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“Oh, good. I thought it was going to be something far more terrifying.”

“Will you come to bed with me for an hour? We could dry off in there.

Maybe do some other things…”

“You’re insatiable.” It was absolutely a compliment. Arabella moved

with June, following her to her room.

When they got there, she laughed at the shag carpet that was like a sea of

red. It blanketed the floor of the entire room. June’s big queen bed and

matching black dressers and nightstands—purchased used like most of her

furniture because she really did believe in recycling and reducing—looked

a little bit lost in that hairy rug and she knew that.

She laughed too, then laughed all over again when she flung back the

blankets on her bed and her towel flung off with her movement. She left it

on the rug and crawled underneath the covers, delighted and wild with

excitement at the rush of having Arabella climb in on the other side.

They inched close to each other, until June put her hand on Arabella’s

arm and rolled close, nestling her head against the curve of her shoulder.

“You know, I was thinking,” she said as she stared up at the ceiling. “I was

thinking that if the world really is just a series of random events, then we

got pretty lucky, meeting each other again.”

“Lucky. I was so sure you wouldn’t say that.”

“I was so sure I wouldn’t either but look at us now. Maybe in life the

hard things all need to be surmounted and survived, or at least just muddled

through in order to get to the best parts. I think all that mud and muck of the

past makes the present so much more sensational.”

“Because it can be appreciated more?”

June turned her face into Arabella’s damp hair and nuzzled her ear again.

“I was going to say that, but now it sounds pretty corny.”

Arabella twisted, wrapping her leg around June’s, threading their arms

together, facing her. “It might be, but that’s okay. It’s okay to sound corny.

Sometimes corny is kind of nice.”