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Susan
said.
    “I’m saying we’ll
need these to cover the furniture. ’Cause I remember how fast you
eat pizza. How you could devour almost the whole thing while I was
getting us something to drink from the fridge.”
    Susan gasped. “I seem
to remember Mr. Skin and Bones here eating enough food to feed half
of Ethiopia!” She glared at him. “And yet never gained a
pound.”
    She poked a
finger into Kevin’s gut, expecting the old way-too-thin stick under
his t-shirt. But what she felt was lean and hard, and only made her
face burn all the more. God, he’s changed , she
thought as she turned rigidly toward the pizza and opened the
lid.
    Frozen and air
shipped or not, Pete’s Pizza was still the most intoxicating food
on the planet, instantly blotting out her prior inappropriate
thoughts about Kevin’s new body, and about her wedding fiasco, and
even the soreness in all her muscles. All there was were the scent
and the taste as Susan scooped up a piece and bit greedily into the
sauce and cheese and crispy crust. The pepperoni was still a few
degrees hotter than the usual pizza pepperoni. She fell back in
bliss against the overstuffed couch cushions, chewing with rapture
coursing through her.
    “Can I have another?”
Susan said before Kevin had taken a second bite of his piece. Kevin
scooped up another piece and slapped it on the napkin in her hand.
She inhaled that piece too, licking her lips, ready for another
slice--but she looked too long at the napkin in her hand. Though it
had pizza grease on it, and it was wrinkled, its generic whiteness
reminded her too much of “the napkin,” and she sat there staring
down at it, tears forming in her eyes.
    The Sheryl Crow song
started again.
    This made her look up
and sniffle back her tears, her lips spreading into a grin. “What’s
with that song? You got it on replay or something?”
    “Just like in
college, remember?”
    And she did. She
remembered how he’d put it on repeat and they would dance around
her dorm room like a couple of fools. She felt her own grin start
to fade, remembering how happy she had been.
    Suddenly Kevin was on
his feet, pulling her up under her arms until she was on hers too.
He twirled her around a couple times, twisting her so she was
inadvertently dancing along with him. Before she knew it, Susan was
dancing, swaying her hips, moving her feet, and as her fingers
started snapping along with the music, her lips spread into a grin,
and then an honest-to-goodness smile.
    He twirled her again,
and a husky laugh erupted from her lips.
     
    * * * *
     
    Kevin had forgotten
the sound of Susan’s laugh. Even with their weekly phone calls,
hearing that wonderful belly laugh in person was a completely
different thing. It made all his misgivings, all the pull and tug
of his dormant feelings, worth it.
    As they bumped hips
and Susan jumped up on the couch and shook her ass to the music, he
could see how her emotional turmoil was finally fading away. It
didn’t matter that the happiness she was feeling was simply
nostalgia. As long as it was a taste of happiness, that was the
important thing.
    Susan jumped off the
couch and into Kevin’s arms, wrapping her arms around his neck as
her legs wound around his hips. She leaned back and howled like an
animal--maybe it was just her singing voice? Or maybe just a feral
howl. Either way, at least she couldn’t see Kevin’s face, and he
was grateful for that. The feel of her body wrapped around his and
the smell of her, even after two days of not showering, took his
breath away.
    Susan stopped and sat
up, disentangling herself from Kevin’s body.
    “You okay?” Kevin
said, afraid she’d felt his woody growing between them.
    “No, I’m not okay! I
just caught my reflection in the mirror!”
    Susan dashed to the
back of the suite, to the bathroom, and slammed the door shut
behind her. The hiss of the shower kicked on just as the last
chords of Sheryl’s song played. Kevin reached down and turned