“Really?” He stared at me. “Like cosmic connections?”
“It was a lot smaller and more personal.” I had understood that Grant and I shouldn’t have been together; I recognized that I’d wasted five years of my life on someone who didn’t love me and that the bond I’d wanted so much had never been real. I knew that we had to break up and that I had to move on. “Then we collided with the concrete and I got knocked out, and after, I was confused and in a lot of pain. But I remembered the feeling. It was all so obvious.” I shook my head. “I’m also not supposed to talk about Grant.”
“I had no idea that therapists gave so much direct instruction,” he commented.
“I came up with that on my own. I was boring my cat and I think that’s one of the reasons she hates me and runs away.”
Levi smiled and then he started laughing softly, too. “This is the weirdest date,” he noted, but that was better than what he’d said before, when he’d called it the worst. “Are you serious about us forming this working relationship?”
“Yes. Why wouldn’t we try it? Like, what do either of us have to lose?” I asked. “Aren’t we both floundering? What could be worse?”
One thing: at that moment, we realized that we’d been sitting almost on top of an ant hill, and he jumped up and started brushing himself off. He pulled me up, too, and I did my own brushing, and then we decided to walk back to his car.
“Is this hard on your hip?” he asked.
“It’s not supposed to be. I’m supposed to be better by now.” My hand was on the joint, though, because it did hurt.
“What are you doing to help it? Exercises? Stretching?”
“I should get out and walk.” I had planned to do that with Coral but she had hid under the bed for more than twenty-four hours when I tried to put a collar and leash on her.
“I’ll go walking with you,” he said. “We could do that rather than sitting in your apartment all day.”
“Oh, I didn’t think you were interested,” I said, surprised. “I thought you were saying no to my idea.”
“It seems like I have to do something, since I’m unproductive and abnormal. That’s how you described me and my current existence,” he answered.
“You said that I was desperate and pathetic,” I reminded him.
“I apologize for that.”
“No, I agree,” I said. “I’m also abnormal, but I am productive on most days.” I had to be, since I wanted to eat and pay my horrible bills.
Neither of us said much else for the rest of the way to my apartment building, up until I opened the car door. Then I just sat there.
“Do you need help getting out?” Levi asked.
“I can do it. You should send me your CV and any and all documents which relate to your prior education and work experience.”
“Sure,” he answered, but it was in a way that didn’t sound sure.
“Are you really going to come here tomorrow?” I asked him.
He leaned forward and looked at my building. “This is what my life has become,” he said. He sounded surprised and slightly appalled, too. “I could spend my time sitting in a strange woman’s apartment, hiding out from the world.”
“We can sit on the steps for fresh air, too,” I reminded him. “That’s where I do Spanish lessons. But we can’t open the window since that doesn’t work. Also, you won’t be just sitting and hiding. We’re going to formulate a plan so that you get a job and the two of us will also be making friends, forming bonds and whatnot.”
“Whatnot,” he echoed. “Damn, this has been something. Bye, Emerson…wait a minute. Give me your phone number.”
I got the feeling that he might be using it to tell me that he didn’t want to come in the morning. “I really can help you, just like you can help me,” I said as I looked back into the car.
He nodded slightly and I’d decided that my only course was optimism.
“See you tomorrow,” I said firmly.
Hernán must have been watching through his window because he came out of the front door before I’d taken more than a few steps. Levi hadn’t left yet, and he seemed to be making sure that I would get inside.
My neighbor stared at him. “He’s the one who sent you the chicken?” he asked suspiciously.
