“Good! They’re doing some renovations to the house, so that’s keeping them pretty busy.” To be polite, I asked, “How about yours?” Honestly, I couldn’t have cared less about his father, but he and Mrs. Hahn were a package deal.
The sound of AJ chuckling softly into the phone almost made me melt off the edge of the couch. I felt all giddy like I used to when we first started talking back in high school. I missed this. Missed...him.
“My mother’s fine,” he replied, leaving Mr. Hahn out of the equation.
I had to laugh too, wondering if he’d only done that for my benefit, or if they still had the same strained relationship they had back in the day. His father hated the idea of us being together ever since he discovered that I was black. He assumed that I wouldn’t be good enough for his son, and caused trouble in our relationship whenever given the chance. There was another lull in conversation as I drifted deeper into thought.
AJ broke the silence with a request. “Tell me about your life.”
The ambiguity of the question left me scrambling for a starting point. “Well…I work for an interior design firm. I’ve been there ever since I interned for them a couple years ago. Up until recently, Angel and I were sharing an apartment, but now it’s all mine.” I tried to smile so he wouldn’t sense the air of sadness that came along with acknowledging that she’d moved out. “Hmm…let’s see. I’m making her room into a studio,” I added, not sure if that was even interesting enough to share.
“That’s cool. I always wondered if you still painted or not,” he interjected.
I got stuck on the word ‘always’ – as in he’s thought about me often over the years.
“Not as much as I’d like to, but that’ll all be changing in the next couple weeks, though. I should have everything set up by then, so…” I looked up at the time, fifteen minutes had already passed. “What about you? Do you still run every day?” I asked.
“Not every day, but sometimes. I split my time equally between that and the gym.”
Clearly. That explained the notable definition in his arms, back, and chest when I saw him in Boston. I replied with a casual, “Oh, okay.”
“In fact, I was looking for a good gym I could walk to from my building. Got any recommendations?”
I wracked my brain. “Mmm….nope. Sadly, the only ‘gym’ I’m familiar with is ‘Jim’ – the owner of the bakery next door. That man makes a mean cannoli, too, by the way.”
AJ laughed, leaving me to swoon at the sound of it. “Well we can’t all look as good as you do without having to work at it.”
The compliment went over my head at first, but when it came back around and my brain actually registered it, I got chills. “Actually, I could stand to get up close and personal with a treadmill, to be quite honest,” I countered, unsure how else to respond.
AJ sighed heavily. “I beg to differ…but I’ll leave it at that.”
Another hot flash. Oh, god, please don’t flirt with me. I’m not as strong as I like to think I am…
Images of him up in my personal space while we danced a few weekends ago hit me square in the face and I could see, smell, and feel him like he was there in the room with me. I’d almost forgotten that I was on the phone until AJ spoke.
“You know what? I haven’t eaten yet and I’m starving,” he announced. “You hungry? We should go grab something together – finish our conversation face to face.”
My chest got tight. “Um….sure,” I replied, cringing at the sound of my voice going up an octave with excitement.
“There has to be a good pizza place around here,” he added.
I felt that same warm sensation overtake my cheeks as they tightened with a smile. “I can name twenty without even giving it much thought,” I bragged. My heart went to racing at the thought of getting to see him tonight. That was unexpected.