The traffic began to clear, and we were quiet the rest of the way to my house.
I felt a twinge of disappointment when Rad turned the corner onto my street. I was enjoying our conversation and wished we could keep talking. “It’s just ahead. You can drop me here.” He slowed down to a stop just outside my house.
“Hey,” he said, turning to face me. “Want to keep driving?”
“Okay.”
Fifteen
I surreptitiously checked my phone in the pocket of my brown satchel. No text. I slid it back down into the bag with a sigh. I looked out the car window and smiled at Duck, who was getting gas for the car. I didn’t have to go into the office that day, and Duck’s morning lecture got canceled, so we decided to go for lunch. He came around and tapped on my window. I wound it down.
“Want anything?” he asked.
“Can you get me a Diet Coke?”
“Okay,” he said, kissing me as his thumb and forefinger gently snatched my chin.
As he walked away, I felt a stab of guilt, thinking about the night before. After we left the café, Rad and I drove aimlessly for hours, lost in conversation. By then, it had stopped raining, and the night air was warm and still. We had no idea where we were. None of the street names were familiar, but we didn’t care. It felt almost dreamlike, as though we had slipped into a new reality.
It was well past midnight when we realized how hungry we were. Thankfully, we found a twenty-four-hour McDonald’s with a drive-through. We ordered burgers and thick shakes that we ate in the deserted parking lot. Outside, the rain-drenched asphalt was an incandescent blur: hues of white, red, and yellow refracting the light from the nearby streetlamps and the golden arches overhead. Maybe it was the free-flowing conversation or the thrill of being somewhere unfamiliar, but it was hands down the best burger I’d ever had.
This morning, I was ready to tell Lucy about Rad, but she had to rush off to class. Now I wondered whether I should hold back from telling her. If I kept it a secret from Lucy, then perhaps I could justify keeping it from Duck.
The sound of the door clicking open snapped me back to the present. Duck got into the car and handed me my drink. Then he looked at me and smiled for the longest time. “What?” I smiled back.
“I really love you, Audrey.” He leaned over and kissed me softly on the cheek. “You make me so happy.”
“Audrey,” Trinh called, when I walked into the office Wednesday morning. She was sitting on the couch in the common area and motioned for me to come over. I sat down next to her.
“So how was your interview?”
I took a deep breath. “You wouldn’t believe this, but I know the author.”
Her eyes widened. “Colorado Clark?”
“Well, I knew him by the name Rad—no one calls him Colorado,” I explained.
“Oh. How do you know him?”
I gave her a quick recap of the history I shared with Rad.
“Wow,” she said. “That’s really cool—especially about the snow globe. And then you deleted each other’s numbers?” Her eyes were unusually dreamy. “I mean, I’m not a romantic, but God, that’s like fate, destiny—whatever you want to call it. Don’t you think?”
“I suppose.” I didn’t know what Rad’s sudden appearance in my life meant. But it was wreaking havoc with my emotions. All the feelings of guilt that were tied to Ana had come rushing back. At the same time, the connection I felt to Rad was growing more intense by the day.
“I mean, what are the chances?” Trinh continued. “It’s almost like you were meant to meet up again.”
The following Saturday, Duck was away at a seminar, and Lucy had locked herself away in her room to cram for her first exam. The night before, she’d given me strict instructions not to disturb her unless it was an absolute emergency.
It was a beautiful, crisp morning, and I was out in the courtyard with the paper and a fresh cup of coffee. I was flicking through the Lifestyle section, wondering whether I should go and see a film, when my phone rang.
“Hey.” It was Rad.
“Hi.”
“What are you up to?”
“Just reading the paper.”
“Anything interesting?”
“There’s a documentary called Killer Clouds coming out soon. Apparently they are the most dangerous things in the sky.”
“Those fluffy, marshmallowy things?”
“You mean those angry, lightning-inducing, tornado-facilitating monsters.”
“Wow, I will never look at a cloud in the same way again.”
“They are the original wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
“Long before there were wolves.”
“Or clothing.”
Rad laughed. “Hey, are you doing anything today?”
“Nope. How about you?”
“Nothing. I’m kind of bored. Want to hang out?”
I thought about Duck and felt immediately guilty. I knew he wouldn’t like the idea of me seeing Rad again, but I couldn’t help myself.
“Okay.”
Rad came to pick me up about an hour later.
“So what should we do?” I said, when we were pulling away from the curb. “Want to see a movie? There’s one about the US economy that everyone at work is raving about.”
“That sounds like a good option,” said Rad. “It’s such a beautiful day, though; do you really want to spend it inside a cinema?”
“I suppose not.”
“What about a hike?”
“A hike? Are you kidding me?”
“Why, what’s wrong with hiking?”
“Nothing, other than the fact that it involves walking.”
We were silent as we thought of things to do.
“You know, it’s been, like, a million years since I’ve gone down to the trails. The weather is so great today I wouldn’t mind going for a ride.”
“On a bike?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of a horse,” said Rad.
“Oh.”
“Have you ridden before?”
“Sure.” I had no idea why I said that, since I had never ridden a horse in my life.
“Excellent! I used to ride a lot when I was a kid. I miss it.”
“Uh-huh,” I said, thinking back to Lucy’s tenth birthday when her parents had hired a pony and we took turns riding him while a lady led us slowly up and down the yard.
“My mum is mad about horses,” Rad continued. “We drove out west every weekend to the stables. I used to ride a horse named Periscope. He was a scraggly brown thing, but I absolutely adored him. He got sent away when I was about thirteen, and I was beside myself.”
“That’s strange. I knew this guy who went through the exact same thing.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, his name was Sodapop,” I teased.
“This is what I get for baring my soul to you.”
About an hour later, Rad pulled into a dirt driveway off the Central Coast with an overarching sign that read “Eureka Equestrian.”
Rad parked the car, and we got out, making our way over to the log building up ahead. A teenage girl in riding gear sat behind a glass booth.
“Hi,” she said. The tag pinned to her shirt read “Sally.”
“Hi,” said Rad. “We’d like to book two horses for an hour.”
“Sure. That will be seventy-five each.”
Sally led us to the stables, where a burly man in a plaid red shirt was running a hard wire brush over a handsome black horse. He looked up as we approached.
“Two for an hour ride on the Bereewan Trail,” said Sally, motioning to us. She grabbed a couple of helmets that were hanging on the side of the stable and passed them over to me.
“That’s a good track, especially for a day like this,” he said in a low, gruff voice. “I’m Bill, by the way.”