Page 45 of Anywhere with You

Two years later

“Disgusting,” I said, holding my phone up for Cara.

She looked up from her favorite spot on the soft, squishy couch in our apartment and said, “Ew.”

Bridget’s Mesmio reels showed her and Lorenzo kissing sloppily at the altar of a wedding chapel. Even the priest looked grossed out. I didn’t wait until it started over. I closed out of the app and left my phone on the counter.

I picked up the long, thin envelope I’d hidden behind the juicer we bought last summer and never used.

I was so excited I was afraid that I would crinkle the paper.

I set it down, then picked it up again. I’d been waiting until Saturday because Cara would want to start making plans, and it wasn’t fair to send her to work distracted.

But the three-day wait had been excruciating.

From where I stood, I could see into our bedroom.

Cara had a picture on her bedside table of the day I’d met her mom and had eaten the best Cajun food of my life.

I had a picture on my side of us together at White Sands, me laughing with my mouth wide open, her rolling her eyes at me, neither of us realizing how much we would feel for the other. Not yet.

Cara and I never found out whether Bridget and Lorenzo ever saw our adventure online, though everyone else in our life certainly did.

And it had accomplished what we’d intended, sort of.

Everyone had stopped worrying about our divorces and whether we were devastated and miserable and alone. We cleared that up for them, at least.

In the years that followed, we talked about unfollowing Bridget and Lorenzo, but in a way, it was nice to check now and then, mostly to make sure they weren’t having more fun than us, but also because we could acknowledge that they had been important people in our lives.

They hadn’t realized the gifts they were giving us at the time, but now, I wouldn’t give up my divorce papers in exchange for every music store in the world.

I realized I was still holding the long, thin envelope and grinning ridiculously.

“I thought you were researching our summer trip, not hanging out on Mesmio,” Cara said, grading the stack of papers on her lap that Badger and Cara’s new dog, Cake, an utter cotton ball of a mutt, were trying their best to eat.

“I have been,” I assured her.

“Come across any fun ideas?”

“Hmm,” I said, sitting down next to her on the couch. “Something like this?”

Jittery with anticipation, I handed her the long, thin envelope.

She went utterly still.

“Open it,” I said, lifting Badger and Cake into my lap so they didn’t attack the envelope. They shared a deep distrust of mail.

“I’m scared.”

“But aren’t you also intrigued?”

“Intrigued?” Cara looked at the envelope. “You didn’t buy something weird, did you?”

“Only one way to find out.”

I was so excited that I hugged the dogs tight until they wiggled free, leaving black fur on one side of my shirt and white fur on the other.

Cara opened the envelope and pulled out two plane tickets, skimming them for information.

“Barbados,” she breathed. “How?”

“Travel points, a coupon for a very budget resort, and Doug’s promise that he and Florence and the new part-timer we’re hiring won’t burn the place down while we’re gone. Lane will house-sit, water the plants, and check the mail. And my parents will take care of the dogs. Are you excited?”

She looked at me, then put the tickets on the coffee table.

“I think,” she said, moving toward me on the couch, “I think the word is intrigued .”

And she kissed me.