After Dusty dropped Katie off at the airport, he parked his SUV at home then walked over to the neighbor’s. Mrs. Nelson was overjoyed to watch the kids for a few more hours when he asked her. The kids barely acknowledged him with a wave. Ann, another neighbor, was there with her two children. They were busy playing with Ali and Alex. Their children were close in age. Katie often arranged play dates with them, as well as the couples taking turns hosting dinner parties. They were the closest friends Katie and Dusty had. He waved to her, not particularly wanting to go into any details about Katie’s trip yet.
“Hey, handsome,” Ann hollered back. “Where’d that pretty little wife of yours take off to?”
Shit. Mrs. Nelson had already let the cat out of the bag. “I’ll fill you in later, all right? I have to run an errand.”
“Sounds good. I’ll bring over my Shrimp Alfredo hot dish tonight so you don’t have to mess with supper.”
“Much appreciated, Ann. I’ll pick up some garlic cheese bread and a tackle box of beer while I’m out. Don’t drop it off, you and Cal stay.”
“He’s in Chicago till Wednesday.”
“So it’ll be just us. I love giving old Greta a rumor to spread.”
Ann laughed. “It’s a date. I’ll be there at six.”
On the other side of their house was a vacant home. It had been unoccupied, with a for sale sign in the yard, for over three years. It was huge and gorgeous, but overpriced, especially in the present market. The owners weren’t in a rush to sell, so it sat empty. Across from this house, however, lived Greta: the Gladys Kravitz of the neighborhood. She didn’t miss a thing that happened in the neighborhood. If by chance she did, she filled in the details herself. Dusty often toyed with her and Katie threw a little fun her way sometimes as well. They’d walked by with the kids one day and heard her say, “Look, there goes God now.” Dusty could only laugh and say, “I told you—you were loud, baby.”
Dusty thanked Ann again. “I have to split.” He said his goodbyes to the kids and Mrs. Nelson. He thought his so-called errand was insane, but he wanted to do it anyway.
About an hour later, he found himself in front of their old college library. He reminisced for a moment before climbing the front stairs. It was here that he’d learned Katie was staying for good and their lives together had officially started. For him anyway. She had almost a year of memories of the two of them under her belt already; he was eager to catch up to her. She wasn’t thrilled to live a few years over again, but Dusty vowed to make it worth it for her. Despite the short time they’d had together and the crazy things they went through, he couldn’t imagine living another day without her in his life.
Walking through the front door, he smiled at the familiar sights. College kids mingled in the aisles and sat quietly at the tables, studying. It hadn’t been that long ago for him, but Dusty thought the kids were awfully young to be in college.
There was a young girl sitting on the couch where Kaitlyn sat years ago when she researched time travel. The scenes of the two of them in here played over in his mind as he wandered over to the sci-fi section were Katie had been searching for answers. A smile spread over his face as he thought back to their college days. Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that the sex would get better. He attributed it to what he didn’t think could be possible—loving her more every day. He thanked the forces of whatever it was that made her time travel. Lost in the memories, he walked right into a man dressed head to toe in olive green. “Frank?”
“Bill,” the man said. “I’m sorry. We don’t have a Frank here.”
“Sorry. You reminded me of someone.”
“Can I help you with anything?”
“No. Thanks. I’m just wandering around, reminiscing.”
“The school really doesn’t take kindly to people other than students using this facility.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll get going. I was just in the area. I don’t want to make any trouble.”
“No worries, young man. No offense meant. I’m only doing my job.”
“I appreciate it. Thanks.”
Dusty drove home, chastising himself for being a fool. What had he expected to do if he found Frank there? He’d probably run screaming at the thought of losing Katie to another time traveling scheme. He didn’t want her to go through that again. The last time she’d returned and her memories caught up with their present time, horrible nosebleeds accompanied them. It had scared him bad. He was grateful they were already in a hospital when the final round hit her. No. He didn’t want to find Frank again. He drove straight home and picked up the kids from the neighbor’s. This time he received a little better greeting than he had earlier. They were ready to come home.
Courtney’s mood greatly improved as the day went on. Her posture eventually relaxed, and the scowl on her face was replaced with smiles and occasional laughter as they reminisced over their crazy college stunts.
After Katie had moved in with Dusty, she and Courtney still talked almost every day. Even after Courtney moved to Seattle, the ties between them never loosened.
There wasn’t anyone, who wasn’t hospital staff, who came to visit; Courtney worked too hard to have much of a social life. Kaitlyn was glad, more than ever, that she’d made the trip.
“You didn’t need to rush out here, Katie. I’m not here because I have to be. They just kept me for testing and retesting.”
“I don’t care. I wanted to be here. That’s why I hung up on your ass. I wasn’t going to give you the chance to tell me not to come.”
“That’s why I didn’t bother calling you back.”
When the doctor finally came in, he spent a lot of time trying to get Courtney to reconsider resigning.
“Thanks for your input, Gene, but my mind is made up.”
“Like it or not, doctors are human, Courtney. We’re taught to believe we are but the hands of God doing His will, but we are mere humans nonetheless. Accidents happen and we carry on.”
“Tell that to a patient I infect.”
“We double the precautions we take when helping patients with AIDS. Do you see me afraid of treating you?”
“That’s different. It’s your job. No one would come to me if given the choice. You know that.”
“I don’t think—”
“My mind is made up, Gene. I appreciate the sentiment, but this discussion is over.”
He closed her medical record. “You take some time off. Come see me when you’re ready to take it like a grown up.”
“Go to hell and sign my fucking release already!”
He sighed. “Does this mean our date is off for Friday?”
“Good guess, genius.”
He rolled his eyes at Kaitlyn, took a step closer, and held Courtney’s hand. “I’ve been tested. I’m fine.”
Courtney pulled her hand away. “And we’ll keep it that way. Please let me out of here.”
He kissed her cheek. As much as he could get of it before she turned away, anyway. He turned back to Katie. “Take care of my girl.”
“I’ll try.” After the doctor walked out, Katie turned to Courtney. “You never said you were dating anyone. I thought you told me everything?”
“We’re just banging. Were anyway. Good thing I didn’t get attached.” She swung her legs off the bed and hopped to the floor.
“He seemed to still want to keep it going. You’re the one being pigheaded.”
Courtney spun around. “Did you come all this way to tell me how to run my life?”
“Don’t you dare!” Katie shouted, now standing as well. “You’re killing me, Court.”
“No. I’m killing me. Either you’re with me or you’re against me, hon. I’m not going to spend your entire visit defending myself.”
“I didn’t come here to fight.”
“Good. So let’s go get drunk.”
Katie walked over and wrapped her arms around her friend. “I love you, you know.”
“Love you back. Now come on. We’re both overdue for a night on the town. There’s a place that totally reminds me of Dicky’s. Let’s go see if we can get thrown out for old time’s sake.”
Katie laughed. “You’re on.”
It was past four when they left the hospital. Courtney admitted that she’d had nothing to eat since she went in that morning. Katie was starving as well, having refused a stale five-dollar airplane sandwich.
They were seated at a high table in the bar area. The waitress came over with menus and Katie turned to Courtney. “How are the burgers?”
“The double bacon is to die for.”
Katie refused the menu. “One of those with Swiss and mushrooms please.”
“Make it two,” Courtney added. “Oh, make mine fries and hers onion rings.”
“Got it,” the waitress said. “Can I interest you in a draft?”
“Bring out your ten tray sampler thingy,” Courtney said. She turned to Katie. “I’ll drink the darks and you can decide which light you like. They are really all great.”
“Sounds good to me. It’s been a while since I’ve had a drink. I should probably go slowly.”
“Bullshit. Cabs are easy to come by here. We’ll leave the car parked for the night. I’ll spring for it.”
Katie took Courtney’s hand. “You don’t need to twist my arm. Dusty would have our hides if we drove after drinking.”
“He hasn’t changed, has he?”
“No, and I love it.”
Within moments, the waitress was back with a tray of samples. Courtney lined them up darkest to lightest. They each picked one from an end. “Cheers,” they said together as they drank their first couple of ounces.
Half a burger later, Courtney ordered another tray of samples for Katie because she couldn’t decide which one she liked best. Their waitress brought another batch of light beers. A few had lemon and orange wedges in them. She dropped a large dark beer in front of Courtney.
“I never did understand you and that dark beer. I can’t stand a drink you can chew.”
Courtney laughed. “I like my beer like I like my men.” Her smile quickly faded. “I guess that’s what got me in this situation in the first place. How did you put up with such a slut for a roommate?”
“You weren’t a slut, Court. Stop talking that way.”
“You wanted a revolving door on our dorm room.”
Katie giggled. “Okay. You were a little…loose. Don’t you dare start wallowing in your choices now. You can’t change what happened and I refuse to let you get cranky on me already. I love you, dammit. We’ll find a way to fight this.”
Courtney was silent and swallowed a big gulp of her beer. “I wish the gods of fate decided I needed a Dusty in my life when I was twenty-five.”
“You weren’t ready to settle down at twenty-five. If your Prince Charming showed up, you would have only chased him away. I actually sort of liked Ronald, for what little I met of him.”
“Liked him? You knew he was literally a ‘come and go’ kind of guy.”
“But you liked him, Court, so I liked him. Don’t be so crude and hard on yourself.”
“I’m serious, though. I never even had a number for him. He called and I gave him the yea or nay to come over or not. The night he stayed over was really a fluke. I really didn’t see him a lot after that, though. I never did know what happened to him. He stopped calling.” She started to shred her napkin. “Maybe we should give it a whirl again and I should try to find him. We could have side by side hospital beds in the end and a set of matching bedpans.”
Kaitlyn sighed and waved to the waitress. “Some tequila over here, Annabelle. Make it Patron.”
Katie knew it was late, but she wanted to talk to Dusty anyway. With the time difference, he would be asleep by now. After she poured Courtney into bed, she called him.
“Hey, babe,” he groaned into the phone.
“I’m sorry it’s so late.”
“I’m fine. You know I’d rather hear from you than sleep. How’s it going?”
“So far, she’s really wallowing and kicking herself in the ass.”
“Can’t blame her, I guess. I’m sure you’ll see a few stages between anger and fear, too. You sound like you’ve had a few. How’s that going for you?”
“I just had a couple beers and a shot or two. I didn’t want to go crazy and be dealing with a hangover on top of everything else. My boobs hurt like hell now.”
“I can imagine. I remember you being told to drink beer to help with your production when you were falling short with Alex in the beginning. I bet you’re about to burst. I guess if you pumped it would only be a temporary fix.”
“It’ll keep happening till I dry up. Court is going to write me a script for some pills tomorrow.”
“That’s convenient, anyway. How are you otherwise?”
“I hate this, Dusty. She had everything going for her. She even had a cute doctor really interested in her.”
“Had? This scare him away?”
“No, she’s shoving him away.”
“She’s always shoved everyone away, doll.”
“I know, but this is different. We’re adults. She had to be thinking about settling down. We’re not whoring our way through medical school.”
“I can’t believe you just said that.”
“You know what I mean, dick.”
He chuckled. “I love it when you use pet names on me, too.” The line was silent. “You okay?”
Her voice cracked. “It’s so hard, Dusty. I can’t imagine life without her.”
“You’re a long way from that. You never know what’ll happen for treatments over the next few years.”
She needed to change the conversation before she started to cry again. “How are the kids?”
“Hardly know you’re missing.”
“Liar.”
“Really. Alex was a dream. He was happy to take milk from a sippy cup. With you not here, he doesn’t ask for those great breasts. Ann was here tonight, too. I’m sure her kids helped provide a distraction.”
“What was she doing over?”
“I ran into her at Mrs. Nelson’s. Cal was out of town. She heard you were gone and wanted to help, so she brought dinner.”
“You big baby.”
“You know it.”
“She bring her Shrimp Alfredo hot dish?” Katie asked.
“Yup.”
“Dammit. I’d have sex with her for that recipe.”
Dusty laughed. “Her recipe is safe.”
“You’re not her type.”
“Is that a fact?”
“She likes her men with a little more meat on them.”
“Did you just call me skinny?”
“You’re perfect to me, my love.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“She likes a husky man.”
“Cal is not what I would call husky. I’d say his beer belly is perfection.”
“If I cooked as great as her, you’d look that way, too.”
“You’re a wonderful cook.”
“Dusty?”
“What, babe?”
“I don’t want to talk about food.”
“I know. You put up a good front, though. Courtney tell you when it happened? She know who it was?”
“It was someone I’d met. She dated him, or at least…you know…had been together a few times when we were still roommates. Ronald was his name.”
“That name doesn’t ring a bell for me. Wait. It went back that far?”
“Yeah. She had no clue. Said it happened with him sometime after I moved out.”
“Tell me you don’t have guilt over that now.”
“I promise I don’t. I know it would have happened anyway.”
“She doing okay, though? I mean other than emotionally?”
“Health-wise she’s fine. She didn’t even know. Things won’t get bad for a while. It’s the beating herself up part that’s rough right now.”
“You take all the time you need. Maybe you can get her to come out here for a while and try to get her mind off it for a bit.”
“It’ll mean a lot to her that you’re offering.”
“What else would I do? She’s family.”
Katie’s voice cracked. “I miss you.”
“I miss you, too. Call me anytime you want. I don’t care what time it is. I love you.”
“I love you more.”
“Not a chance, cupcake.”
After they hung up, it took Dusty a while to fall back asleep. He worried about Courtney wallowing in the “what ifs” and how Katie was going to try to be the voice of reason for only so long before she gave in to the sadness. She was already worn thin and it had only been a day. Again he wished there was something else he could do. Again his thoughts went to Frank.
“Where are you, you damn geezer? Your cupcake needs you.”