Not bad qualities for a number of things.
She shifted in her seat and drifted her hand over his thigh. Matt took a deep breath and gave her a quick glance before staring back at the highway in front of them. He tightened his hand over hers.
Aha! He was just as squirmy as she was.
“Why aren’t you two saying anything? This is incomprehensible!” Celeste leaned forward from the back seat and popped her head between them. “There has been a major event, and it seems that it would be appropriate for both of you to be engaging in some sort of dialogue in which you detail the experience.”
Julie couldn’t stop watching Matt as she spoke. “I jumped out of an airplane,” she said slowly.
“I know, Julie! You did, didn’t you! It was an act of outstanding bravery, if you ask me.”
“I jumped out of a goddamn airplane.” She was aware that she was still reeling from the day. Still in shock. The last thing that she wanted right now was another rapid-fire conversation, but with Celeste around, avoiding that would be nearly impossible. Stringing coherent words together was simply not easy, though.
“Say more,” Celeste demanded.
“I jumped out of a goddamn airplane with Matt.” She paused. “Because of Matt. For Matt.”
She heard him catch his breath. “Julie.”
The sound in his voice now, the way he spoke her name….
There was a new tone there that she wanted more of. She could feel the ache between them now. The need. This morning she kissed Matt, threw her arms around him, and told him how totally wrong she’d been to walk away from him before. Then she felt that first surge of crazy heat that came after months of denying what they meant to each other. And now that they’d jumped from that plane together, Julie couldn’t get over how deeply she trusted Matt.
Celeste sighed happily and sunk back into her seat. “I find that quite the romantic declaration. Yes, it’s true that I may not be the utmost expert on romance, but I can say for sure that gestures like this must certainly be up there with Romeo and Juliet’s. Although clearly those two died at the end of their story, and fortunately there was no glitch with your chute because here you are. Alive and well. Obviously.”
Matt practically snorted. “Gee, thank you for that, Celeste. I bet Julie made cardboard cutouts of us, though. You know, just in case.”
“Jesus, Matt,” Julie muttered.
“Ha! I thought that was funny. Don’t worry, Julie, I can appreciate some teasing regarding Flat Finn. Granted, that joke was still morbid and disturbing, but considering that has been my family’s predominant theme for so long, I am quite comfortable with it.”
Matt squeezed Julie’s hand again. “You do know that we weren’t going to die, right?”
“Yes, Matthew. Today was certainly not about creative suicide. At all. It was about us. Also,” she said more softly, “I should point out that the day is not over.”
The car picked up noticeable speed. “How many more exits until we’re home?” he asked.
“Why are you in such a rush?” Celeste demanded. “It’s only six o’clock.”
“I just…. I just would like to get you back to the house.”
“What about you? Won’t you two be staying for dinner? I bet we could get Mom and Dad to watch a movie with us. Mom will probably try popping popcorn kernels herself in that idiotic oversized pot she likes so much, and we’ll all be stuck eating charred nuggets, but it could be nice and representative of a highly functional family.”
Matt cleared his throat. “I’m just going to drop you off, Celeste.”
“Oh. Are you and Julie going somewhere? What will you be doing? There’s a Greek festival in the South End this evening. That could be delightful, don’t you think? Spanikopita, baklava, and lots of yogurt items, I imagine.”
Julie grinned. “Is that what you were thinking, Matt? Are you in the mood for a little music and dancing? A tour of the Greek cathedral, perhaps?”
Matt raised an eyebrow. “Tour the Greek cathedral, huh? We can call it that, if you want. Sure.”
Julie smacked his arm and then turned to Celeste. “We may get there. Matt is going to take me home so… that I can get cleaned up. I’m probably covered in dead bugs, so I need to decontaminate.”
“Cleaned up? Decontaminate? Gee, you’re full of euphemisms today, aren’t you?”
“Matt, seriously,” Julie said between clenched teeth and nodded toward the back seat.
“Don’t worry,” Celeste said with delight. “I’m following along just fine. I understand that neither of you will be attending the Greek Festival. And you two certainly have no business visiting any cathedrals.”
**********
Matt took the keys from Julie’s hand, tossed them across the room, and shut her apartment door with his foot. He moved one hand behind her neck and pulled her mouth against his. She whimpered slightly, overwhelmed at how much she felt for him. The few kisses they’d shared before had been driven by emotion. This was different. This time it was about heat and longing. More specifically, how completely she wanted him out of his geeky I’m Uncertain About Quantum Mechanics T-shirt.
He pulled away for a moment. “Dana’s not here, right?”
Julie shook her head. Dana was gone for the weekend, but she was having trouble finding the words to say so. To say anything.
She had just jumped out of an airplane.
And, as of a matter of a few hours ago, she and Matt were together. No more secrets between them, no confusion.
This day was a lot to take in. And she wanted more.
“Julie?” Matt asked.
Although she knew logically that her body was here in the apartment, part of her was still falling to earth, as if she were still in the jump. It had been just as Matt described it. A rush, a high, a drug. A degree of pounding terror, sure, but mostly a dreamlike, out-of-body, euphoric experience. One that she was still in. The straps holding them together for the tandem jump had been tighter than she had expected, but she’d liked that. Being so tied to Matt, becoming totally part of each other.
“Julie? You okay?” Matt tucked her hair behind her ears and looked at her with concern. She lifted her mouth to kiss him again, but he stopped her. “Are you… here?”
She put an arm around his waist and pulled him in. “I want to be with you,” she whispered.
“I want to be with you, too. But you need to be grounded. You’re still in the air, aren’t you?”
“So what?” She smiled. “I like it up here. And I still know what I want.”
“I need you to be here. With me.”
She kissed him again, hard, and he responded with equal intensity, feeding her lightheaded state and letting her continue to drift in her soaring, dissociated world of rushing air and white noise. It was everything and nothing at the same time: feeling too much, too little, trying to separate this world from the adrenaline-based world. Eventually his kisses slowed, softened, and his firm hold on her waist eased a bit. Matt was bringing her back down to reality, gently and respectfully. And now that’s where she wanted to be. She let clarity set back in.
Julie took her mouth from his as she wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. “I’m here.”
“In that case,” Matt stepped back and began unzipping her sweatshirt, “you have on way too many clothes.”
She put her hands over his. “Wait, I should go take a shower… first.” She could smell the leftover stench of fear still on her skin from the skydive.
And maybe from what she knew she was about to do.