When Mitch awoke, he stretched languidly and was unhurried about getting up. He didn’t know when he fell asleep, but given how fitful the night before turned out to be, it wasn’t a shock that he passed out when his body was horizontal. But he felt refreshed, despite the crick in his neck and his chilly nose. A few beech leaves rested on his flannel that must have landed there while he slept, and he brushed them away. He struggled to get upright, and once he was, he spotted Jodie seated at the end of the dock; she looked like a serene specter, wrapped in a delicate shawl that was layered over a black long sleeved dress, and her hair down in loose curls. Tiptoeing to where the shore met the planks, he was silent as he took a picture of her.

“Fancy meeting you here,” he softly greeted once he joined her, but didn’t immediately take a seat. His legs were appreciative of being allowed to stretch.

“I got worried about you,” she admitted. “But you looked so peaceful when I found you that I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“Thank you,” he lowered himself at last, bumping her shoulder with his.

“For what?” She looked at him, both puzzled and amused all at once.

“Caring,” he settled on. “Caring enough to come find me. And for everything else, I guess.”

“Ha,” she barked with no heat, then rested her head on his bicep and hooked her arm in his. “Remember when we’d drink Fireball out here, like a couple of idiots?”

“Sure do,” Mitch grinned. “And we’d laugh over the name ‘Kinky’.”

She snorted, her nose scrunching up. They reminisced about the past for at least fifteen minutes, until an enormous gust of wind cleared the lake and bombarded them with mercy. Mitch helped Jodie from where she sat, then followed her up the stairs to retreat into the house. “Where the fuck did that come from?” she yelped indignantly.

“No idea!” Mitch held tightly to his hat so that it wouldn’t take flight. Once back in the safety of an enclosed space, he settled onto the recliner in the living room and cycled through the photos that he’d taken. Passing the camera to Jodie, he was especially excited to show her the doe that he snapped, but Jodie was mostly interested in getting a copy of the picture that he took of her.

Unfortunately, he went back far enough that it reached the photos before the breakup. And he knew that he shouldn’t look, should delete the contents from off of the SD card once he transferred the most recent pictures onto his hard drive, but he worked backwards regardless. Naturally, there were a few of Calvin, predominantly of when he wasn’t paying attention and staring out a window and deep in thought. His delicate profile always made Mitch’s heart inexplicably ache; even then, so far removed from the situation, he was still forlorn. Calvin’s ghost was a difficult one to banish, even if the love died out long before the relationship itself had.

There were other photos which harbored peculiar sentiment, such as dogs from parks in Greenwich, or street art from when he worked in New York City and wanted to convince himself that he was somewhere that he belonged. Not that he felt much closer to whatever that could look like, but at least he now had a better idea of what it didn’t.

The idea from earlier resurfaced, about moving here and away from Monument. It wasn’t even that long ago that he toyed with the idea of moving back to France, after being cheated on and then stalling out too many times to be functional. He reasoned that a fresh start was a necessity, and being as far from the nuclear exclusion zone which was inhabited by both of his exes was in his best interest. And he could try to get to know his mother again; he probably ought to, and let go of the lingering resentment that he still harbored towards her.

But then Jodie’s grandmother passed, and that was far more important to deal with.

“Having deep thoughts?” asked Jodie.

“Nope,” Mitch lied. If he was going to do anything drastic like uproot himself all over again, he needed to figure out how he was going to approach the subject. Right now, it was easier not to. “You?”

“Yeah. Do you think Avi would be mad if I fucked his wife? Or at least asked?” She said it so casually that Mitch did a double take.

“Girlfriend?” Mitch clarified while trying to recall if there was a ring on her finger, or if she said something about it and he refused to process the information.

“Whatever.” Jodie rolled her eyes. “They’ve been together for like 10 years. That’s a wife ain’t it?”

“How did you know that?” Sitting up a little straighter, Mitch didn’t care if he looked desperate.

“Last night, at the fire? I asked about it, she responded. Do you just not pay attention to people when you’re in full thirst mode, or?”

“You literally -without any hesitation- said that you wanted to fuck Charlie!” Mitch threw his arms up. “Who’s thirsty here?”

“I like to think of it as being pragmatic, thank you very much. You like…” She put a finger to her chin. “You yearn. You’re a Victorian woman that keels over because she had a broken heart. Should I get you a vibrator to help with your hysteria?”

“That’s such a low blow,” he pouted and crossed his arms.

“It kinda was, huh?” She had the decency to hold back a laugh. “Sorry about your shitty heart. Still can’t believe that I let you wrestle. Gonna get my best friend killed.”

“Eh, it’s pretty reinforced now. I’ve already had the conversation with my doctor about it. Something really traumatizing would have to go down. I’d have to get struck by lightning or fall a hundred feet for my heart to give out at this point, and I’d basically be dead anyway if either of those things happened.”

“What about smoking?”

“I’ll quit. Again. Just need a little time,” he promised. “But uh, you gotta, too.”

“FUCK!” Jodie shouted, throwing herself backwards so that she was completely horizontal on the couch, and she kicked her legs in the air like an angry toddler. “I know! Abuela died, I got back into it like a dumbass! I’d been doing so good, too! But it fucks with the estrogen.” She covered her face and mumbled, “Thank you for not like, rubbing it in.”

“I’d never do that to you,” Mitch assured her.