Class - Cecily Von Ziegesar [98]
Her blond hair was scraped back into a messy ponytail and there were dark circles beneath her eyes. The cuffs of her jeans were damp and salt-streaked. Tom thought she looked wonderful. He held out his arms. The blue towel slipped from around his waist. “I love you,” he said, fully naked.
Shipley put the coffee down on his paint-spattered desk and walked into his open arms. He hugged her tightly through her coat and rested his dripping forehead on her shoulder.
“I hope I didn’t fuck up too much last night,” he murmured.
She patted his damp back with her mittened hands. He was so big and his room was a mess. He was a mess. But she loved him anyway. She would love him always. Adam too.
“You were fine. You were great,” she said, and bent down to retrieve his towel. “Here, get dressed. Professor Rosen’s downstairs. She says she’s going to buy us donuts.”
Outside, the setting sun was already drifting downhill. Professor Rosen’s minivan was waiting for them. Stray flakes of snow drifted down from the trees and fluttered to the ground. Tom opened the van’s side door. A baby was strapped into a car seat in the back.
“Hey, I didn’t know you had a baby!” He thumbed his ears at the baby and stuck out his tongue. The baby seemed to be asleep with its eyes open.
“Hop in.” Professor Rosen turned around and scraped the stuff on the backseat onto the floor. Diapers, maps, baby bottles.
Tom and Shipley got in. Nick and Eliza were in the very back seat, holding hands.
“Hey, Slutcakes,” Eliza said. “What is this? Musical boys?”
Nick’s cheeks were pink and shiny from so much cortisone. “You guys all ready for exams?”
Tom slid the door closed and settled into the seat on one side of the baby while Shipley sat on the other. “So who knew it was going to snow last night?” He caught the professor’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “Did you know?”
Professor Rosen backed the van out onto the road. “The storm was on the news all week. People were buying up the whole grocery store. The turkeys were all gone. No potatoes even. Guess people thought the whole system would shut down.”
They coasted down the hill toward town. Snow was everywhere. The entire campus had been transformed into a winter wonderland.
“Just look at it all!” Tom marveled, as if he’d never seen snow before. He turned his head to admire Shipley’s profile against the white snowbanks outside the window. Then he glanced down at the baby. Its eyes were dark brown and its skin was the color of maple syrup. It was holding Shipley’s finger.
“I can’t wait for Christmas,” Shipley murmured. Beetle’s skin had reminded her of Hawaii.
“Me too,” Professor Rosen agreed. “We’re going to Sedona.”
“I’m going to stay in my pj’s till New Year’s,” Tom yawned.
Nick spoke up from the way back. “I’m going to Eliza’s house.”
“I can’t wait for donuts,” Eliza chimed in. She stuck her hand down the back of Nick’s pants and kept it there. “Hey, is anyone else having major déjà vu?” She stared out at the snow for a while, then turned around and stuck her tongue out at Nick. He looked so much better without his hat, and his skin was beginning to calm down.
Nick pushed her bangs up off her forehead to see what she would look like without them. “Whoa,” he said, and let the bangs drop. “Maybe you should start wearing hats.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “I could knit one for you.”
“Oh God.” Eliza grimaced. “Please, someone just shoot us now and put us out of our misery.”
Shipley undid her seat belt and crawled over Beetle’s car seat to sit in Tom’s lap.
“Oi!” Professor Rosen called out.
Nick and Eliza were all over each other now, the moist sucking sounds of their kisses muffled by the smack of the tires on the wet road. Tom put his arms around Shipley and pulled her in close. Through the very back window of the car she could see the blue light of Dexter’s chapel spire, shining significantly on top of the hill, like a beacon. It was hard to believe it could ever go