“Do we have to speak of roadrunner dick? I’m trying to eat fried pickles here.”
“Oh, sure. What kind of dick do you want to talk about?”
I smile at him and wipe aioli off my mouth with the back of my hand. “The dick who didn’t tell me he’s considering moving to LA.”
“Excuse me!”
“I’m just kidding. I was thinking about it more. How do you think it would work? Would you move into my house?”
He looksdelightedto be having this conversation.
“Maybe to start?” he says, like he hasn’t thought about this, though I’msure he has a whole PowerPoint somewhere. “And then we could see how it feels and whether we need more space?”
“I wouldn’t want to give up my house,” I say quickly. My house, in my name, is my security. I learned that the hard way from my mom. “But maybe I could keep it as a rental. And we could buy a bigger place somewhere nearby. Hmm, but traffic. Where are the firms you’re talking to?”
“Downtown.”
“Oh, that’s only twenty minutes away if you time it right.”
He nods. “Yeah. I looked into it before I reached out to them. I know how you feel about going to the West Side.”
I’ve lived in Northeast LA the entire time I’ve been on the West Coast, and at this point anywhere west of Silver Lake feels like it might as well be in Patagonia.
“Did you tell your parents about this?” I ask.
“Only Dave.”
“Is he rabidly opposed?”
I know that Dave still doesn’t trust me, even if Seth won’t admit it.
“He thinks I should do what makes me happy. And you make me astonishingly happy.”
Astonishingly happy.Sometimes I am so in love with this man it makes me woozy.
We can do this, I think.You, Molly Marks, can do this.
“Will you have to retake the bar?” I ask.
“Yeah. But I’m really good at standardized tests, as you know.”
I do know. He got a perfect SAT score. Still galls me to this day.
Suddenly, I’m excited. Genuinely happy for the first time since I heard Dezzie’s news.
“I’m really grateful you’re considering this,” I say.
He’s midsip of beer, and his eyes widen over his glass. He comes up for air with a froth mustache. “You are?”
“Yeah. I mean, we can’t keep commuting back and forth like this forever. And I know it would technically be easier for me to move to Chicago, since I can write from anywhere.”
“But you love it here. The more I see you in your zone, the more I know it wouldn’t make sense for you to leave. I want you to be somewhere you’re happy.”
“Maybe we can get Dezzie to move out here.”
His eyes are so bright and happy. It feels like we’reactually doing this.
We finish our meal and go home and make love.
