Page 12 of Meeting Up with the Mason

We caught up to one another once more, and as we bobbed in the water, she reached for my hand.

Alyssa looked aside and blurted out, “Do you have a girlfriend?”

I tensed. “No, I don’t.”

She still didn’t look at me. “Do you have plans for one?”

With the water in motion all around, I couldn’t hold still, and I didn’t want to get pushed into her—except that I did want it. “Are you asking if I created a line item in my planner so I can check it off for end-of-the-year tax purposes?”

She finally met my eyes. “Is it maybe a requirement for your thesis?”

I said, “My paperwork is entirely in order, so if I were to acquire a girlfriend, it would be because I wanted one.”

Alyssa tilted her head. “Not a graduation requirement?”

I tugged the rope to bring myself toward her, and I kissed her.

Her eyes went wide. I said, “That wasn’t a requirement.”

She put her arms around my shoulders and kissed me, longer this time. I closed my eyes to savor the feel of her against me. It was so much. The motion of the water, the light of the sun, and the noise of the swimmers. And through it all, the longing.

Alyssa was leaving in two days.

The future was an illusion. We had only right now, so I let her kiss me, and I forced myself not to wish for more.

Chapter 7

Chip

Istarted early on Wednesday. Today I’d tackle the steps, and then I’d be done.

Done, and Alyssa would go home.

I worked in silence, no audiobook. Her car wasn’t in the driveway, so she must have gone to get breakfast. I’d eaten at home and headed out with the excuse that since it was going to be muggy, I wanted to avoid the worst of the heat. If Dad saw right through that, well, I couldn’t help it. As Alyssa said, worst possibility was I’d get fired from a temp job I’d already completed.

I dug out the granite slabs that served as each step’s riser, straightened them, and then drove down rebar with a sledgehammer to brace them. I was sore, but they’d be safe.

I might fall in love, but she didn’t have to fall down the steps.

Alyssa pulled into the driveway, crashing my heart into my throat. It didn’t matter how much I braced myself. Rebar of the heart couldn’t stop me from feeling that rush whenever she approached.

Alyssa had two plastic bags over one arm and an iced coffee in the opposite hand. “Early start! Those look great!”

She sat on the grass while I flattened the steps with the manual tamper. I’d be doing the same thing as on the walkway, only on a smaller scale: gravel followed by paver sand followed by paving stones. “I brought us breakfast.” Alyssa tucked her knees to her chest. “When you’re ready for a break, let me know.”

I shook my head. “The minute I stop, I’m not going to want to start again. My dad didn’t want to take this job. Now I know why.”

Alyssa’s nose wrinkled. “Yet you convinced him. I’m glad.”

“I’m glad too.” I smiled at her. “It’s been fun, other than the backbreaking part.”

By lunchtime, I was so close to finishing. So close, and yet I really should eat something. Alyssa and I sat beneath the disastrously old maple tree, shoulder to shoulder. It gave us shade, but the branches overhead were dead. I never studied literature, but it felt symbolic of our future.

I said, “Tomorrow, then?”

She sighed. “I don’t want to go back.”

“Are you sure you can? The weather’s looking awful.”

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