Learning to Swim(36)

His face became all pinched. “What are you talking about?”

I rolled my eyes. “I saw you guys in the woods.”

He squinted as if he was in deep thought. Apparently, there were so many times to choose from, he couldn't figure out when I had caught him.

And then I could almost see the lightbulb turn on over his head. “So that's what this is all about,” he said, chuckling.

I felt the need to be sarcastic. Like, Oh yeah—can you imagine? I had a problem with that!

He put his hands on my shoulders. “Can I come in and explain?”

I was tempted to leave everything as it was. How many excuses could a guy have? However, for the sake of curiosity, I invited him inside.

When we sat down on the ghetto couch together, he said, “It wasn't what you think. Mora and I broke up.”

The knot in my heart tightened, and for a split second I was pretty sure I was going to need some of that CPR Keith was so good at.

Keith went on. “She's not handling this all that well. What you saw in the woods was nothing more than me comforting her.”

I replayed the scene of him and Mora in the woods in my mind again. Huh. The truth was, I had not seen any real lip-to-lip contact. Actually, I had not even seen Mora's face. What I had seen was Mora nestling her head against his shoulder while he held her tight. Wow, he was telling the truth.

“Is that why you couldn't get together last night?” I asked. “Were you with Mora?”

He sighed. “Like I said, this whole thing has hit her pretty hard. She knew I wasn't happy, but I guess she thought we'd work it out somehow. Her parents weren't around last night, and I felt funny about leaving her alone while she was so upset.”


And then he took my hand again. This time his palm was kind of sweaty. He must have been nervous. I couldn't get over it. Keith was nervous around me? I was expecting the whole universe to cave in.

“Look, Stef, I like you. I want to get to know you.” He paused, as if he was trying to reorganize his thoughts. “I'll be going back to school soon, but I'd like to spend as much time as possible with you before then.” He squeezed my hand gently as my whole body went almost limp. “How does that sound?”

I couldn't speak. There were no words for how I was feeling just then.

Keith took his other hand and brushed it down the side of my face, his fingers tracing the outline of my chin. He leaned forward and I inhaled as if I was about to snorkel or something. And then we were kissing. It was slow and soft, like we wanted to savor every second that it lasted. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer. He smelled like Irish Spring and tasted like peppermint patties, and he felt tender and strong at the same time.

Finally, we both broke for air and we sat there together, breathing raggedly with our heads touching and our arms around each other. Keith's smile was enormous. And mine was so big my cheeks were hurting.

“You and I should go out tonight,” he said.

“An official date?”

“Official,” he said.

“Knock, knock.” My mother appeared in the doorway. “I hope I'm not interrupting anything.” She raised an eyebrow in my direction and winked, making it clear that she understood exactly what she had interrupted.

“Actually, I was just leaving,” Keith said. He picked himself up off the couch, turned back toward me, and grinned. “I'll pick you up at eight-thirty.”

I could only manage a nod.

After he left, Barbie perched herself on the arm of the sofa and said smugly, “Well, well, well.”

I grabbed a pillow and put it behind my neck. “It's not what you think.”

“Really? Because I think you just accepted a date with the same boy who was lip-locked with Mora twenty-four hours ago.”

“He broke up with her.”

“Congratulations!” she said proudly. “And I have some wonderful news, too. Tom asked his wife for a divorce!” She held out her arms for a hug.

“What?” I said as my mother smashed me up against her hard boobs.

“He said our little tiff made him realize how much he truly loved me. He said he wants to spend as much time as possible just getting to know me.”

“He said that?” The feeling of elation in my chest tightened into a feeling of pure anxiety. It was a coincidence, I reassured myself. Just because Keith had said practically the same thing to me didn't mean my relationship with him was anything like my mother's relationship with… the jackass.

“Look at us,” my mother said, oblivious to my distress. “Last night we were both in a funk, thinking we had lost the guys we loved, and now tonight, here we are.” She grinned as she released me. “And I've got even better news for you. Tom is taking me away this weekend to celebrate. So you'll have the apartment to yourself. You know what that means?”

I gave her a confused look. “I get to watch whatever I want on TV?”

My mother laughed. I wasn't really joking, however.

“Come with me.” She motioned toward the bathroom, and I followed her. She opened up the closet and reached into a cosmetics bag. “Here's where I keep the condoms.”

Maybe there were some girls out there who would have appreciated knowing where their mothers kept their birth control, but I was not one of them.