International Player(7)

Four





Noah


How long would the pounding in my chest, my burning cheeks, and the way my legs fizzed when I walked last? There was nothing like falling out of an airplane from fifteen thousand feet to throw your body for a loop. I pulled off my helmet, exhaled, then stripped out of my jumpsuit. As I pulled my jeans and t-shirt from the locker, Dave, one of the two instructors who’d jumped with me, entered the changing rooms.

“That was fucking fantastic,” I said.

“Nothing like it.”

“I enjoyed the tandem jump I did last year but this . . .”

“A much bigger adrenaline rush.”

“Right.” Did he still feel it? He’d confessed on the plane ride up that he’d jumped over three thousand times. I’d wanted to ask him if he ever got bored. I’d loved it, but surely the rush faded after so many jumps.

“Next week we start with a jump before the lesson so long as this weather holds,” he said.

“Sounds good.” I gave Dave a high five, then raked my fingers through my hair and headed out to the car park.

“Hey,” I waved at Rob who was leaning against his car door as he waited for me.

“You’re crazy.” Rob shook his head as I approached. “I watched you come down. Isn’t it easier—even safer—to develop a heroin habit rather than this?”

I chuckled as I slid into the passenger seat. “Nah, this is far more fun.” The natural high from skydiving wasn’t why I did it. I could see how that might be the driver for some people, but for me it was more that I didn’t want to miss out on anything. Unless I didn’t want to do something, everything was on the table. We were on this planet such a short amount of time—I wanted to fit in everything I could.

“Tell me honestly, did you nearly shit yourself?” Rob started the engine and backed out of the parking space.

“I wasn’t scared at all.” Before my accident, I would have been terrified, but not anymore. It probably should have been the other way around, but I wanted to make the most of what I had. Experience as many things as possible. “By the end of the summer, I’ll come down on my own, without the instructors jumping by my side. Maybe that will be more frightening.”

“I thought you were taking flying lessons, not falling lessons.”

“You’re funny,” I replied sarcastically. “I’m doing the flying thing as well. The skydiving is less of a commitment. I thought I’d slot it in while I’m not working.”

“I was going to ask if you ever just sit on the sofa and eat kettle chips, but I know you’ve never been a kettle-chips-and-chill kinda guy.”

kettle chips had been Truly’s thing. How had I forgotten that? I’d forgotten a lot of things about Truly, but that lunch on Sunday had brought it all whooshing back. I’d forgotten how much I liked being around her. How funny she was—sometimes intentionally and sometimes not. How it always felt like I might crush her if I wasn’t careful when I wrapped my arms around her. The way she smelled of the coconut shampoo she said she used to tame her frizzy hair. Except, I’d never seen her hair frizzy, even when she’d run out of that shampoo. It was just soft. Wavy. Pretty.

“Thanks for helping me with this stuff. I could have hired someone, but I figured you’d appreciate a beer and a night out even it if did involve moving furniture,” I said.

“I’m always up for a boys’ night,” Rob replied, fiddling with the radio and wincing when Britney Spears came on. “And we have a lot of them in the bank. Four years’ worth. Anyway, I want to see your new place. I can’t believe you ended up in Marylebone, you lucky fucker.”

“Yeah, it’s nice and central but has an easy path out of the city when I want to do stuff like this.”

“A bachelor pad. Is Barry White playing on a constant loop?”

Married people were always far more interested in my sex life than anyone else. “Barry White? How old are you?”

Rob shut the radio off and shrugged. “Maybe that’s what I did wrong when I was dating.”

“Hey, you married Abigail. I don’t see how that’s getting it wrong.” They were as close to the perfect couple as it was possible to be. Their bickering added to their charm. I knew Rob secretly enjoyed the attention. Witnessing that their dynamic hadn’t changed over the last four years had been comforting.

“Yeah, she’s a good girl. Maybe you should get yourself a wife.”

I chuckled. “That’s not really my thing.”

“Are you still on a strict three-month cycle?”

“Fuck you. I don’t have a cycle.”

“You totally have a cycle. When’s the last time you were with a girl for more than three months?”

I knew without having to think about it that there hadn’t been anyone. Truly used to give me shit about it. Ironically, my friendship with her was the longest relationship I’d had with a woman, even though it hadn’t been sexual. I’d done my best to seduce her the first time we met, and it had been the first time since school that a woman had knocked me back. “It’s not like I plan it. It just works out that way.”

“You don’t think it would be nice to take a breath? Be still with a woman for a minute?”