by Joy Argento
“That’s understandable,” Joe said. “Given some of your history.”
“I was scared when I first started dating Joe,” Tom said.
“You were?” Joe asked him. “Why? Was it because we had to hide our relationship?”
“No. It was because you were so good looking. I was afraid I would pale in comparison.”
“Oh, you are so full of crap, old man.”
“I love you guys,” Madison said. They were the perfect example of what she hoped to have with Ali.
“We love you too, sweetie.” Tom said. “So, it’s going well with Ali?”
“It is. We’ve been talking one way or another every day since I got back from Syracuse. She should be here sometime tomorrow. I can’t wait to see her.” She never knew two weeks could seem so long. “How did you guys do it?”
“Do what?”
“Stay together for so long, even when the world didn’t think you should?”
“Love, my darling. Love,” Joe said.
Tom nodded his agreement.
Love. Could it really be that simple?
“And trust and honesty and respect and never going to bed angry and on and on and on. Love is the foundation. Everything else is built on top of that,” Joe added.
“And humor and together time and…” Tom said.
“I think she gets the point,” Joe said.
“I do,” Madison said. “It’s not some magic thing that just happens. You have to build it and allow it to grow. Tend it like a garden.”
“And just like a garden, it grows. Now that, my dear, is magic.” Joe leaned over and kissed Tom on the cheek.
Madison looked up as the bell on the door chimed, letting her know someone had come into the shop. She was surprised and happy to see Ali standing there.
“I hear you have the best chocolate cream donuts in town,” Ali said.
Tom turned around. “Speak of the devil.”
“Who called me a devil?” Ali asked. “Not that I don’t deserve that title.” She made her way up to the counter.
“What are you doing here?” Madison asked. “You said you weren’t coming till tomorrow.”
“Oh, crap. Am I early? This isn’t Wednesday? I can go and come back tomorrow if you want.”
“Come here and give me a kiss, you fool. I’m so happy to see you.”
Ali leaned over the counter and kissed Madison gently on the lips. “I missed you. I couldn’t stay away any longer.”
Madison introduced her to Tom and Joe. “We’ve heard a lot about you,” Joe said. “Nice to actually meet you.” Joe put out his hand.
“Do we have to be so formal?” Ali asked. “Can I hug you? I understand you convinced Madison to talk to me.”
“We do hugs,” Joe said. They each hugged her in turn. Madison seemed downright giddy. “I’m so happy to see you.”
“You said that already,” Ali said.
“It’s worth repeating. Do you want some coffee, a donut, another kiss?”
“Coffee would be great.”
“No kiss?” Madison pretended to pout.
“Oh. I thought I only got one from that list.”
“And you chose coffee?”
“I figured I would need the caffeine to make sure I stay awake.” Ali put the side of her hand up to her mouth as if she were sharing a secret. “For later when we’re alone.”
Madison shook her head. “You need caffeine in order to stay awake with me?”
“Hey. It was a long drive.” Ali gave her attention to the two men at the counter. “I’m just teasing her. I would stay awake for a month for this beautiful woman.” She slipped around to the back of the counter, put her arms around Madison’s waist, and pulled her in for a kiss.
“I’m so happy to see you too, by the way.” She kissed her again.
“Want some help? Where’s my apron?” Ali asked.
“No. Sit. I’ll get you coffee and a donut. You must be tired after that drive.” She disappeared into the back.
Ali did as she was told. She was tired. The drive was long, and she had left her apartment early to try to beat some of the traffic—and because she couldn’t wait to see Madison again.
“You know Madison has been walking on air since the two of you got back together. I hope you treat her right. She’s one special lady,” Joe said in a low voice.
“I know. I’m blessed to have her back in my life. I don’t ever plan on letting her go again. You have nothing to worry about.” She gave them her best reassuring smile.
“Good, because I’d hate to have to yank your liver out through your throat,” Tom said. A long beat went by before he burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny.” Madison was back, carrying a full pot of coffee and a chocolate cream donut.
“Tom’s trying to scare the crap out of your lady here,” Joe said.
“Tom.” Madison raised one eyebrow.
“It’s fine,” Ali said. “I didn’t need my liver anyway.”
“Tom,” Madison repeated.
“Just funning her a little. You can keep your body parts.” Tom winked at Ali.
“All good to hear,” Ali said to Madison.
Madison set the donut on a napkin in front of Ali and poured her a cup of coffee. “Do you want to hang out here and watch me work or I can give you the key and you can go to my house until I’m done here. I may be able to get Valerie to come in early so I can leave early.”
“I could use a nap. But I would rather sit here and watch you work.”
“Don’t be silly. Drink your coffee and then go take a nap. I’ll let you know later if I can get off early.”
“Is that an order? Please make it an order.” That nap was sounding more like a necessity than a luxury.
“Yes, it’s an order.”
As much as she hated to leave Madison, she really did need to get some sleep. Besides getting up early, she’d gone to bed late, rushing to finish her book edits. She drank half of her coffee and wrapped the donut in the napkin to take with her. She said her good-byes, kissed Madison again, and headed to Madison’s house. She was asleep within minutes of lying down on the couch.
She jumped when she heard the front door close. She hadn’t heard it open. “Ali?” Madison whispered. Ali didn’t say anything. Her eyes were still closed as she tried to figure out how long she’d been asleep and why Madison didn’t text to say she was coming home. Madison came around the side of the couch and leaned closer. “Ali,” she whispered again.
Without warning, Ali opened her eyes, grabbed Madison, and pulled her down. Madison nearly toppled over and ended up on top of Ali, with her feet still on the floor. “Hey.”
“I missed you.” Ali planted little kisses along her jawline.
“You scared me.”
“Sorry.” Ali laughed.
Madison tickled her ribs. “I can tell how sorry you are.” Madison sat up on the edge of the couch. “Tom and Joe were impressed with you.”
“Why? Did you brag about me? Tell them I’m a best-selling author and all? Tell them how smart I am?”
Madison laughed. “You’re strange. Did anyone ever tell you that?”
“All the time. I can’t believe you’re just now seeing it.” Ali sat up and pulled Madison back until she was leaning against Ali. Ali wrapped her arms around her. It felt so good to hold her.
“Oh, I’ve known it for years. I just never mentioned it before. I did not tell them any of that stuff, although I have been kind of bending their ears about you for a couple of weeks now. No. They liked that you could take a joke.”
“Yeah. That threat to pull my liver out? That was a joke? He seemed so serious.”
“If it helps any, I did give him permission to do it, if you done do me wrong.”
“Done do me wrong? Have you
been listening to country music again?”
“Maybe.”
“I like them too. They seem like good guys, and they sure do care about you. That makes them okay in my book.”
“Your New York Times best-selling book?”
Ali laughed. “I’m not the only strange one around here.”
“I know. That’s why we make a good pair.”
Ali tilted Madison’s chin and kissed her. “I like that. I like you. I like being here.” Here with Madison. Here in Clyde.
“I like you being here.” Madison kissed her back. “I sent you a text by the way saying I was on my way. You must have slept through it. My poor tired baby.”
“I’m awake now.” She put her head on Madison’s shoulder and pretended to snore.
“Do you need to sleep more?” Madison asked.
Ali picked her head back up. “No way. I’m just teasing. I want to spend time with you, not sleep.”
Madison lifted herself from the couch and put her hand out to Ali. “Come in the kitchen with me. Keep me company while I make us dinner.” Ali grasped her hand and let Madison pull her up. Madison poured a glass of water and set it on the island for Ali. “Sit. Relax.” She opened the fridge and pulled out a head of cauliflower. She grabbed a cutting board and a chef’s knife from the wooden block on the counter.
“I should be doing that. You worked all day.”
“I repeat. Sit. Relax. You drove all day. Let me do this for you.”
Ali sat on one of the barstools lining the side of the island. “Thank you.”
“You cooked for me the whole time my back was out. This is the least I can do.”
“Never let it be said that you didn’t do the least you could do.” Ali chuckled.
Madison flashed her a perfect smile. “I missed you so much.”
“Ditto.”
Madison stopped what she was doing and turned her full attention to Ali. “Ali, I don’t just mean the past couple of weeks. I mean the last twenty years. I didn’t realize how much until you came back into my life. There was a void there. I couldn’t quite figure out what it was. What that empty feeling was. Now I know it was the lack of you. Does that make sense?”
Ali knew that feeling well. She hadn’t known what it was either. She tried to fill it with people that didn’t fit. “It does. I feel the same.”
“My soul longed for something. That something was you.”
Ali’s eyes filled with unexpected tears. “You’ve got me now. I’m sorry for the huge canyon I caused between us for so long. Madison, I’m not going anywhere. We are going to get what we always wanted. Together. I promise.”
Madison came around the corner of the island and wrapped her arms around Ali. Ali felt like she belonged there, in those arms. “I make you the same promise, Ali.”
“Are we crazy?”
Madison pulled back and looked in Ali’s eyes. “Crazy how?”
“We haven’t been back in each other’s lives that long.”
“Are you having doubts?”
“That’s the crazy part. I’m not.”
“Do you think you should?” Madison went back to chopping the cauliflower.
“If it was anyone else but you, yeah, I would be questioning the hell out of how fast I’ve fallen.” Ali took a drink of her water. All this emotion was making her throat dry.
“Don’t you think our history plays into it?”
“It has to. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Madison scraped the cauliflower pieces into a large bowl. “You always were the cerebral one between the two of us. I run more on emotion.”
“Believe me, you’ve brought out the emotion in me. Are you saying I’m overthinking this?”
“No. It’s just you, being you.”
“It is crazy. You’re crazy. I’m crazy. So, I say let’s be crazy together.”
“That sounds like a plan to me,” Madison said.
“Do you need a plan?” Did they need a plan? Should they just keep going like they were for a while longer? Could they? Were either one of them ready to make a commitment? The promises they’d just made were a commitment. Weren’t they? So many questions ran through Ali’s mind before she even gave Madison a chance to answer.
Madison took her time thinking it over. “No. I am happy to take it day by day. Which for me is uncommon. I usually like to know what to expect, what’s going to happen next. Do you?”
“I don’t think so. As long as I know the next time I’ll be seeing you, that’s all I need. I just don’t want too much time to pass between our visits.”
“Me either.” Madison chopped a clove of garlic and added it to the bowl.
“I was thinking…”
“See. There you go thinking again.”
“What would you say if I got an apartment here in town?”
“You don’t want to stay with me?”
Ali shook her head. “No, that’s not it at all. What if I have a part-time home here? That way I can spend more time in Clyde without invading your space. I could go back and forth between Syracuse and here and have an apartment in both places.”
“I love the idea of you being here more. And I never feel like you are invading my space. I like having you around. It felt good to come home and have you here. If you’re worried about having a place to work, I’ve got three bedrooms. One is just being used for storage. We can clean it out and make you an office.”
Ali rolled the idea around in her head. She could work on her writing when Madison was at O’s working. Would Madison get sick of having her around like her other ex-girlfriends had? Madison wasn’t like any of the other women she had dated. And she was different when she was with Madison as well. She was more herself. She allowed herself to be more of herself because Madison wanted her just the way she was. “Are you sure?”
“Ali, I wouldn’t have suggested it if I had any doubts.”
“It wouldn’t be all the time. I’m thinking maybe two weeks here, two weeks in Syracuse.”
“Stop trying to sell me on the idea. I’ve already emptied that room out in my mind and bought new curtains and a desk for you. All you have to do is accept my offer and bring your computer.”
“And clothes.”
“Oh. I was hoping you worked naked.” Madison added a few more things to the bowl and gave it a good stir.
“You wish.”
“I do.”
“You’re so bad.”
“I thought you liked it when I’m bad.”
“I do.”
Madison laughed. “What’s your answer?”
“What was the question?”
“Oh my God, woman. Keep track of the conversation here.”
“Sorry. I got distracted with the thought of you being bad.” She closed her eyes and tilted her chin up. “Oh, so bad.”
“The question was, will you stay here? If your heart is set on your own apartment, I won’t object. I may cry a little, but I won’t object. I really would like to have you here.”
“I don’t seem to have a choice. I don’t want to make you cry. If it gets too much having me here, you need to let me know.”
“Trust me, it won’t.”
That was the exact reason Ali agreed to Madison’s proposition. Trust. She trusted her. What’s more, she trusted herself more now than she ever did. “Yay.” Madison tried to play it cool and keep her excitement from bubbling over and making her look like a silly schoolgirl. She couldn’t help but clap her hands together. “Yay,” she repeated. She spread the cauliflower mixture out on a cookie sheet and slid it into the oven. “Shit.” She realized that she had been so caught up in their conversation that she forgot to turn the oven on.
“You forgot to light the oven, didn’t you?”
“Get out of my head. How did you know t
hat?”
“I’ve been watching you. I was quite impressed with your knife skills—as well as a little frightened.”
Madison removed the cookie sheet and turned the oven on. “Dinner will be a little later than originally planned.”
“Can we make out while the oven is heating up, because watching you is heating me up.”
“You want to act like a couple of teenagers?”
“Sure. We have a lot of time to make up for. And there’s no time like the present to start.”
Chapter Twenty
Charley helped Ali put the last box in the car. “What am I going to do without you, baby doll?” he moaned.
“I’m only going to be gone for two weeks. I’ll be back. We’ll talk.” Ali was looking forward to her first two full weeks in Clyde with Madison.
“You’ll be back, then you’ll be gone again. And we both know this is only temporary.” He flung his head to the side dramatically, flinging a hunk of bright green hair with it.
“Only temporary?”
“Girl, you are crazy about that woman. You miss her something wicked when you’re here and she’s there.”
“Yes.”
“It won’t be long before you move there permanently. You are going to leave and forget all about me.”
“I could never forget you. And no matter what happens with Madison, you’re still my guy, slash girl, slash best friend.”
Charley threw his arms around Ali. “I’m going to miss you. Don’t forget to write?”
“Write? Like an actual letter?”
“No. Your next book. Don’t get too distracted. I’ve met Madison. She can be very distracting. If she was my girl I would just sit and look at her all day.”
Ali laughed. She had to agree, Madison was beautiful. “I’ll do my best.”
“That’s all I ask. Oh, and yeah, write me a letter now and then. Will ya?”
“How about I call?” Ali ran her packing list through her head to see if she was forgetting anything. She shut her trunk, gave Charley a hug, and was on her way. It wasn’t completely a new life, but it was certainly an adventure. One she was looking forward to. A hundred miles outside of Clyde, she pulled into a rest stop and googled pet stores. There was one in Clyde when she was growing up, but she noticed the building now housed a hardware store. She found what she was looking for and put the address in her GPS. Once her mission there was complete, she continued to Madison’s house. She wanted to get everything unloaded before Madison finished her shift at O’s. She found a note taped to Madison’s door.
