My Favorite Souvenir(17)

“Much to his future chagrin,” she said. “Irina will be nothing like his late wife. She can neither cook nor keep a house. While he originally felt Irina would be the right choice for him, it turns out the entire trip was a mistake. She’s young enough to be his daughter, and they have nothing in common.” She sighed dramatically. “So, Archibald decides to return to the US alone.”

“But not before he lets Irina go down on him behind the Kremlin.”

She rolled her eyes. “You had to go and ruin it!”

I laughed and pointed to a new set of targets, a woman and man who were currently ignoring each other with their heads buried in their smartphones. “What about them?”

“They’re going to visit their daughter at college in Boston. Things have been touch and go ever since she left home. The empty-nest syndrome is hitting them hard, and they’re finding they spend more time ignoring each other than interacting.”

I nodded. “So that’s why he’s currently sexting her here in the airport. He’s trying to spice up an otherwise dismal situation by sending her a dick pic he took moments earlier in the bathroom.”

Maddie cracked up. “She hasn’t reacted yet because, unbeknownst to her husband, he accidentally sent the photo to his mother-in-law.”

“Ouch!” I bent my head back in laughter. “That’s bad—but so very good. Now you’re getting the hang of this.”

She smiled, but then a bout of silence replaced the jovial mood.

“Milo, I have to apologize to you,” she said after a moment.

I turned to her, perplexed. “For what?”

“I…got really defensive last night, and I’m sorry. That’s not me. You were just teasing, and I took it to heart, because I was feeling emotional and a little insecure, maybe. You’re a beautiful man, and while I wasn’t looking for anything more than a friendship with you, I’m not blind. I had admired you physically and should’ve just owned up to it instead of acting so defensive.”

Shit. She shouldn’t have been apologizing. It should’ve been the other way around.

“Maddie, please don’t waste another second thinking about that. I’m just really comfortable with you, and that makes it easy to tease you. When you shut down last night, I felt like shit. That was the last thing I wanted—not only because you seemed upset, but because I didn’t want to waste one minute of our final hours together.” My walls started to crumble a little. “You told me when we first met that you were feeling lost. That hit me in my soul because I was feeling the exact same way…until we met. The last couple of days—being Milo to your Maddie—have been amazing and much-needed for me, too. Believe me.”

The smile that spread across her face made my admission worth it. “I’m glad it wasn’t only me.”

“It wasn’t. And I want to go on record saying…that guy who hurt you? He’s a damn fool. You are as smart as you are beautiful. Creative and adventurous. Everything a man could want. And I’m not saying this as some guy who’s trying to make you feel good or get into your pants. I’m saying this as your friend.”

“Or brother.” She winked.

Then she pulled me in for a hug, one I definitely wasn’t expecting. I could feel her heart beating against my chest.

“Thank you for reminding me what it feels like to be alive,” she said.

We let go of each other, stood up, and began the long walk to our respective gates. With each second that passed, my feeling of dread got more intense. I didn’t want to go back to my pre-Maddie life, mainly because I’d been dealing with things in a very solitary manner. I enjoyed her companionship. She wasn’t even gone yet, and I found myself longing for what we were walking away from.

We got to a point where she would turn left for Terminal A, and I would turn right for Terminal B.

We stopped and faced each other.

“Well, I guess this is it,” she said.

Don’t ask me what came over me in that moment, but a voice inside me just said: The fuck it is.

“This doesn’t have to be it, Maddie.”

The words flew out of me so fast I wasn’t sure if I’d said them or thought them.

“This doesn’t have to be it?” she said. “What do you mean?”

“Do you really want to go back to Connecticut right now?”

Her eyes flitted back and forth. “Honestly? No, not in the least.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?”

“I don’t know offhand...”

“It doesn’t matter. Because I want the answer to be: said yes to a pseudo-stranger who asked me to go on a blind adventure with him.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I’m not ready to say goodbye to Milo, if you’re up for playing Maddie a little longer.”

Her breathing quickened as she seemed to be considering my proposal. “Where will we go?”

“Wherever the wind takes us? Wherever the hell we want? As long as it’s not Connecticut or New York or Seattle.”

She wiped sweat off her forehead. “Would I be totally crazy if I said yes to this?”