Page 203 - In Five Years

return, smiling, full of life, gifting us back our appetites.
Finally, it is my turn.
“Thank you all for coming,” I tell them. “Greg and I knew she’d want
something with the people she loved that wasn’t so formal.”

“Although Bella loved black tie,” Morgan chimes in.
We laugh. “That she did. She was a spinning, spiraling spirit that touched all

of us. I miss her,” I say. “I will forever. “
The wind whistles over the city, and I think it’s her, saying a final farewell.

We stay until our fingers are frozen and our faces are chapped, and then it’s time
to go home. I hug Morgan and Ariel goodbye. They promise to come over next

week and help us sort through Bella’s stuff. Berg and Carl leave. The gallery
girls tell me to come by—I say I will. They have a new exhibit going up. She
was proud of it. I should see.

Then it’s just the two of us. Aaron doesn’t ask if he can come with me, but
when the car arrives, he gets in. We travel downtown in silence. We speed across
the Brooklyn Bridge, miraculously devoid of traffic. No roadblocks. Not

anymore. We pull up to the building.
They keys, now in my possession.
Through the door, up the elevator, into the apartment. Everything I’ve fought

against, now made manifest at my very own hands.
I take off my shoes. I go to the bed. I lie down. I know what is going to
happen. I know exactly how we will live it.