“Oh, right? That was a little too immersive of an experience. That movie clocks in at what? Close to four hours? We were the icebergs by the time it ended.”
I had just taken a sip of my coffee before his retort, and it threatened to shoot out of my nose as I fought back a giggle at the memory. Once I swallowed, I added, “My favorite was when I made you hold my arms out, us naked and perched at the front of our tub, as I shouted, ‘Jack, I’m flying!’ We were laughing so loudly Mr. Quinta was knocking on his ceiling from below with his broom, shouting at us to turn it down.”
“Oh my God, he almost put a hole through our floor with all that banging,” Gabe recalled.
I held my hands up, conceding. “Okay, okay, not one of my better suggestions.”
“No, it was great. You were great.” His tone shifted from the light mirth into something more somber and wistful. “I’m just sorry I didn’t appreciate you more.”
With a thousand thoughts and memories competing for my attention, I didn’t know what to say, so I remained quiet.
Gabe took my silence as a cue to continue, cupping his hands over my own. “So tell me, how are you doing? What are you doing?”
“I’m back working at Mimi’s. To put it mildly, my last relationship imploded, and now I guess I’m starting over again.” I lowered my eyes with embarrassment, a little overcome with emotion at having to admit the setback aloud.
Gabe reached for my chin with a finger and lifted my face to look at him. “Starting over can be a good thing.”
I wasn’t sure if he was talking about my last relationship now or our own. The truth was, I wasn’t ready to open my heart to anyone after what happened with Adam, but Gabe wasn’t just anyone . . . he was Gabe. My Gabe. The Gabe I dated for five years who always made me feel safe and loved. And unlike Adam, Gabe was a good person, had always been a good person, even in the moments when we didn’t see eye to eye.
We’d met young and had competing priorities that created what, back then, felt like an insurmountable barrier. But with time and distance, maybe those deep cracks had started to spiderweb down the wall, and I couldn’t help but imagine what would have been waiting for us on the other side if we hadn’t given up on one another and instead, tried to break through it.
“You really think so?” I stated both as a question and plea.
He grazed his thumb along my palm, and my skin tingled at his touch. “I really do.”
I smiled warmly, unsure of what this all meant. Why did the universe or phone booth (or some combination of the two) direct me to Gabe that night? It was something I still had no rational explanation for. Had it been a rare solar flare? Or maybe the Earth had tilted off its axis? Maybe I should simply chalk it up to just one more strange event in a series of strange events that day. But it was all too odd. The fact Gabe had been thinking about me? The phone operator talking about regret and making amends for life’s misused opportunities?
My phone alarm sounded in my bag, and I was glad I’d set it after realizing how distracted I’d become in our conversation. “I’m sorry, I should get going. I’m meeting with a real estate broker to look for an apartment. I have to be out of mine in about two weeks,” I said, standing up from our table and slinging my purse across my shoulder.
“Yes, of course. But . . .” He stood too, now peering down at me from beneath his thick lashes. “When can I see you again?”
I adjusted my bag nervously and remarked, “Um . . . I’m not too sure that leggy blonde from your apartment would like that very much.”
Gabe jerked back, a look of pure confusion plastered on his face. “Wait? What leggy blonde? Who?”
“The one who answered your door on Christmas. In the Valentino.”
“Oh, that was my cousin, Chelsea. She was just picking me up to go over to Marisol’s for Christmas dinner. You remember Chelsea?”
“Like Aunt Deedee’s Chelsea? No way. The Chelsea I remember was a thirteen-year-old with pink hair who practically lived in her One Direction T-shirt. And wait, back it up some more. Marisol? Hosting Christmas dinner? She used to think shoving a Trader Joe’s frozen burrito into a toaster was cooking. Remember when she almost burned down our apartment trying to heat up the Chinese takeout because she didn’t realize the aluminum containers shouldn’t go in the microwave? We couldn’t get the burned smell of moo goo gai pan out of the kitchen for weeks.”
Gabe smiled warmly and nodded. “Months. Thankfully, she’s come a long way. And actually, Christmas Day dinner has become her thing ever since she had her first—”
“Her first what?”
He looked at me quizzically. “Bonsai tree,” he deadpanned. “Her first baby, of course. She’s married with two kids now and living in Franklin Lakes.”
“She’s married? A mom?! New Jersey? She used to say she’d sooner die than move to the armpit of America. Her words, not mine.” I held up my hands in mock defense.
He laughed and touched my arm. I was surprised by the warmth of Gabe’s fingertips grazing over my skin, the gesture so subconscious and natural. “Time, distance, and a little self-reflection can really change a person’s perspective.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
The phone alarm I’d snoozed before sounded again, pulling us from the moment.
“Shoot, I really should go meet my Realtor. I’m on a tight deadline to find a new place to live, and Mindy doesn’t seem the type who’ll stick around to wait for me.”
“By all means, don’t keep Mindy waiting on my account,” he said with a sheepish grin.
“It was really good to see you, Gabe.”
“You too, Avery.”
As I turned to leave, I glanced back at him one more time, wondering if this was all an absurd coincidence or maybe, just maybe, it was the universe offering up a second chance with my first love?
Chapter Twelve
Panting and sweating after climbing the equivalent of Everest, Mindy, my real estate broker, threw herself against the apartment’s front door until the lock gave way, and she practically fell into the hallway, catching herself on a nearby coatrack.
“That lock always sticks,” she said, brushing off her pantsuit and putting her blazer back on after abandoning it about four floors into our nine-story walk-up. At that point, I hadn’t really been sure how she was going to make it up another five flights.
Still fighting for breath, Mindy continued, “Just needs some WD-40. I’m sure the super can take care of it. Okay, so as you can see, this is a south-facing unit with lots of natural light.”
I glanced around the shoebox of a living room and couldn’t find a single window. “Where?”
“Normally, the sun just pours in from the kitchen and really brightens up the whole space,” she said through a pained smile as she continued to speak between gasps.
I peeked my head around to the kitchen and saw a tiny window over the stove that looked directly out to the brick wall of the building next door. “That window there?”