We Get By

They made love twice that morning and called their bosses laughing, spitting the phrase “I quit” from their mouths simultaneously. And the flurry and the hurry of the world around them circled their second floor apartment with jealousy. The sky opened up and the sun threw itself upon their dusty window with a thirsty lust that no one had ever seen from its golden skin before. They stood in front of each other, bare and smiling. Their eyes shot back and forth at each other with invisible laser beams that tickled through their skulls and sent them into a frenzy of laughter. On the count of three they raced back under the sheets once more. And like two fitting puzzle pieces that had been misplaced into separate boxes, they found each other once again and made the morning complete - for the third time.

*

He spilled his coffee on his jeans again, his favorite pair. They were worn and tight-fitting. He rushed through the crowded New York streets like another speeding ghost with only one thought on his mind: He was outgrowing his favorite pair of coffee-stained jeans. He survived rush hour by means of a stream of taxis and subways cars. He unlocked the door to his living room. She was sitting on the couch behind another one of her silly mystery novels as she always was. She looked at his jeans and smiled. He loosened his tie and collapsed onto her chubby lap. Later, he would remove the tie and the jeans and everything else. He would stand in the shower trying to wash the exhaustion from himself and she would scrub away tirelessly at the coffee stain on his favorite pair of jeans.

*

They met when they were six. He bumped into her at the park while imagining he was a fighter pilot on a very dangerous war mission. She bumped into him at the park while trying to escape the wrath of a very infatuated bumble bee. Thunder clapped when they crashed into each other and the raindrops exploded upon impact with the ground like tiny gray bombs. As the sky grew immediately darker, they ran off to trail behind their unenthusiastic parents who were trying to keep themselves dry. It rained almost every day that summer, and every summer after that. They met again when they were sixty. He bumped into her in the supermarket while trying to steer a buggy with a broken wheel. She bumped into him at the supermarket as she turned around after realizing she was on the wrong isle again. The electricity in the building flickered off and on. And as the light returned they found themselves in the park again. He was still wearing that same determined expression and she still smelled like flowers.