Epilogue
Miles squeezes my hand. "You ready?"
Deep breath. Almost. Yeah. I think I am. No, I absolutely am. I nod. "Yes."
"Do the honors." He takes my hand and places it on the computer mouse.
Eyes open. The cursor hovers over "Submit Application." Okay. I can do this. I press my finger down until the mouse clicks.
Submitting…
Thank you for submitting to Harvard Medical School. Check your email for a submission confirmation.
I let out something suspiciously close to a scream. "Oh my God." I throw my arms around Miles and kiss him like the goddamn ship is going down.
His body relaxes into mine. He digs his hands into my hair and pulls our lips apart. "Honey, you have six of these to go. I can't take the blue balls if you do this every time."
"Too bad."
"Your parents will hear."
"Too bad for them."
"Oh yeah?" He slides his hand under my wool skirt and runs his fingers over the seam of my tights. "Better get these off."
"Okay, point taken." I navigate to the next page. Yale. Aim high, right? We spent the morning filling these out. Now there's nothing left to do but submit them.
I squeeze Miles with one hand and with the other...
Click!
Submitting...
Thank you for submitting to Yale Medical School.
Miles presses his lips into my neck. "You're such a little nerd."
"Jealous?"
"Hey! I'm a rock star. Have some respect." He finds the top of my tights and tugs them down ever so gently. "Or else I'll force you to respect me."
"We have five to go."
"You can go while you come."
"Okay, I don't want my parents to hear," I say. "They were very hospitable accepting a last-minute guest. And a depraved rock star no less."
"Your parents love me more than you do."
I kiss him on the forehead. "That's not possible."
It's the day after Christmas, and Miles has been here, in my parents' Newport Beach place, for a week. Things between me and my parents were strained at first, but I had a heart-to-heart with Mom and Dad. We sat at the dining-room table until midnight, crying and laughing, and trading stories about Rosie and how much we missed her. Mom even put one of the family pictures back up.
"Well, we both know you'll never manage to be quiet," he says.
"So you'll have to live with blue balls."
"No, I'll have to invent some kind of catastrophe so your parents are called to the hospital and we have the place to ourselves."