232.

Ed gave Olivia one more deep, passionate kiss, rolled onto his back, and held her close. The night at Caroline's turned into two nights and most of the day Monday. It took that long for Caroline to fend off the requests for an X-ray and prove to Ed she was capable of moving around the house by herself. Brooke and Sarah both offered to stay the rest of the week, but Caroline threatened to call the police and instead suggested she text the family when she woke up, when she had lunch, and before she went to bed. They agreed. Ed, unbeknownst to Caroline, employed the neighbors for an extra set of eyes. As a result, it was Monday night before Ed and Olivia had any sort of alone time, and they made the most of it. Acting as if they'd been separated for months, Ed arranged for a candlelight takeout dinner, and, afterward, they wasted no time getting to the bedroom.

"Mmmmm," Olivia droned into his chest. "So good…"

Ed kissed her head, or, rather, the mound of brown hair below his chin. He played with her fingers on the hand that wasn't trapped under her body and kissed them, too. "I hate being away from you," he said.

"I know," Olivia replied, "But you're here now." She closed her eyes and concentrated on the proximity of their bodies, his firm chest, his arms and hands possessively keeping her glued to him. Ed had a way of making his selfish desire for his wife charming rather than alarming, and Olivia loved how he made no secret about wanting her all to himself.

"You got even prettier since Saturday," Ed murmured.

Olivia chuckled, raised her head, and thanked him with a kiss.

"Sorry you had to do school duty by yourself today."

"Oh it was a breeze," Olivia reported, "Noah told me all about his weekend at Grandma's on the way there and back, and Maggie and Wyatt are old pros now. Oh, but, one of their teachers told me…they've been building themselves a fort in one of the corners of the room and not letting the other kids in."

Ed laughed softly and then audibly as he pictured his pair of three-year-olds cordoning off a preschool classroom with blocks or Legos or whatever they were using. "Are we gonna be called in for a conference?" He asked.

"Maybe…I tried to talk to the twins today, but…they're three. And from what I gathered, Wyatt told me the other kids could come into their area if they knew the password."

"Password?"

"Yeah, you know how Noah's always saying they need a password to do this or have a snack or whatever…they're used to it. But the other kids aren't. So I tried to explain that passwords were only for when they were playing with Noah, but…we'll see."

Ed was still laughing and said, "I want to see this. Tomorrow I'm going to have them show me the password protected area."

"You're not helping."

"Hey, I just want to see if it's password-worthy."

Olivia raised her head again and tried to give her husband a warning glare, but all she could do was smile when she saw his face. She slowly straddled him and gave him a few quick kisses before he initiated a longer, more passionate one. His hands traveled up and down her body and a few minutes later he switched positions and hovered over her. She was starting to breathe heavily with anticipation as he seductively eyed her naked body and then, at the slowest possible pace, started trailing kisses down her body.

….

The next morning, Ed awoke early, checked the time, and in doing so, saw their door was unlocked. He slid out of bed, stopped in the bathroom, and emerged wearing sweats and a t-shirt. On the way out of the room he smiled at his conked-out wife and his chest swelled with pride. Everything about last night had been reunion-worthy and the fact she had not stirred as he made his way around their suite was proof he'd succeeded.

In the kitchen, he started on pancakes and bacon because he had the time and because he was in an extra good mood. Though he had the time most mornings, the kids' breakfast on weekdays was usually simple and quick, and Noah had started to take the lead on pouring cereal and milk or making instant oatmeal. Ed whisked the batter and poured it onto the griddle. He'd flipped and plated eight pancakes and had four more cooking when Wyatt came running into the room with energy that suggested he'd been awake for a while.

"Hey, bud," Ed said to him as he picked him up, "Good morning."

"Hi," Wyatt said. He smiled and buried his head in Ed's neck for a second. Then, he peered with interest at the stove, "Bi'b'fast!"

"Yep. You hungry?"

Wyatt nodded and replied, "No berries?"

Ed smiled. "I'll get some fruit for ya." He peeked into the refrigerator and reported they had pineapple and melon, but no berries.

"I li'pi'apple." Wyatt smiled as Ed placed a few slices on a paper towel in front of him. "Sponge Bob," Wyatt murmured as he took a bite.

"What's that, Wy?"

"Sponge Bob! Li'inna pi'apple unner da SEA!"

"Oh yeah," Ed grinned and took a piece of the fruit for himself. "Hope he doesn't mind if we eat a little bit of his house."

Wyatt smiled as he chewed. A dribble of juice ran down his chin and he wiped it with the back of his hand. While Ed finished the last of the pancakes and turned the bacon, Wyatt intently watched every move. When Ed used tongs to transfer the meat to a paper-towel lined plate, his eyes followed Ed's arm back and forth, back and forth, until the task was completed. Wyatt was so focused, he didn't notice Noah walk into the room and he jumped at the sound of his brother's voice.

"Is it Saturday?" Noah asked.

Ed chuckled. "Nope."

"Oh," Noah shrugged and climbed onto a chair. "Dis is a Saturday breakfast."

"Sorry, pal, it's Tuesday."

Noah twisted his lips and replied, "S'okay. I like Tuesday."

"You do?" Ed was certain he had never heard anyone say that before.

"Yep. On Tuesday we have extra art time and extra music time and in music we can do anything we want in da extra time!"

"Anything?" Ed asked, pretending to be astonished.

"Uh huh! You can play da drums-everrone wants to do dat-or da maracas or keyboards or bongos."

"I bet Tuesday is your teacher's favorite day, too."

"Prolly. Hey!" Noah craned his neck around the kitchen's half-wall, "Maggs! Hi sleepyhead!"

Maggie crinkled her nose. "What's cooky?" She asked without greeting Noah or anyone else.

"A Saturday Tuesday breakfast," Noah replied.

Wyatt giggled and spun around in his sister's direction. "Sa'day, Tue'day b'fast!" He echoed. "An' pi'apple!" He extended a half-eaten wedge, "You wa'bite?"

Noah swiped it and popped it into his mouth.

Maggie frowned and growled. NO! My PI'APPLE!"

Ed leaned over the island. "There's plenty of pineapple to go around. Come over here, Maggs."

Maggie trotted around the island, dragging her blanket and her baby with her. Ed gave her a hug and a kiss and teased her about her wild mop of bed-head hair.

"Daddy," she said in a strained voice, "Pi'apple!"

"Oh, sorry." Ed went once again to the fridge and when he turned around, Olivia was walking in to join her family. She'd pulled her hair back and secured it with a large clip. She was wearing an oversized, ratty t-shirt and a pair of Ed's sweatpants which turned him on all over again because she had plenty of pairs of her own loungewear. "Morning," he said in a deep, throaty voice.

"Good morning." She kissed each kid and then him, lingering on his lips and making eye contact for an extra, poignant second.

"You want pineapple, too?" Ed asked softly as he studied her face for the zillionth time-her lips, the freckles, her cheekbones.

"Sure," she looked at the kids, "If you'll share?"

"A'course we'll share, Mommy!" Noah said.

"Nother piece!" Maggie asked Noah who was now the keeper of the plastic container.

"What's da password?" Noah asked.

"Ah!" Olivia said, "We need to talk about this password business."

Noah appeared confused.

"Maggie, Wyatt," Olivia said in a voice as stern as she could muster when addressing her three-year-olds, "I know you like to play the password game with Noah and at home, but no passwords at school."

Wyatt rose to his knees and defended Maggie and himself. "We pay pa'word at school! Inna liss'ning cenner!"

"Da pa'word is BANG!" Maggie added. "Inna FORT!"

Ed was cracking up. Noah, too, was starting to laugh. Olivia cracked a smile and continued her lecture, futile as it might be. "The other kids are allowed to be in the listening center," she said, "The classroom is for all the kids. At home, you can have passwords. And a fort. Not at school."

Wyatt appeared genuinely confused at the directive. Maggie went back to munching on her pineapple and wandered to the table where Ed had placed the pancakes and bacon.

"So, we're good?" Olivia asked. "No passwords at school? We understand?"

Reluctantly, Wyatt nodded.

"Maggie?"

"No pa'word a'school!" She shouted a little too compliantly.

Olivia glanced at Ed. He was still laughing. "You realize we have fourteen or so more years of this, right?" She muttered to him under her breath as he returned to the range.

"Of preschool?"

"Ed! No! Of the two of them being in cahoots."

"They could be arguing with each other all the time…"

Olivia considered this. "Well…I suppose I would rather have them commandeer the listening center than bicker constantly."

"There ya go," he grinned at her and leaned in for a kiss, "Ya gotta look on the bright side, Liv."

"Sure. No problem," she replied, "But you're answering to the teachers if they get in trouble for passwords again today."

"You got it."

….

Olivia sent Noah to brush his teeth, reminded him about top and bottom, and wandered back to the kitchen for a reason unbeknownst to Ed. He hadn't eaten dinner with the two of them, but the dishes were put away and the countertops had been wiped down. Olivia's wine had been poured and the glass was on the coffee table. So, the trip to the kitchen seemed to be an effort to put distance between the two of them.

Ed gathered his resolve. They had been through far too much to let whatever was on her mind come between them. "Liv, what is it?" He asked, making sure to plant his feet and fight the instinct to move toward her.

"Hmm?" She looked up with a guilty expression. She knew she couldn't fool him. "Nothing. Do you want wine?"

"No, uh, I'm good…I…I feel like there's somethin' goin' on between us and I'm not sure what it is."

"Ed, I…" Olivia's shoulders slumped and her eyes clouded over.

"Mommy!" Noah called from the bathroom, "Ah'brushed!"

"Be right there," she called back.

"Should I wait here?" Ed asked, genuinely unsure whether or not he should stay or go.

Olivia, on the other hand, regarded the question with a furrowed brow. "Yes," she said as if he'd asked the dumbest question in the world. When she returned, her attitude had softened. "Noah wants you to say goodnight," she said.

This did not surprise Ed. By now, he'd been around for countless bedtimes. Nevertheless, he hesitated until he saw Olivia's face contort into a smile. She jerked her head toward the back of the apartment. Ed made his way to Noah's room. He still looked so tiny in the recently-purchased big boy bed.

"Hey Noah."

Noah popped up into a sitting position in a way that looked amusingly mechanical. "Story, Ed?"

"No…I don't think we're allowed to do that tonight," he said, "Just sayin' goodnight."

Noah frowned for a second but reached up for a hug. "Ni'Ed," he whispered into his neck.

"Night, night."

"Seeyainnamornin?" He asked brightly.

"Uh…I don't know. I'll see you soon, okay?" Ed grabbed the stuffed elephant lying on the opposite side of the pillow, "Here. You and Eddie go to sleep."

"Kay."

It took exactly thirty steps for Ed to return to the living room. Olivia was sitting in her usual spot in the middle of the couch which Ed considered to be a good sign. Olivia had poured him a glass of wine. The weight of the room had lifted. But, he opted to sit in the armchair. He needed to either affirm or clear the doubts in his mind.

"You want to tell me what's goin' on?" He asked.

Olivia took a deep breath and sighed. "I'm worried we're headed down two different roads," she said. "The other night…when we were out with Cole, it was all small talk, you probably don't remember, but you mentioned, more than once, being retired. And…Ed…I'm not there."

Relieved, Ed leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "Liv, I'm not either. I think about it. I'm lookin' forward to it. But it's not happening tomorrow. Not next year. And, when I'm feeling like it's getting to be time, I like to think it's a decision I'll make…with your input." He swallowed and added, "With you."

"That's the thing, Ed. I don't even feel like it's close to being time for me to hang it up."

"I didn't mean I want us to retire together. I mean…Liv, I don't think me being on the job and us being together have anything to do with one another."

"How, Ed?" Olivia protested, "How can they not? Do you really want to be home with Noah all the time while I'm off on a call? Do you want that life? Retirement involves a certain level of freedom, and, if you retire and I don't, you don't have that freedom and I'm…I'm going to be feeling guilty all the time."

Ed blinked. He wasn't sure if Olivia realized the level of commitment she'd revealed. Though he was stunned and pleasantly surprised, he didn't press the fact that what she said sounded a whole lot like she envisioned the three of them as a family.

"One of the reasons why I'm not ready to retire is that freedom piece," he said, "I don't know what I'd do with it. It doesn't excite me like it's supposed to. Can we…table this for a while? I don't want this hanging out there and driving a wedge between us, Liv. I'm not sayin' the concern isn't important or isn't valid, it's, just…it's not something I think we need to think about right now. And when the time comes to seriously think about it, I want it still to be we."

Olivia cocked her head and asked, "Do you ever get tired of convincing me you're not going anywhere?"

"No." Olivia opened her mouth to say something else, but Ed beat her to the punch. "And I never will," he said as he rose to his feet and walked over to sit next to her. He put one arm on the back of the couch and with his opposite hand he twirled sections of her hair around and around as he spoke. "I don't care how many times I have to say it or show it, Liv. I'm here. And I'm going to be here for as long as you want. I love you."

Olivia closed her eyes, pressed her forehead against his, and murmured, "I never get tired of hearing that."

"Olivia Benson," he whispered and pulled back just enough so he could stare into her brown eyes. "I love you."

She nodded. An alluring combination of relief and desire filled her face as she told him she loved him too.

…

Ed checked his watch and double checked the name of the restaurant on the menu that had been sitting in front of him for ten minutes. Carisi was rarely late, and when he was, he was good about calling or texting, so Ed started to get a little antsy before he got worried. The server came by and asked if he wanted another drink. Ed said yes and promised to nurse this one. A few minutes later, Carisi appeared looking natty in his slim-fitting suit. He apologized, blamed the subway, and after closely studying the cocktail menu ordered a simple draft beer.

"I'm glad we could do this," Sonny said after he took his first sip. "I can't remember the last time I got to kick out of work early. Even with a couple of drinks, I'm gonna be home three hours earlier than normal. Brooke's gonna freak, well, if she isn't at her study group."

Ed raised his eyebrows. Something about the way Sonny uttered study group made him sense the group and Brooke's participation in it did not sit well with his son-in-law. Both Sonny and Justin were experts at picking up his nonverbal cues, and Sonny extrapolated.

"She's working with a bunch of guys," he said, "It's weird, right?"

"My wife worked with a bunch of guys for her whole career."

"You have a point there. But, you and Liv weren't together all that time."

"My point is that she wasn't jumping to sleep around with every guy she worked with." Ed hated to employ such crude language in regards to Olivia, and, by extension, Brooke, but it seemed to resonate with Sonny.

"Yeah, I guess, she's so passionate about this class and obsessed with doing well, I mean, that's great and all, but I can't help but get a little jealous, and I don't think I'd be as jealous if there were a few women in the group, you know?"

Ed understood, but cautioned, "You might want to keep all this to yourself," he said, "Especially since I'm pretty sure you trust your wife."

"Oh yeah. That's why I called you," Sonny replied, grinning. "Needed to get it out there. Now I feel better about it. But I might pop in one of these days just to make sure." He saw Ed's eyes begin to form a glare and held up his hands, "Kidding, kidding."

"I don't know much about women," Ed replied, "But I do know they appreciate being trusted and get really annoyed at jealous husbands…or boyfriends."

Sonny gave Ed a playful punch in the shoulder. "You got jealous back in the day?" He asked gleefully.

"Still do. But I don't let it show."

"Yeah but I'll bet Liv still knows."

"Oh yeah," Ed pictured his wife and smiled, "She does. But…that's part of the fun of it."

…

Sarah entered the apartment after work, braced for Pearl's greeting, and, after petting her and scratching her ears went inside and found Justin standing on the balcony, smoking a cigarette. She screwed up her face. To her knowledge, Justin had never been a smoker, and everything he liked to do for fun, like pickup basketball, was taxing on the lungs. She tapped on the window before joining him and gestured to the smoke.

"Long day?" She asked.

"I'm freaking out, Sare."

"Why?" Sarah opened her eyes wide. Justin never freaked out. She was the one in the relationship who freaked out and, even then, she freaked out over frivolous things. It was more for dramatic effect than anything.

"I read through the dissertation again. I think there are too many holes in the research. I'm gonna get slammed."

"How? Your advisor oversaw the project!" Sarah had been making this point for at least six months. Whenever Justin doubted himself, she always circled back to this incontrovertible fact.

"I think he was indulging me," Justin moaned. He flicked ashes from the cigarette, which he had yet to inhale with Sarah present. "I think…when I had the idea…he went along with it not thinking I would see it all the way to the end."

"Justin," Sarah rubbed his back and tried unsuccessfully to get him to look at her, "No one is going to put in that much time and effort and support for a worthless study. Well," Sarah said, trying to lighten the mood, "Maybe my company would, but anyway, not an NYU professor. What on earth do they have to gain by letting you pursue a crappy project?"

"I don't think they care. It's no loss for them. Anything worthwhile I found they can use and anything shitty is shitty and they basically got free labor for a couple of years."

"Do you want me to read it?" Sarah asked. She had read bits and pieces of his work but had never sat down to read the dissertation in its entirety.

"If you want."

"Can you print it? I had reading on the computer."

Justin finally made eye contact with her and grinned. "It's over a hundred pages."

"Don't we have paper?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, print it," she tugged on his waistband, "Finish your smoke, you can make me some kind of fun cocktail, and I'll get to work."

"I haven't actually smoked this." Justin held up the cigarette and then put it out on the railing and dropped the butt on their small round table.

"It doesn't seem like you know what you're doing. Where'd you get it?"

"Bummed it off some construction worker."

"Ah."

Sarah turned to go inside, but Justin pulled her back. "Sare," he said, "Part of what's going on, I think, is…people like me, from my neighborhood, we don't go to NYU and get these big fancy degrees. We…"

Sarah squeezed his hands. "Well, now you do," she said softly. "There have to be people like you or else other people like you would have no one to look up to, nothing to shoot for. Your nieces and nephews, their friends, all of them, they see you."

"Yeah."

Sarah kissed him and kicked open the door which she had not closed all the way. "I'm going to change and get comfortable," she said, "Print me that book of yours, okay?"

Justin nodded and grinned.

In the bathroom, Sarah washed her face and stared at herself in the mirror. Her heart and mind ached for Justin. His confession, she was sure, didn't begin to scratch the surface of his insecurities. Even at progressive NYU, he worked with mostly white students who came from wealthy or upper middle class families. One of the reasons why he had been so passionate about his work was that he was the only person on their research team who had actually lived the life of the people they were studying. Sarah suspected he struggled with the specter of tokenism and with knowing the reality that his work, no matter how right, would not fix anyone's situation overnight, or even over the course of a few months. She also acknowledged anything she said was not going to reassure him which was why she made the split second decision to read the dissertation. At least, having read it, she could provide feedback, and, if there really were holes, she could catch them, and she was a fast reader. She could finish tonight.

When she went back out to the living room, the printed copy and the cocktail were sitting on the kitchen island, ready for her.

"Didn't know where you wanted to work," Justin said.

"I'll start there."

"Need anything else?"

"Nope." Sarah picked up the stack of papers. "Why don't you go out and do something? Go see some people?"

"Maybe I'll go up to my mom's."

"Good idea."

"I'm gonna take the subway."

"Okay," Sarah flashed him a smile, "I'll be right here. Well, I might move to the couch or the bed, but, you know what I mean."

"I know." Justin kissed her and ran his fingers through her hair. "I love you, Sare."

"Love you, too."

…..

Ed awoke to his wife nudging him in the side. "Ed," she whispered urgently, "I think someone's in the kitchen."

"One of the kids?" He asked into his pillow.

"Maybe, but I didn't hear anyone go downstairs," Olivia said, her voice more insistent.

Ed sat up. The Delaware house was old and had creaky floors which Olivia didn't want to fix. The stairs were especially noisy, but if he and Olivia were knocked out, they didn't always hear their tweens and teen walk around. Ed blinked and got his bearings. After a minute, he got out of bed and opened the door. On the opposite end of the hall, all three bedrooms were dark, but he saw a dim light coming from the first floor and concluded it was from a computer.

He grabbed a t-shirt and muttered, "I'll be right back. It's one of the kids."

Ed bounded down the stairs. They creaked with every step and when he arrived in the dining room, Wyatt was staring in the direction of the noise, waiting for whoever was coming.

"Whatcha doin, bud?" Ed asked. Wyatt had, from a very early age, had the benefit of a default expression that was as innocent as they come. For twelve years, Ed had been waiting for the one time he would get mad or annoyed or angry at Wyatt, and whenever he felt the moment might be approaching, his youngest son looked at him with those big blue eyes and curious cock of the head and he absolutely melted Ed's heart. Olivia gave up on thinking she could ever be stern with Wyatt around first grade.

Wyatt removed his Air Pods. "Was watching Justin's lecture," he said, "And I wanted a table to take notes." He held up the small Moleskine notebook sitting to the left of the laptop.

"Oh…okay. Good deal. See you in the morning."

"I was quiet," Wyatt said, "I walked on the side of the stairs. Sorry."

"I didn't hear anything. Mom did."

"Oh." Wyatt grinned knowingly. "Next time I'll sleep downstairs the night Justin's lectures are goin on."

"That's alright bud. I remember you mentioning it now. We'll remember next time. What's the topic tonight?"

"The elderly and social media."

"Sounds interesting."

"Yeah, probably Justy woulda interviewed you, but you're not seventy-five yet."

"No…not yet."

"Why'd he choose seventy-five and up?"

"Average life expectancy of a man."

"Oh…"

"Do you want to watch the rest of it with me?" Wyatt asked. "There's only twenty minutes left."

There was that innocent expression again.

"Sure," Ed replied, "Let's go out on the porch so we don't need the ear buds."

"Okay. I'm gonna get a drink. Do you want one?"

"Sure. I'll take a beer."

"Are you gonna tell mom there's no robber?"

"Let's text her from the computer."

"Okay, I'll get the beers." Wyatt smirked and waited for his Dad to correct him.

At that moment, despite Wyatt's olive skin and brown hair, Ed felt like he was looking into a mirror. The kid had his smirk. He had his whole array of facial expressions. "Beer," Ed clarified. "One."

"I'm having root beer."

Ed grinned. It sure did take some wits to keep up with this kid.

….

Noah nearly fell backwards after school on Wednesday when he saw not only Sarah waiting for him but G as well. G murmured to Sarah how she loved how Noah wore his emotions on his sleeve. He was not yet old or world-weary enough to feel the need to hide sadness or cheer or, in this case, utter astonishment. To him, it was as if G had appeared suddenly from the cracks in the sidewalk.

"GEEEEEEE!" He shouted while running toward them. His backpack bounced against his head and G hugged it and Noah. "You came with Sare Bear to get me!"

"I did," G replied, "I finished all my work today and saw Sarah on the way into the building and she said she was coming to pick you up and asked if I wanted to come. And I did!"

"Dis is da best day," Noah said. He leaned into Sarah and then G, a little overwhelmed at the surprise.

"Noey," Sarah said, we haven't even done anything yet!"

"Still da best day," he said, removing his mittens. For January, the temperatures were mild but he had been required to put mittens on before leaving the building.

"Do you want to go bowling?" Sarah asked.

"Can we go to skee ball?" Noah countered.

"Um, well," Sarah chewed on a hangnail and explained to G that the place where they went to play skee ball the last time was technically not allowed to let Noah in.

"There's this place in the Financial District I know," G said, "They let kids in this early no problem."

"Do we haveta take da subway?" Noah asked hopefully.

"Either that or Uber," G reported.

"Well, we shall go!" Sarah said. "But, we have to take the subway. Noah hates Uber."

"Too slow," Noah said.

"Kid, you have a lot still to learn about the subway," Sarah replied.

"Which subway?" Noah asked G.

G laughed at Noah's natural disregard for Sarah's subway pessimism.

"We can take almost any one we want," G said, "The two, three, N, J…"

"N!"

"You said the magic letter," Sarah said with a grin, "But if another train comes first, we're getting on that one. I'm ready to kick some skee ball butt!"

"I bet you five bucks I beat you," Noah said.

"Should I stop and get some cash?" G asked.

"No, dat's okay, G, we take IOUs," Noah informed her and skipped a few paces ahead of the women.

G laughed as she walked. "Wow…he's…"

"He's clearly spent too much time around adults, particularly me and my Grandmother. But," Sarah gazed contemplatively at Noah, "I think he's going to be a better person because of it. Because of us. All of us. He's really good and mimicking all of our best attributes and discarding the rest."

"Maybe you hide them from him?"

"Eh, I don't think so. None of us have good filters."

"Maybe all of the good he's surrounded with drowns everything else? Or maybe the good is the part that sinks in?"

Sarah nodded. "Yep," she said, "That must be it. We've finally found a way to strain out all of the shitty character traits and produce a purely good human."

G and Sarah exchanged glances and silently acknowledged the lofty idealism in the idea. Yet, as they watched Noah half-skip front of them, they weren't yet ready to label it impossible.

"Sare Bear! G! Da subway is here!"

"We're coming, Noey."

"I hear it. C'mon." Noah peeled his metrocard from a slot on the side of his backpack and waved it in the air.

G laughed again. "He's like a mini…"

"He's a yuppie. He's already a freaking yuppie." Sarah grabbed Noah's hand and they went through the turnstile. "No more going out in front," she said.

"I know."

"And that wasn't the N you heard."

Noah grinned at the headlight that had appeared in the tunnel. "It's here now," he said triumphantly.

"You're a subway good luck charm," Sarah said, nudging him toward the slowing cars. "C'mon. Let's talk skee ball tournament terms before we get there."

….

#Tuckson