For the Love of Gav

Friday Again

Nashteth flew them home to New Mexico the next morning. On the plane, they mostly sat quietly. Relieved. Grateful.

When the plane landed, it was time to say goodbye to Nashteth.

"Nina." Nashteth pulled her aside. "Thank you for reaching out to me. Thank you for sticking with us. Thanks for looking after my brother."

Nina shifted awkwardly. "Thank you for letting me be a part of it."

"I think I could use someone like you in my business. Permanently. Call sometime in the next week, and we'll work something out. I know you now, and you have my trust. I won't ask you to do anything you don't agree with, and I promise I will always listen to your concerns and take them into account. I hope you'll take me up on it."

"Thank you, Nashteth. I'll call."

"And you, Leo. You ever need anything, I want you to call me, okay? I never forget a friend."

Leo put his arm around Nina. "You got it."

Nashteth turned away but stopped short and looked back. She put a question mark on her face and pointed back and forth between Nina and Leo. "You two?"

Nina nodded.

"About time." And in true Nashteth fashion, she swirled around, hair shining, and boarded her plane, not saying another word.

Leo's car was still at the airport, and he quietly drove Nina, Gav and Ed back to the apartment complex.

When they parked, Leo went to check on Ziggy, and Ed said that he wanted some fresh air and went for a fly. Nina suspected they were both giving her and Gav some time.

At her suggestion, she and Gav went for a walk over to Laguna Park where the birds were still not Ed. They sat at the bench where Gav had mourned the distress of his people and where she had comforted and bolstered him.

"I suppose you'll be going with Ed."

Gav nodded. "He knows me. And I can't stay on your couch forever. We always knew that. The whole idea was to get me on my feet, right?"

Nina nodded solemnly, her mouth a hard set line and her eyes desperately trying not to tear. Gav looked over at her.

"Nina, oh Nina. Hey." He tucked her head onto his shoulder, arm around her back. "Don't rust on me. What's the matter? Didn't you want me to move on?"

"You're going to forget me."

"How could I forget you?"

"You've known me for what? A week? What's a week in eternity? I'll be nothing in your eons of existence."

"That's not how it works."

"It's not?" She heard how young, how vulnerable her voice sounded, but she couldn't change it. She had such a desperate hope.

"No, it's not. How can I explain this? Let's imagine our lives as books, okay? Your book has 300 pages. No matter how long your life is, you have the same number of pages. Right now, it's 300 pages. In fifteen more years, it's still the same. So the longer it is, the more you have to get rid of stuff, or make it less, to fit." Nina nodded. This was exactly why she would be so small in his life. "But my book's not like that. When I get more time, I get more pages. That means nothing gets diminished, nothing gets left out. Every memory, every moment, it's just as important as it is when I first live it. How could I forget you?" He stroked her hair and gave a kiss on top of her head. "Honestly, you act as if we're never gonna see each other again."

"Are we?"

"Are we?" He sounded insulted and looked down at her. "What do you think of me, Nina Cravalho? I'm just going to abandon one of my best friends to go live a life of out of touch immortality? Don't answer that." He stroked her hair again. "I promise I will be around. Can't lie, remember? And if I'm not and you need me, you know how to reach me."