom, or a hotel room or an airport.
“We should go somewhere,” I said.
“Isn’t that what we’re doing right now?”
“Obviously, but what I mean is that we should go somewhere, go somewhere. Like on a trip to a faraway place.”
He started laughing.
“What’s funny about that?”
“I just gave up my nomadic existence and now you’ve got the travel bug?” Oh. He did have a point.
“It was just a suggestion.”
“No, no. I’m not down on it. I’d love to travel with you. Most of the traveling I’ve done was by myself, but it would be much more fun with you. Where would you want to go?”
“I don’t know. Have you ever been to Maine?”
“Actually, no. I haven’t. That is one state that I haven’t yet been to.”
“We have a camp up there. I’m sure my parents wouldn’t mind if we went up for a weekend and used it.” I was still trying to plan the trip with my friends, and that was still proving to be impossible.
“And maybe we could take your parents with us. Get Walter out of the office for some relaxation,” Lucah said, and I was pissed that I hadn’t thought of it first.
“I love you,” I said, leaning over and giving him a kiss on the cheek.
“I know,” he said with a satisfied grin as he hit the accelerator and we flew along the highway.
While Lucah drove, I looked on my phone for a place to stop to get some presents, and I found a little candy shop off the highway, so Lucah took the exit.
“I’m pretty sure you’re going to pass me as their favorite person ever,” Lucah said as we walked into what looked like Willy Wonka’s wet dream. Floor to ceiling walls of candy containers, all in colors so bright they almost hurt your eyes.
“Is this what heaven looks like?” I said, still staring.
“God, I hope so,” Lucah said, his eyes as big as mine. “Come on.” He grabbed a basket for himself and one for me.
“Ready?” He crouched down as if he was a runner, getting ready at the starting gate. Oh was that how this was gonna go? I crouched down next to him and put on my best competitive face. I had no idea what we were racing for, or how we would determine a winner, but that didn’t matter because, well, CANDY.
“Set,” I said.
“GO!” We yelled at the same time, startling some of the other customers, but I took off and headed right for the jellybeans at the back and Lucah went for the chocolate on the right wall. I grabbed a bag and started filling it with my favorite flavors, including buttered popcorn and toasted marshmallow. I had the feeling Lucah would like those, given his love of s’mores. I filled several bags and then moved to the gummies. Sharks, bears, worms, octopi, even ones shaped like some of the presidents. I looked at my haul and I didn’t even want to begin to figure out how many calories and grams of sugar were in this one basket. I looked around and found Lucah. The red hair was easy to spot.
I snuck up behind him and poked him in the ribs.
“Hey, what have you got?” He turned and the grin on his face was similar to the one that he’d had when he showed me his car. I’d have to add that to the list of Things That Make Lucah Giddy.
“They have these.” He held up what appeared to be two graham crackers with a marshmallow in between that had been dipped in chocolate.
“I also got chocolate and toasted marshmallow jellybeans.” I pointed to the bag. Lucah put his basket down and held my face in both hands.
“I love you.”
“I know.”
We ended up having to get a third basket, because I knew Sloane would be very upset with me if I didn’t bring something back for her, so I got some mango jellybeans and some gourmet chocolate from Switzerland.
“We definitely shouldn’t eat any of this in the car,” Lucah said with a serious face after we’d checked out.
“No. We should save it.” We put the bags on the backseat and stared at them for a minute.
“Fuck that,” we both said at the same time. I went for the chocolate covered potato chips and Lucah grabbed three of the s’mores bars.
We drove the rest of the way trading bites back and forth and licking the chocolate from each other’s fingers as my music played and we argued about which song we should listen to. Lucah pulled off the highway and drove down tree-lined streets and past homes that were definitely built recently. People biked on the sidewalks, kids played kickball in a few of the backyards and everything was bright and shiny and new. It was f**king Mayberry.