by Cara Malone
They headed out to the street, and even though it was still early on a Monday morning, the city was already crowded with people. It was summer and they were in a decidedly touristy area, but Ruby wanted Max to experience the famous landmarks of the city as well as the places she was most familiar with. She thought she’d take Max to the most famous one of all first and get it out of the way, and then they’d spend the rest of the day making their way around to other important places.
Max threaded her hand into Ruby’s, sticking close to her while they weaved their way down the sidewalk, and her awe at the skyscrapers seemed to be diminishing thanks to the slow going on the sidewalk.
“I don’t know if I like this,” Max said after a minute, confirming Ruby’s suspicions. She’d forgotten just how many people one could encounter on a Chicago street on a nice day, and she still wasn’t used to keeping Max’s social limitations in mind when planning something like this. There was nothing even remotely equivalent in Granville, and even if there had been, she and Max had spent most of their time sequestered in their dorms this past year. She hoped this outing wasn’t a bad idea, because she had been looking forward to introducing Max to her city.
“I’m sorry, babe,” she said, squeezing Max’s hand a little tighter. “We’re only about two blocks away from our first destination.”
“I feel like people are going to crash into me,” Max said. “I think I’m the only one making any effort to avoid that.”
“Try not to think about it,” Ruby said. “They’ll move.”
She knew that was easier said than done, but as a native she never really had to think about traffic patterns – she took her ability to navigate the city for granted until she saw how much anxiety the crowd was giving Max.
“Do you know where we’re going yet?” She asked, trying to distract her as they came to the corner of Michigan and Randolph. A long row of trees stretched out in front of them, providing a sharp contrast to the tall buildings on the other side of the street.
“Were there clues that I missed?” Max asked, bewildered.
“Quick, say the first thing that pops into your head when you think about Chicago,” Ruby said, dancing around Max in an effort to cheer her up.
“High Fidelity,” Max said, making Ruby laugh. It was on the list of movies they’d watched that year.
“Okay, the second thing, then,” Ruby said. They walked down a wide, tree-lined sidewalk where the crowd wasn’t quite so dense, and up ahead there was a large, round fountain with a semi-circle of marble columns around it.
“I don’t know, that big mercury blob thing?”
“Winner!” Ruby said, pulling Max along the sidewalk a little faster now. She wanted her to have a good time, and she was sure that if Max could stop focusing on the crowds and instead turn her attention to all the interesting sights Chicago had to offer, she would enjoy herself. “I don’t know if I’ve ever heard anyone call it ‘that big mercury blob thing’ before, but what you’re referring to is the famous Cloud Gate sculpture, and it’s right over here.”
They made a few more turns, following a couple different paths all the while Ruby told Max about the times she remembered coming to Millennium Park as a kid – about a million times for school field trips and weekend concerts with her friends when she was in high school. Then they emerged in front of the Bean.
It loomed in the center of a large concrete pad, larger than life and captivating with its perfectly smooth surface. There was already quite a crowd milling around it, and Ruby was excited to see Max’s reaction. She’d lived in Chicago her whole life and when she was a kid it wasn’t cool to be impressed by the tourist attractions, so she was hoping that today she could see the city through Max’s eyes.
“What do you think?” she asked. “Pose with me for the obligatory kissing photo?”
“Sure,” Max said, her eyes sweeping over the massive expanse of steel, searching for the invisible seams and watching a nearly perfect reflection of herself as they approached it.
Ruby took out her phone and then slipped her hand into Max’s. She felt silly and giddy for getting so excited about posing with Max in front of the Bean, acting like all the other tourists kissing and carrying on there.
“You want to know a secret?” She asked, leaning in close to Max as they waited for a space to open up in front of the sculpture.
“What?” Max asked. She was fixated on the other couples – there were at least two dozen of them all waiting for the perfect spot to open up. It would take quick action to swoop in there and claim a good spot for their own photo, and that kind of thing was Max’s forte.
“I’ve never done this before,” Ruby said just as an opening appeared and Max yanked her into it before anyone else had half a chance.
“Taken a selfie?” Max asked as she wrapped her arms around Ruby’s waist and Ruby held out her phone in front of them.
“No,” she said, laughing. There were already more couples waiting for their turn, so they had to make it quick, but Ruby would have loved nothing more than to linger there with Max. “I’ve never kissed anyone in front of the Bean.”
It was such a touristy thing to do and despite all the times she’d been to the park, she’d never done it for fear of being harassed by her friends. Her old girlfriend, Megan, certainly never would have gone for it, and now Ruby was glad that she didn’t have any past memories at Cloud Gate. It was nice to experience something completely new with Max.
She leaned down and gave Max a quick but passionate kiss, capturing it forever with a few clicks of her camera shutter, and then she broke away with a slightly embarrassed laugh. She felt like a tourist in her own city, but that was okay. She also felt giddy with love, along with everyone else in the crowd who were experiencing much the same emotions. More people were gathering around the Bean and Ruby and Max were monopolizing the space, but Max was holding her tight and it felt like a perfect morning. Ruby kissed her again.
“We better go before the crowd swarms us,” Ruby said, pulling Max away from the sculpture. She glanced through the photos, deciding to get the best one framed, and then as Max threaded her arm around Ruby’s waist, she bumped her hip into Max’s and said, “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For the new memory,” Ruby said.
“All I did was stand there,” Max pointed out.
“And look pretty,” Ruby said teasingly, pinching Max’s cheek. “Hey, do you want to get some authentic Chicago street food? If memory serves there’s an empanada truck that usually parks around here in the summer time, and we could walk over to the Great Lawn to eat on the grass.”
“Sounds good,” Max said. “Is that less crowded than the mercury blob?”
“Usually,” Ruby said, although she’d been to Millennium Park plenty of times when the lawn was packed with people eating picnic lunches, teenagers playing Frisbee, and little kids running every which way. It was early enough in the day that she thought the odds were good they could find a spot on the lawn all to themselves, though, and if a change of plans was in order, they would adapt.
***
They spent most of the day in the city, walking all the way from Millennium Park to the Navy Pier and hitting a few other famous landmarks on their way back to the train. They saw the sailboats at DuSable Harbor and watched sunbathers at the Ohio Street Beach, hemmed in on three sides by the city and looking out at Lake Michigan.
It was late afternoon by the time Ruby and Max made it back to the empty house, feeling hot and sweaty from walking the Chicago streets. Ruby missed the city and the excitement of all those people pulsing around her, but the longer they fought the crowds, the more drained Max seemed by the very things that energized Ruby. Fortunately, she knew one thing that they could do alone in the house that would perk Max up.
Well, there were two things that would help, but only one of them was possible in the hour or so they had alone before they could expect Ruby’s parents to come home after work.
She led Max up
stairs, careful not to give her the wrong idea as they went into her bedroom. With the exception of all her Granville stuff, which her father and Max helped her carry in from the car last night and which was now piled in one corner of the room, the space was exactly as Ruby left it five years ago when she moved on campus at Northwestern. The walls were covered in Girls’ Generation posters and her shelves were lined with honors and trophies from high school. More importantly, though, her closet and dresser were untouched.
She pulled out the bottom drawer of the dresser and found a bikini that she bought last spring and never wore – last summer she hadn’t been in much of a swimming mood. It felt like so long ago that Megan broke her heart, and now that it was a distant memory, she was happy to put the suit to good use.
She held up the suit for Max to see, and she arched an eyebrow at the scanty material. Ruby tossed it on the bed for herself. Digging back into the drawer, she found a one-piece from her brief stint on the high school swim team, before she realized that she hated swimming laps. It seemed more like Max’s style, and she tossed it at her.
“What’s this?” Max asked, catching it.
“A barracuda,” Ruby said. “What do you think?”
“Are we going swimming?”
“I thought it might be nice to cool off,” Ruby said. “We have the house to ourselves for a little while and it’s too nice to sit inside, too hot to sit outside.”
Max looked unconvinced even as Ruby tried to sweeten the deal by pulling off her shirt in front of her. She was teasing Max, she knew, but they were alone, and perhaps if she could ensure a reasonable amount of privacy at the deep end of the pool, they could fool around a bit. Max watched her every move as she reached for the bikini top, and Ruby was enjoying the visible effort that it took for Max to stay where she was near the door.
Ruby took off her pants and pulled on the bikini bottoms, and then she couldn’t resist the urge to needle Max just a little bit. She gestured toward the suit in her hand and said, “If you’re going to spend the week in a mansion, then you should at least take advantage of the amenities.”
“Har har,” Max said, but she tossed the bathing suit on the edge of the bed and started to get undressed.
When they were both changed, Max with a towel wrapped around her chest and Ruby with her towel slung over her shoulder, they went downstairs. As they headed for the pool, she said, “My sister’s going to be home for dinner tonight. I think mama said she’s going to make pork chops because they’re Jade’s favorite. She wants to eat in the formal dining room and make it a fancy meal.”
She realized only too late that she should have prepared everyone involved for Max’s visit. It didn’t seem sufficient to just tell Max about her parents’ preferences toward prayer and modesty – their last couple interactions hadn’t gone particularly well, and now she wondered if it would have been a good idea to fill her parents in on Max’s Asperger’s diagnosis. She knew how much Max hated to be labeled with it – she thought that once people knew, it was all they saw about her – but Ruby had spent so much time alone with Max in Granville that she’d forgotten how difficult it could be for Max to be in social situations with strangers.
Maybe it would have been easier if her parents knew Max’s struggles and limitations, even if she didn’t tell them exactly why things were hard for Max. It was a bit late for that now, though – Max was with her almost every waking minute of the last few days, so the best she could do now was help coach Max to have successful interactions with her family.
She knew from the hours and hours of studying that Max did every day in Granville that she liked to be well-prepared. Ruby thought that giving her a few talking points in advance might help her break out of her shell and also avoid topics that would kill the conversation.
“Last night’s dinner wasn’t fancy?” Max asked, incredulous.
“Not by my mother’s standards,” Ruby said. “You should ask my dad about his work. I bet he could give you all kinds of interesting statistics about the trains and the city.”
She hoped that she wasn’t being too transparent in her coaching efforts. She just wanted her parents to like her girlfriend, and she wanted Max to have a good time this week.
“Oh,” she added as they walked through the kitchen to the back yard, “and my sister is a psychology major, so I bet you’d have a lot to talk to her about, having studied sociology.”
“Okay,” Max agreed, seeming to take all this unsolicited advice to heart. “What about your mom?”
“Just compliment her food and she’ll love you forever,” Ruby said with a laugh. “The way to Lorna’s heart is your stomach.”
“Okay,” Max said again, and Ruby could tell she was doing her best to memorize all of her suggestions.
They walked over to the shallow end of the pool and Ruby tossed her towel on one of the lounge chairs, asking, “Ready for a swim?”
“Sure,” Max said.
It was clear that Jade and her friend had already broken the pool in this summer – they’d arrived in town a few days ago, and were currently making the rounds, visiting all of Jade’s high school friends who she hadn’t seen since going to college in California. They must have been making periodic trips back to the house, though, because the cover was off the pool and noodles and other floats littered the patio in front of the pool.
Ruby grabbed a noodle for herself and tossed an inner tube at Max before stepping down into the shallow end and sitting on the noodle. The water was warm and the sun baked on her skin, creating the perfect early summer afternoon.
“Come on in,” she beckoned to Max, then leaned back to bring her face up to the sun.
“How deep is it over there?” Max asked, pointing to the other end as she set down the inner tube and walked toward the diving board.
“Eight feet,” Ruby said, “and four where I am.”
“Perfect,” Max said, not bothering with the diving board as she took a few quick paces toward the deep end and jumped in with the most disruptive cannonball possible.
Ruby let out a little scream as water splashed her and wetted down her hair, while a series of large waves crashed against her and threatened the stability of her pool noodle. Max didn’t surface right away, the water still too choppy to see the deep end from where Ruby was near the steps. She stayed under just long enough to cause a flutter of anxiety in Ruby’s chest, wondering if Max hit her head on the bottom or side of the pool with such a forceful entrance.
“Babe,” she started to say, standing up to look for Max, but the end of the word turned into a shrill scream as she felt Max’s hands closing around her ankles, and then her feet were pulled out from under her.
She went under, finding Max grinning at her beneath the surface of the water like she’d just played the greatest prank ever, and Ruby shot her a dirty look. Then they both came up for air and Ruby sputtered and tried to wring the water out of her hair while Max cackled beside her in satisfaction.
“That was mean,” Ruby complained, but just when Max’s attention was diverted to wiping her own wet hair out of her eyes, Ruby lunged at her, pressing her against the side of the pool and throwing her arms around Max’s shoulders.
She kissed her and wrapped her legs around Max’s hips beneath the water. They had less than an hour before her parents would be home, but the possibility of making it through an entire week without touching Max was unthinkable – especially when two whole months of separation loomed in front of them before she’d see Max again in July. They had time for a quick make-out session, at least.
She clung to Max as she ran her hands through her wet hair and their lips locked. She rolled her tongue over Max’s and slid her hand over the slick fabric of her bathing suit, gliding over her breasts as their hips moved together beneath the surface of the water.
Ruby felt Max’s breath intensifying against her skin as she turned her so that Ruby was the one with her back against the side of the pool, and Max slid one hand down Ruby’s stomach
. Her finger hooked beneath the waistband of her bikini, and then Ruby heard the sliding glass door to the kitchen open.
“Someone’s coming,” Ruby hissed, trying to push Max away, but they were so entwined and the water offered so much resistance that Max just kept stroking her finger up and down between Ruby’s legs.
She blushed furiously as Max leaned in and growled in her ear, misunderstanding Ruby’s words, “Not yet, but you will be.”
“No,” Ruby said more forcefully, panic streaking through her as she shoved Max away. With another big splash, Max fell backward just as Jade appeared on the edge of the pool.
Ruby let out a huge sigh of relief, grateful that it was her sister and not her parents. Jade was giving them a knowing look, one eyebrow arched and her arms crossed in front of her, but Ruby knew she wouldn’t judge them. She’d certainly caught her little sister in worse positions back in the day, when their parents were out. Ruby reached for Max’s hand, pulling her to her feet in the water. “Sorry, babe. This is my sister, Jade. Jade, meet Max.”
“Hey, Max,” Jade said, shooting Ruby a mirthful glance.
“Hi,” Max answered, and then the sliding door opened a second time.
A dusty blonde with beachy waves in her hair came out of the house and joined Jade.
“Is this the friend from college?” Ruby asked.
“Yep, this is my roommate, Celeste,” Jade answered. “I’m giving her the Chicago experience this summer. We just got back from a couple of days in Evanston.”
“What were you doing there?” Ruby asked, surprised. Jade had never shown the slightest interest in Northwestern, and that was Evanston’s largest attraction.
“Crashing at Megan’s place,” she said with a shrug, as if it were a common occurrence. “We went to a concert on Saturday night and had a little too much fun to come home, so she offered us her couch. History repeated itself on Sunday night, and that brings us to today.”
Jade shot a glance at Celeste, who looked a little bit flushed – perhaps from the sun on her fair skin – and Ruby felt a little bit shocked at all of this.
