Light flooded the room, with its large windows early that morning. There was a half wall that overlooked the living room and kitchen. Tina moved from the pull-out couch that she'd slept on to peer over the wall. She spotted Patti, already down in the kitchen, preparing breakfast for the family.
Artie was still snoring lightly, from the air mattress he slept on, and though he was sound asleep, he moved around a lot. Without even fully waking up, he would shift his weight and grab one leg or the other with his hands and reposition them. It looked like an awful lot to keep track of, and in your sleep, no less.
Tina decided to try to quietly get dressed and slip out without disturbing Artie, so she could give him the privacy he'd need to get ready. At least the game room had a bathroom attached, and at least that bathroom had a shower chair that someone had added for him. Still, she knew he'd struggle and didn't need her around as an audience.
"Can I help with breakfast?" Tina asked Patti, a few minutes later when she'd changed into an oversized long-sleeved shirt and joggers, with her boot of course, and gone downstairs. Patti nodded and let her help with the French toast.
"My Arthur's favorite," she told Tina, as Tina mixed egg and milk in a bowl to dip the bread as Patti fried each slice and piled it onto an enormous platter. "Is Artie still asleep up there?"
"Yes," said Tina. "I don't think he really slept on the plane yesterday. I tried not to wake him."
"I still feel awful about the house," she said, in a low voice. "Although he was much happier to be here yesterday than he was ten years ago. We shouldn't have done that to him then."
"Patti... I mean, Mimi," Tina corrected herself, recalling that the older woman had said to call her that. "I don't think that's how he feels. He told me he regrets not coming back any sooner. And last night, we looked at your old pictures together and watched a video of him water skiing. He loves this place."
Patti just nodded, but Tina wasn't so sure she'd really convinced her. She helped out in the kitchen as best she could, making the coffee and setting out mugs, once she'd found them. The alarm beeped, to signal the front door opening. Tina glanced out the window, spotting Artie at the top of the steep driveway.
As quickly as she could, Tina hurried through the living room, out the door that led to the bottom of the steep drive. "Artie!" she called out. "You sure about that?"
But he was already heading down, arms pulled back firmly to slow himself down. He stopped right in front of her and grinned. "That looked way harder when I was ten," he said. He wheeled past her, headed for the porch, which had two steps to get up. Artie used some creative maneuvers to get over the two steps, holding tightly to the rail with one hand, and before Tina could say stop, don't do that, he was already on the porch.
Tina could only laugh. "Hang on," she said. "I'll bring out some coffee." She went backs to the kitchen, pouring two cups of coffee with just the right amount of hazelnut creamer.
"Thanks," said Artie, accepting his and taking a sip as he stared out at the lake, the sunlight reflecting off the still water. "So, um, you kissed me last night," he added, while they were still alone for a few minutes.
"Uh, Happy birthday?" Tina tried, non-chalantly pulling up a seat beside him. "I mean, it seemed like the right way to celebrate getting older, you know? Kissing your best friend?"
"Ah, yes," Artie said, sipping his coffee and continuing to stare at the lake. "I'll have to remember that the next time one of my female friends has a birthday. Isn't Lauren's coming up? You think that's how she'd want me to celebrate it?"
Tina shoved him playfully. "Okay, you got me," she said. "I wanted to kiss you. I have for awhile now. There, happy?"
"I... wanted to kiss you, too," Artie said, a bit shyly, ducking his head. "And I bet I have for longer than you. But I didn't want to make it weird."
"Oh, yeah?" asked Tina, curious now. "How long?"
Artie pretended to be thinking. "Seventh grade?" he said. "Well, not right away, I wasn't really thinking about you that way immediately. But it was probably in science class, when you had to explain life cycles for a presentation, and I watched you stutter all the way through it. It was so cute and... and I wanted to kiss you after that."
"Yeah, and then that stutter ended us."
"Again," said Artie, holding up a hand. "Stop. That is not even what happened. Because, if you recall, we weren't even technically dating then. It was after I forgave you that we started dating. And I'll never forget you kissing me in front of the bus."
"Oh, please, do forget that one," Tina implored him. "I can't forgive myself for being so naive about all those studies, for giving you false hope."
"Who says it's false hope?" Artie said, with a shrug. "You know, I picked my field of study partially because I'd like to be in the know, if anything does happen within my lifetime. But if it doesn't? Or if it's too late for someone like me? I don't care. That's not something I have to have to still go on and have the kind of life I want."
Tina nodded. "Well, um, so, what do you think?" she asked. "About... about us?"
Artie sighed. "I do have some concerns," he said, which was not at all what she expected.
"Well, then, what was all that flirty stuff about on the way here?" she asked. When Artie looked confused, she spelled it out for him. "Holding my hand in the car?"
"Sorry, I..." he scrunched up his face. "Moment of weakness? You were flirting with me all the way here, I was just reacting, I..."
"Uh-huh," she said, grinning at him now. He couldn't help but begin to smile back, but he quickly fixed his face, becoming serious again.
I just wonder what this is really about," he confessed, looking like it cost him a lot to say this. "Is it because you don't like being alone, Tina? And I mean, I'm not saying I like being alone either. But remember how I told you that you just can't force yourself to be in a relationship to avoid it? Well, I'm afraid you're forcing yourself to be with me, just because you think it's what I expect. We have a lot of time in college ahead of us. Believe it or not, there are guys at Brown, who are gonna be interested in you, who aren't gay or married..."
Tina absolutely was not expecting rejection. She stared down at her cup of coffee, not sure how to respond to that. She couldn't imagine having as much fun as she and Artie did, with anyone else. None of them are you, Artie, would have been a great line, but she didn't say it.
When she said nothing, he spoke up again. "How about this?" he said. "Let's make a pact. If we're both not married by 30... we'll marry each other."
Tina hadn't been expecting anything like that, and as he gave her that cute half-smirk, she couldn't help it. She burst out laughing. "Oh, my God, Artie, yes!"
"Where's my birthday boy?" Artie's grandmother interrupted just then, coming out on the porch with a plate of French toast and leaning over to kiss Artie's cheek.
"I'm right here," his grandfather joked, following closely behind his wife. "Oh... I see how it is."
"Happy birthday, Pops," Artie said. "Don't worry, I'll try not to steal your thunder. Seventy is a much bigger deal than twenty."
"Best gift I ever got was when I turned fifty," Arthur reminisced, gripping Artie's shoulders from behind. "That would be you, kiddo. You weren't due for a couple more weeks, but you wanted to share my birthday. It's how you got lucky enough to share my name as well."
"I hope I wear it well," said Artie, whom Tina knew had never had any particularly strong dislike of the name, other than the fact that it made him sound older, especially when coupled with a wheelchair.
"Everyone, dig in," Patti was saying, as the rest of the family assembled out on the porch. She'd brought out powdered sugar, fresh strawberries, and syrup as toppings. Tina felt herself gaining five pounds just by looking at it.
"Happy birthday, little brother," Amy said, coming up and handing Artie his plate, after she'd stacked it high for him. "Hey, I was thinking, let's go watch some of the old home videos after breakfast."
"Artie and I started watching one last night," Tina told her, glancing over at Artie to see what he thought of this topic, but he didn't look bothered so far. "It was neat, um, I never knew Artie water skied."
"Better than all of us," John Abrams added, exchanging a smile with his son.
And that was how they all ended up back in the living room after breakfast, as Amy hurried up to the game room, and came back with an armful of tapes. "I don't know where to start," she said. "Let's just pick at random. And the winner is... 2002!"
This video featured Amy at age 10, Artie at age 7, and Kerry-Ann as a rambunctious three-year-old with pigtails. Artie moved so fast that they almost always missed getting him on film for long. He could be seen darting on and off screen most of the time.
After 2002, Amy made another random pick. "Oooh, we go back to the 90's now, this is 1999," she said. "Sorry, Kerry-Ann."
"Might be a few shots of my big belly," Nora added.
Artie was first on the screen. He was distracted, as usual, by something off-screen and was clearly a wiggly dude, at four years old. His grandfather was conducting another birthday interview at the lake house.
"Hey, Art," he said. "How old are you now?" Artie put up four fingers. "Very good. You're four. And how old is Pops?"
At this, Artie squinted one eye shut. "Berry, berry, berry old!" He punctuated each mispronunciation of 'very' by jumping up and down.
"Is there anything you want to say?"
Artie shook his head, his adorable brown hair falling into his eyes, like it needed to be cut. He also didn't have glasses yet. Tina was dying over the cuteness of this close up.
"Will you bi-deo me on my twampowine, Pops?" he asked. "Else, guess what? Then I won't get to see it on the tee-bee!"
Without waiting for an answer, little Artie ran across the front yard where, sure enough, there was a trampoline with a net around it for safety.
As she watched Artie jumping, Tina was sure she hadn't seen any trampoline when they'd pulled up to the house. She glanced over at Artie, who'd finally shown some sign that it was getting to him. He was busy scrolling on his phone instead of watching now. The video moved on to some footage of just Amy, however, and at this, he set aside his phone and went back to watching.
After movies, there had been lunch, then more movies and some board games, then dinner, and then a calm, gentle boat ride as sunset approached. She'd cozied up next to Artie again on the boat and would have been tempted to hold his hand, had it not been for the presence of his family there. That, and the conversation they'd had earlier in the day.
The only thing Tina regretted about the day was accepting his proposal to be his bride, if they ever found themselves single and turning thirty.
In the moment, it was easy enough to make a pact like that, mostly to save face after his rejection. But it was much more complicated, when she really thought about it. Why would she ever want to wait that long to start a life with someone? Especially Artie. The idea of a back-up fiancée was anything but romantic.
"Hey, Artie?" she asked, as she was getting comfortable on her couch bed again, while he was in the bathroom, brushing his teeth before bed.
"Yesh?" he replied, his mouth full of toothpaste. She heard him spit, and then he said, "What is it?"
"How about instead of thirty, we make it twenty-five?" she suggested, revising what she'd been about to ask, right there, on the spot.
Artie poked his head out, the toothbrush still hanging out of the side of his mouth. The corners of his lips turned up. "You've got yourself a deal, Tee."
As she settled back, trying to decide if even five or six years would be too long to wait, he wheeled by, catching the corner of her bed and cursing under his breath. He shook his hand out in disgust. Everything was so tightly arranged that it was hard for him not to bump something with each movement he made. She knew a part of him, the part that hated bumping into stuff and scooting down staircases, would be glad when it was time to fly back to Rhode Island.
"Oh, hey," he said, before moving onto his air mattress for the night. "Rachel Berry texted me earlier. She has weekend tickets for me and anyone I want to bring to see Funny Girl, since I missed opening night. Want to see if we can change our return flight to New York?"
New York with Artie? Tina couldn't wait.