Page 27 of Feels Like Home

“Andy?”

“I won’t ask you now. But you gotta know, when I’m free ofHeather?”

“Yes?”

“Beready.”

8

Christine

It’s New Year’s Eve,and my pathetic self is sitting cross legged, a tray of junk food sitting on the right side of the bed, the ball dropping in New York City on my TVscreen.

My phone vibrates on the tray, buzzing around like an angryhornet.

I lift it up and smile, seeing Andy’s name lighting up my phone as confetti covers my TVscreen.

“Andy.”

“It’smidnight.”

“Itis.”

“New year. Newbeginning.”

“Yeah.”

“New beginning,” herepeats.

“Youdrunk?”

“No. I did not partake tonight. Needed to be sober so I could get my boys from the party they went to. Which I haven’t picked them up from yet. Because they have lives. And their dad doesnot.”

“Oh, please. You have alife.”

“This is partly true. The life I had? Not so great. The life I see coming? It’s pretty damngreat.”

A shiver rolls through me at hiswords.

“And what do you see coming in your life, AndySimpson?”

“You.”

* * *

Since that midnight phone call,we’ve talked every day. It’s been over a month, and there hasn’t been a single day that we haven’t spoken, texted, or seen eachother.

One night when the boys were at a friend’s house for the evening, he called and by the sound of his voice, I knew it was going to be different from our lighthearted calls. We talked for hours about nothing and everything. And in those quiet moments over the phone where we both admitted we were lying in bed while talking, he confessed things that I can only imagine were bothering him for awhile.

The admission that had me sitting up straight in bed, flush and thinking things I had no business thinking, was that he hadn’t had sex in almost a year.Theyhadn’t had sex in almost a year.Shehad.Obviously.

And what shocked me even more was that he said it didn’t botherhim.

He lost all sense of affection toward her years ago and had simply lost thedesire.

At least withher.

His quiet murmur that his desire was back again had me aching for him to be nearme.

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