We heard Mindy and her producers calling for us. After a minute Mrs. Drake tapped on the window frame. Izzy and I were wrapped in each other’s arms.
“It’s time, sweeties,” said Mrs. Drake. When I looked at her I could see that she’d been crying. “I’m so sorry.”
She backed out of the window and gave us another minute.
We got up slowly, reluctantly, and went inside. Izzy freshened her makeup; I combed my hair. We kissed again at the top of the stairs and then went down to film the Great Good-bye scene.
Mindy staged it on the porch, with the porch light spilling down on us. It was supposed to look as though we were alone and I was saying good-bye like we were at the end of a date. Just the two of us, a private and intimate moment. As if there weren’t five thousand people on the street and in the neighbors’ gardens and sitting on the roofs across the street, and as if millions of people weren’t going to watch it on cable and YouTube and everywhere else.
So, sure, we kissed, and we hugged each other, because to us some of it was real. It was our last moment.
I’ll never be sure which one of us started laughing first.