Excerpt: Best Laid Plans

Amy and I went to the car, and she started driving. I wondered where we might be going. We were heading in the direction of my house, at least.

"I'm going to miss you," I found myself saying. "When you move."

"Yeah. I'm going to miss you, too. A lot." Amy put her hand on my leg as she drove. "This has been really... Well, really unexpected, that's for sure. But amazing."

"Yeah. It's been really amazing. I can't believe... I can't really believe you're going."

"I know. And I can't believe it's only been a week."

It had only been a week. Just a week since we'd gotten drunk together by the duck pond. A week since, well, since we'd started falling in love, I guess. Because while I wasn't really sure if I honestly knew enough to be telling the truth when I said that I loved her, I had certainly been falling in love with her.

"We'll keep in touch, right?" I asked, hating the tone in my voice as I said it. The neediness. The... desperation.

"Yeah, definitely. Email and everything." Was she lying? But with her acting skills, surely if she was lying, she would sound like she wasn't. So if she sounded like she was...

"Let's stop here for a bit," Amy said. The duck pond. I'd been so busy thinking about stuff that I hadn't even realized we were at the park.

"For old times' sake?"

"Exactly. Old times, way back through the mists of time to a week ago."

The ducks were awake, of course, swimming around in the water, with a few pecking about on the concrete at the edge. I sort of looked around for our abandoned empty wine bottle but wasn't surprised to not see it.

Amy and I sat down on a bench. She took my hand and looked out at the water, at the ducks.

"I really wish I didn't have to leave," she said. "I feel really bad about... all this happening and then I'm just leaving."

"No, don't feel bad about it." I squeezed her hand, turned to her, willed her to look back at me, but she didn't. "I'm going to miss you a lot, but I'm definitely glad I met you. And..." Fell in love with you, I wanted to say. "I'm really glad everything happened. With us, I mean."

"Me too." She turned to me then, and kissed me, and kissed me. We kissed forever and for not nearly long enough at all, and I knew there wasn't going to be any more time to be alone before she moved away. I knew there wasn't any more time at all. This was it.