Devon reached the site for the day’s Habitat Housing project first. As he waited, his mind was racing, sorting through the events of the last 12 hours.
The night before, he had met Emma after her performance as usual. They had gone down the street to a little burger shop. There, Emma had told him she thought their relationship was going nowhere.
Devon had not been surprised. “You’re not wrong. We have fun but I have to agree we are just marching in place.”
Things had ended gently. All the same, it was on his mind when he woke up early.
He left Merritt a note and headed to Queens: “See you at the site. I’ll get muffins. Tell Hannah to get donuts? Can you grab coffee?”
Devon saw Hannah and Merritt coming from the subway; Hannah ducked into a bakery on one corner and Merritt popped into Starbucks across the street. Merritt came out first and got to Devon.
“I didn’t hear you come in last night,” Merritt said as he put two of the coffees on the steps to the house. “I wanted to tell you something.”
“I was already in bed when you came in. What’s up?”
Merritt told Devon about Hannah and him deciding to just be friends, that Hannah felt like something—though she didn’t know what—was missing and that Merritt had felt the same.
Devon shook his head. “Well… that’s a coincidence…”
Merritt furrowed his brow. “What?”
“Emma and me talked last night. We pretty much agreed we weren’t going anywhere.”
Merritt seemed shocked. “I thought you two were good. I thought she was really into you… I… I thought you were… I’m really confused.”
Devon explained that they were just okay as a couple. “I’m a nice guy and she’s really sweet. It was convenient and fun, but not much more.”
Devon watched as Merritt’s expression went blank. His eyes drifted down, left, right… He seemed dazed.”
“Dude,” Devon had said, “you okay?”
A weak smile had formed on Merritt’s face. “Tell Kent I had to go… I need to find a ragdoll.”
Devon was trying to figure out what Merritt meant when Hannah arrived with donuts.
She pointed at Merritt. “What happened…”
Devon shook his head. “He told me you broke up…”
Hannah forced a smile. “Yeah… I wasn’t… It’s a good choice.”
Devon then told her about his and Emma’s breakup. He explained that, likewise, it was a good choice.
“I’m sorry…” Hannah said. “I feel like I sort of pushed you two together…”
“It was good, though.”
“So, you told him about the breakup. Then?”
“Hannah, I was scared. His expression went blank… It was like his whole life was flashing before his eyes… Then he looked around and said, ‘I need to find a ragdoll.’ And…”
Hannah gasped and put her hand on Devon’s arm. “Ragdoll? Oh my gosh!”
Devon thought his expression must have resembled the one he had seen on Merritt.
“He’s going to go to Emma… There’s a post I read before I stopped reading their posts… This is too sweet! Oh my gosh…”
Devon looked back the way Merritt had gone. “Show me the post.”
While Hannah was finding it, she said, “Do you think they… planned this?”
“Not a chance. You should have seen how surprised he was. He thought we were really into each other.”
Hannah showed Devon Merritt’s post from July 6. Devon agreed Merritt was going to Emma.
“So, here we are…” Hannah looked at the house.
“Kent’s inside.”
“So what do we do? Has Kent given orders?”
Devon had a sudden impulse to try and lighten the mood. “Not yet, but… how about this? You and me… we’re on the relationship rebound, right?”
Hannah nodded.
“So… we finish the outlets and switches, paint that back room from last week, then go back to our apartments…”
“Reasonable, so far.”
“We clean up. I take you out for Italian. I make you laugh. You make me smile. We go back to the common room… Sit on a sofa. We watch the news for a while… You lean over onto my shoulder… we cuddle a bit… then… you know… swap spit and cuddle more. Then we decide we’re dating and see what happens?”
“Swap spit?” Hannah smiled. “Really?”
Devon shrugged.
Hannah laughed. “Okay, I’m in.”
“Really?”
Hannah nodded. “How long do you think our rebound romance will last?”
“Two weeks. Or forever. Not sure yet.”
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