Page 124 - In Five Years

“A walk,” he says. “I could use some air. It kind of sounds like you could,
too.”
I’m not sure what to say. I want to tell him I have too much work, and it’s true
—I’ve been distracted all week trying to prepare the documents we need for

signature. We still don’t have everything from CIT, and Epson is getting anxious;
they want to announce next week. But I don’t say no. I need to talk to Aaron. To

explain to him that I have this, that he can go back to whatever life he was living
last spring.
“Fine,” I say. “The corner of Perry and Washington. Twenty minutes.”

He’s waiting on the curb when my taxi pulls up. It’s still light out, although it

will fade soon. October hangs a whisper away—the promise of only more
darkness. Aaron is wearing jeans and a green sweater, and so am I, and for a
minute, the visual as I pay the driver and get out of the cab—two matching

people meeting each other—makes me almost laugh.
“And to think I almost brought my orange bag,” he says. He gestures to the
leather Tod’s crossbody Bella gave me for my twenty-fifth birthday.

We start to walk. Slowly. My feet are still sore and raw. Down Perry toward
the West Side Highway. “I used to live down here,” he says, filling the silence.
“Before I moved to Midtown. Just for six months; it was my first apartment. My

building was a block over, on Hudson. I liked the West Village, but it was kind
of impossible to get anywhere on public transport.”
“There’s West Fourth,” I say.

He moves his face in a sign of recognition. “We were above this pizza place
that closed,” he says. “I remember everything I owned smelled like Italian food.
My clothes, sheets, everything.”

I surprise myself by laughing. “When I first moved to the city, I lived in
Hell’s Kitchen. My entire apartment smelled like curry. I can’t even look at the
stuff now.”

“Oh, see,” he says, “I just always crave pizza.”
“How long have you been an architect?” I ask him.
“Since the beginning,” he says. “I think I was born one. I went to school for

it. For a little while I thought maybe I’d be an engineer, but I wasn’t smart