Page 128 of Grounded
"We can be that for each other now? It's never too late."
She closes the distance, and I skim my palm along the water so the tiny waves can hide the ripples my heartbeat is creating.
"You're right."
The moon's reflection against the dark pool water ebbs and changes shape as our bodies slip below the surface level.
"A guy I met gave me some words of wisdom that have been difficult to live by."
"What's that?" she asks.
"The best way to ruin today is worrying about tomorrow."
"Do you worry a lot?"
"What's your going rate again Ms. Mellie?"
She splashes some water at me, and I let it spray my face without objection.
"Quit it. I'm trying to help," she adds.
"I know, I'm kidding. I do need to see a therapist, but I have no health insurance."
"I had such a great plan before I got fired. Look at us discussing adult things like healthcare."
"We're old."
"We're notthatold."
"I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm in the same place I was at eighteen, except now I'm burning bridges and opportunities."
"I know this is so cliché, and I promise I didn't steal it from a movie, but it's never too late to start over."
"Ehhh, are you sure you didn’t steal that?"
She splashes me again, except this time, I duck underwater.
When I emerge, Amelia has a look in her eyes that has me questioning the "no sex in the pool" rule I implemented minutes earlier.
"What?" I ask, wishing I could read her thoughts.
"Nothing. I still get weirded out that we're both back home again."
"I know, I don't plan on staying here long."
"Think you'll move out of California?" she asks.
"I don't know. I've never lived on the East Coast. Always wanted to see what's so great about it."
"With all that snow? I couldn't do it."
"Beats the seasonal wildfires and earthquakes here."
"The freaking earthquakes. True, you'd be far from the San Andreas Fault. But you'd also have to deal with tornadoes."
"I can handle storms. I had a hand in reconstructing part of a village that got destroyed by a hurricane."
"Were you always handy? I don't recall you tinkering with things in our younger years."
