Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between(55)

She’s not sure how long she’s been sitting there when she hears footsteps. She lifts her head to glance toward the dining room first, but then realizes they’re coming from above, and she twists to see Riley at the top of the stairs.

Her hair is mussed and tangled, and she’s wearing a pair of blue-checked pajama pants with an old Chicago Bears T-shirt. Clare opens her mouth to say something, but Riley puts a finger to her lips as she makes her way from one step to the next, expertly avoiding the creaky spots.

“Hi,” she says when she gets to the bottom, dropping down beside Clare. She rubs at her eyes and yawns. “What’s going on?”

“They’re talking,” Clare says, and she can feel her lip quiver as she does. She takes another long breath to steady herself. “Aidan and your dad.”

It’s only now that Riley seems to register that she’s upset. She tilts her head, looking at Clare with concern. “That’s a good thing,” she says with an encouraging smile, and Clare wipes at her nose with the back of her hand.

“I know,” she says, and then all at once, she can’t help it anymore: She feels her face start to crumple, and the tears arrive in a rush. “I’m really happy,” she manages to say, the words coming out in a sob, wet and muddled.

For a moment, Riley just stares at her, and Clare blinks back, neither of them quite sure what to say. And then, just like that, they both burst into laughter. Clare cups a hand over her mouth, realizing how loud they’re being, but Riley doesn’t even bother. She’s still waking up, and the whole thing—finding her brother’s girlfriend crying on the stairs in the early hours of the morning—is too much for her.

“Well, you definitely look really happy,” she says, still laughing, and then—when Clare’s smile begins to slip again without warning—Riley slings an arm around her shoulders and gives her a little squeeze.

“Yeah, I know,” she says, letting her head rest against Clare’s. “I’m gonna miss him, too.”

The Car

5:42 AM

In the driveway, everything feels eerily similar to the way the night started: the blank stare of the garage door through the windshield, Aidan beside her with a hand on the keys, the car filled with uncertainty and nervous anticipation.

If this were a board game, they’d have made a full circle by now, finally reaching the end, though from where Clare is sitting, it’s hard to tell whether they’ve lost or won.

“So he’s driving me to the airport,” Aidan says, letting his hand slide off the keys as he looks over at her. His voice is filled with such undisguised relief that it’s almost enough to push the earlier no out of her head.

“That’s great,” she says, clasping her hands in her lap so that she doesn’t accidentally reach out for one of his. “I’m so glad.”

“I mean, I don’t think he’ll be waving a UCLA flag anytime soon, but I guess he’s trying,” he says. “He said he was sorry for putting so much pressure on me that I felt like I had to lie. And then I said I was sorry for actually lying. And then he said he was sorry for how he reacted to my lie. And then I said I was sorry for how I reacted to how he reacted to my lie. It was kind of like a game of dominos, only with apologies.”

“That’s great,” Clare begins, but Aidan rushes on, clearly unable to contain his excitement.

“He even said he’d think about coming out for Parents’ Weekend, which probably just means he’ll go golfing while Mom goes to all the events with me, but I’ll take it,” he says, laughing. “I mean, it’s crazy, right? A few months ago—even just yesterday—I never would’ve imagined any of this would be…” He trails off, looking over at her with shiny eyes. “Thank you. Really.”

“For what?”

“For being so spectacularly unsubtle about forcing us to talk,” he says. “And for mentioning the sports-management thing. Turns out, he was really interested in that.”

“Something you have in common,” she says. “Imagine that.”

Aidan smiles in spite of himself. “So what now?”

Clare isn’t sure how to answer that. Part of her just wants to go home and collapse onto her bed amid all the boxes and suitcases until they have to leave. She’s having a hard time shaking the heaviness that has settled over her, and if they’re going to have to say goodbye soon anyway—if this is indeed the end—then maybe they should just put themselves out of their misery now.

But she can feel Aidan’s eyes on her, and something about his gaze stops her from saying so. “Well,” she says, “we’re almost out of time, and we’re definitely out of stops, so…”

“Good,” Aidan says, turning the key in the ignition. “Because I thought of one more.”

She doesn’t ask where they’re going. Instead, she rests her head against the cool of the window and tries not to let the motion of the car put her to sleep. Aidan drives slowly, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel to some unknowable tune. Ahead of them, the grayish sky is streaked with pink now, the bright ball of sun just starting to burn through the trees as they head east toward the water.

“We’re not going down to the lake again, are we?” she asks, and Aidan gives her a cryptic look.