Page 115 of Hold the Pickle
“I can transfer after my intern year. I’ll apply anywhere I can in Colorado.”
She pulls away to look at me. “Is there a chance you’ll get something?”
“I will do my absolute best.”
“When will you know?”
“After I pass my exams. That’s when we either get promoted in our current programs, or if we decide to go in a different direction, we do a new internship somewhere else.”
“Would you have to intern again if you move?”
It’s likely, but I don’t say that. “I’ll do my absolute best.”
“Okay,” she says. “Until then, I’ll come back to LA more often. The cats are doing great at my parents’.”
“If I get even forty-eight hours off, I’ll come to you.”
She lets out a laugh. “When does that happen?”
“Pretty much never.”
She tucks her head back against me. “I’ll visit. I should have already.”
“We’ll figure it out,” I tell her. “Now that we know.”
“What do we know?”
“That it was more than something convenient. That it’s real.”
She presses her cheek to my shoulder. “Do you still love me?”
She’s looking away, as if she is afraid of the answer. “I didn’t know until I saw you. And it’s definitely, undeniably, yes.”
She can’t look at me, but her words shake me to the core. “I think maybe I’m starting to love you, too.”
Everything in my body relaxes, as if I’ve finally come to the top of the mountain after a long, difficult climb.
I turn her face to mine. “You make me the happiest man alive.”
“Even if I get us kicked out of apartments?”
“I’ll take in kittens with you each and every time.”
She lifts her chin to press her lips to mine. We’re mid kiss when her phone buzzes across the room.
We both sit up. “The baby!”
Nadia lunges for it, quickly scanning the screen. “She’s here! Just now!”
I scramble for a pair of jeans. “Let’s go.”
“But you need sleep!”
“What’s a few more hours?”
We hustle into our clothes and dash for the car.
We have a new Pickle to meet.
