She held a funnel to the opening of the first, and I poured the mixture until it filled the small cavity. We repeated the process five more times. Then she took out a rubber mallet and tapped around the circumference of each pail.
“Air bubbles,” she explained to my curious look.
Next she took the mallet to the big mold. She whacked the plywood until her arms gave out. Punk girl took a turn, followed by the tall guy. I took my turn last and pounded away until Christy told me to stop.
“No more bubbles coming up,” she said. “That’s all we can do.”
Siobhan put an arm around her and hugged. “Now we wait.”
“And pray,” Christy added as she crossed herself.
“Oh, sure. We pray.”
Christy and I walked home in high spirits. We were bone tired and speckled with dried marble goop, but our mood couldn’t have been better.
“How long will it take to cure?” I asked.
“At least twenty-four hours. Then we’ll take the mold off, and I’ll spend every waking moment getting it ready for the show.”
“Will it really take that long?”
“I’ll be lucky if I finish in time. I
“You mean just clean up the front?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s no good. What can I do to help?”
“I didn’t want to ask, but…”
“Get real. I like spending time with you. And if I can be useful as well…”
“You can do rough clean-up. But I’ll have to do all the finishing work and
fix any problems.”
“Sounds like a not-date.” I draped my arm around her shoulders, and she smiled up at me tiredly.
We walked the rest of the way in happy silence.
Wren came through from the kitchen when she heard us at the front door.
“How’d it g—?” She laughed. “You look like you’ve been in a pastry dough fight.”
“Yeah,” I said, “if dough weighs several hundred pounds and dries like glue.”
She gave me an odd look. “That’s exactly what pastry dough does.”
“How was I s’posed to know?” I said with a laugh. Then I looked at Christy, whose expression had changed. “What’s the matter?”
She shook off her daydream and grinned guiltily. “All the pastry talk. I’m hungry again.”
“Then come on,” Wren said with a chuckle. “Let me whip you something up.”
“I’m going to shower while I can get some hot water,” I said.
Christy nodded and rose on tiptoes for a kiss.
“Then I need to make a phone call,” I added. I caught Wren’s eye to make sure she understood.
She nodded and put her arm around Christy. They headed toward the kitchen without a backward glance.
I thought about what I wanted to say (for the umpteenth time) while I was in the shower. Part of me felt like I had a date with an executioner, but another part was looking forward to life without guilt.
When I couldn’t stall any longer, I closed my bedroom door and picked up the phone. My pulse quickened as I dialed Gina’s number.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Hey! I was just thinking about you.” Something about her tone made me pause, but I plowed ahead anyway.
“I know this is gonna sound like a weird question, but is Regan home?”
“Yeah, she is. Why?”
“Just… well… I guess I don’t want you to be alone.”
“Why? Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. But… we need to talk.”
“Oh.”
That single word almost broke my heart.
“Wait a sec,” she said. “Lemme go to my room.” I heard a door close.
“Okay, now we can talk. And… I kinda knew this was coming.”
“How?”
“Your voice the other night. Your last letter. Lots of things.”
I nodded. “So… where should I begin?”
“Before you do, I need to tell you something too.”
“Go ahead,” I said, surprised.
“I… um… I’ve been thinking the same thing.”
“You have?”
“Yeah. I was gonna call you in a couple of days.”
“So it wasn’t just me?”
“No.”
“I really wanted to make it work,” I said, “but…”
“Me too. And I thought we could. When I saw you at the wedding, it was like we were back in high school and everything was perfect.”
“Exactly.”
“No Kendall, no sorority, no distractions.”
“Just us.”
“Right. But then I came home, and…”
“Real life hit. Yeah, I understand. Same here.”
“I thought we could make the long-distance thing work, but…”
“It takes ten days to have a conversation in the mail.”
“No kidding,” she said. “And neither of us called enough.”
“I was always too busy.”
“Me too. At least, that’s what I told myself.”
“What d’you mean?”
“Well, I called other people all the time, friends here,” she said. “But I never seemed to have time to call
“Same here. I felt guilty about it.”
“And when I did call, I realized it was mostly because I wanted to have phone sex.”
I laughed. “I did the same thing, but with your letters. I kept hoping for something sexy about you and Heather that I could jerk off to.”
“Ha! For real?”
“Yeah. I felt really bad about that.”
“That makes two of us. I was angry after our last phone call. I mean, how
“No kidding. And if it makes you feel any better, the little head thought I was an idiot. He
“He always did have a mind of his own,” she said with a fond laugh.
