“What isit?”
“I love your place. It’s where you kissed me for the first time. The view is incredible. But the parking garage, the elevators … Maybe I’m just weak, but it’s going to take time to get overthat.”
He wanted to put an arm around her shoulder and draw her against him, but it would have been excruciating for her. “You’re not weak, Mia. I think anyone who had lived through what you’ve lived through would feel that way. Let’s see how it goes. If it’s too hard for you, we’ll come up with another plan. The important thing isn’t this apartment. It’s that the two of us aretogether.”
For lunch, they heated some tamale casserole—just one dish in the lifetime supply of meals his mother and Tía Aleta had left in his fridge—then made their way to thetable.
Joaquin sat, pressing a hand against his incision. “Getting shotsucks.”
Mia sat across from him, careful to keep her upper body still, a little smile on her lips. “Is this what it will be like when we’re old—both of us moaning andgroaning?”
“Are you saying you want to grow old withme?”
Mia looked into Joaquin’s eyes, smiled. “Maybe.”
* * *
The next sixweeks were among the best Mia could remember. No, the exercises she had to do for her arm every day weren’t fun, and she still had to sleep in the recliner rather than in bed with Joaquin. There were nightmares, and there was pain. Still, every day felt like a treasure toMia.
They were alive, and they weretogether.
They spent their time talking, playing video games on Joaquin’s Xbox, watching entire series on Netflix, and going for short walks in the park. After a couple of weeks of involuntary abstinence, they figured out that if they were careful and Mia was on top, they could have sex again. With all the time in the world, they did a lot of that, too, though the condoms were growingold.
A month to the day after the shooting, they paid a visit to the women’s clinic, where they both got tested and where Mia had an IUDinserted.
“In twenty-four hours, we won’t have to use condoms again,” she said as Joaquin drove the two of themhome.
The sheer lust on his face made her laugh. “I can’t remember what that feelslike.”
“I have a vagina handy if you’d like to findout.”
“God, yes—but I’ll probably come in a minuteflat.”
To their mutual delight, he lasted much longer thanthat.
They were able to handle longer walks now, so one morning Mia took him on a tour of the Botanic Gardens, showing him her favorite garden beds, which, she had to admit, weren’t much to see rightnow.
Mia waved to one of her co-workers. “You have to use yourimagination.”
“Okay.” Joaquin glanced around at bare ground, which was punctuated with tufts of dried grass and bareshrubs.
“This isBouteloua gracilis—my favoritegrass.”
“You have a favorite grass?” He seemed to find thisfunny.
“Its flowers—what you might call tufts or seed pods—look like eyelashes.See?”
Joaquin bent down. “Theydo.”
“One day when I have a yard of my own, I’m going to have tufts ofBouteloua gracilisgrowing here andthere.”
“You want a bigyard?”
“One day when I can affordit.”
In the evening, they often had visitors—family or friends who came by to check on them. One evening, Officer Petersen stopped by in a T-shirt and jeans. He wanted to apologize, but neither Mia nor Joaquin would let him. He surprised them with the news that he was leaving the policeforce.
“My wife couldn’t take it if I went back out onto thestreets.”