The next morning, Will and Zola were sitting together, marveling at the miracle that had happened to them.
"It's a dream, right?" Will asked his friend.
"Must be," Zola said in wonder. "But happy. Very damn happy!"
"What's damn happy?" a voice asked at the far end of the room. They looked up to see their employer's son, Kyle, smiling at them.
"Oh!" Zola cried out, rushing over to embrace him. "Me boy! Me handsome boy!" She touched his face, feeling the smooth, unscarred skin and the golden hair that had returned once again.
Will remained where he was. "Who the hell are you?" he asked.
Kyle cocked his head to one side. "Will, it's me, Kyle. Don't you recognize…" he trailed off, realizing. "Wait, you can see me?"
"Blindie's got his groove back," Will answered in affirmation, performing a batusi-like dance move.
"And me children's green cards came in de mail! It's a miracle!" Zola added.
Kyle smiled at his housekeeper, sending a mental "thank you" to Kendra. "I'm happy for you both. No one deserves it more than you two."
"And you certainly earned your devastating good looks. You…did get your good looks back, right? Otherwise, I have no idea what you've been bitching about all this time," Will said.
Kyle sighed, thinking of the day before with Lindy. "Yeah I did get them back, but…"
Zola's smile faded. "But what, darlin'? Didn't you and Lindy make up?"
"Yeah, didn't she have to tell you she loved you or some gooshy crap like that?" Will asked.
"We did make up, and she did tell me she loved me, but…I don't know…it's like she misses the old, scarred me or something. She seems…distant." He looked up at the faces of his friends. "And…you guys totally don't look surprised to hear this. Why?"
Zola and Will exchanged looks. Will took a breath, trying to explain. "Well, let's see, in one day, she goes from believing the guy who she lived with for six months doesn't care about her, to having him show up unexpectedly at her school and telling her he loves her. Then, she tells him she loves him, and sees him go from looking, as you described, like the lead in a slasher-flick, to a serious piece of eye-candy. And said eye-candy was not only the douchiest guy in school at one time, but he was also put under a magic spell." Kyle's tutor leaned back on the sofa and crossed his arms. "Frankly, I give her props for not running away screaming."
Kyle looked to Zola for a more comforting, motherly approach. "You must give her time. Everything she think she know been turned upside down," she told him.
"But it's still me. It was always me, deep down," Kyle argued.
"And just how long did it take you to figure that out?" Will countered. "Zola's right. You need to give her time to adjust to the fact that Hunter and Kyle are the same person."
Kyle nodded. "Listen, no matter what happens, I want you two to know that I appreciate you hanging in here with me. And I wanted to know…if you'd be willing to stick around a little longer."
"Another season in purgatory? I'm game," Will answered brightly.
Kyle laughed, and explained. "Lindy and I aren't going back to Buckston. I think we can do pretty well without the blow up classmates and the $80-a-minute teachers. We're going to get our GED's. And Will, we were hoping you'd help us get ready for it."
Will inhaled sharply. "You sure about this? Daddy's not going to be very pumped about his pride and joy wasting four years of tuition and not graduating with honors."
Kyle scoffed. "Would he ever really notice the difference? For all he knows, I sold myself to an Armenian circus and I'm making a nice living as the main side-show attraction."
"Your father hurt you, I know," Zola told him. "But he provided for you. He deserve to know what your plans are."
When Kyle still looked unconvinced, she added, "Don't stoop to his level, darlin'. Be de betta man and tell him de truth."
Kyle nodded. "You're right. I'm going to go talk to him now." He turned to leave.
"Hey, uh, Kyle?" Will called out. Kyle stopped to look at his tutor. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about Zola's and my incredible streak of good luck, would you?"
Kyle winked at his friends. "Always hope."
"Kyle! Well, just look at you!"
Kyle smiled shyly at Brenda, the buxom, brassy-haired receptionist who had worked the front desk at his father's news station for as long as he could remember. "Hi, Brenda. Good to see you."
"Isn't this unexpected! Does your father know you've come back from Japan?"
Kyle narrowed his eyes in confusion, and then it hit him. Of course. Always concerned about saving face, Rob Kingson must have told his co-workers that his son had joined a foreign exchange program through school and that's why there'd been no trace of him for nearly a year.
Kyle was tempted to burst the illusory bubble his father and created – he felt he deserved no less for his neglect – but he decided instead to play along. "Actually…I came back a little sooner than planned. I wanted to surprise him."
"Oh, and I'm sure it will be a lovely surprise! I'll go get him now."
"Thanks. Oh, and Brenda? Don't tell him it's me. Tell him…it's an old friend. Please."
"Ah, he'll love that! Okay, wait here in the lounge, and I'll get him."
As Brenda walked away, Kyle felt a cold slice of guilt in the back of his head for the portly receptionist. He and his father used to make fun of her behind her back. On the few occasions when Rob brought Kyle to the news station, they'd joke about the "gut with butts" who worked the front desk. And Brenda had been nothing but kind to him. Now having a new outlook on himself and others, he knew this probably wouldn't be the only time when he'd meet someone from his past and have to face his previous cruelty with shame.
Kyle could hear his father's voice as he exited the elevator and came down the hall. "Damn it, Brenda! Just tell me who it is, I don't have time for games…"
Kyle heard his father stop in his tracks when he entered the lounge. He turned around, smiling brightly. "Hi, Dad," he greeted him with fake enthusiasm.
Rob looked like he'd seen a ghost. "K-Kyle!" he managed to stammer. "You-you look…"
"Yes, doesn't he look wonderful? That exchange program definitely did him some good," Brenda interjected brightly.
"Dad, I was hoping to catch you up on all my adventures in Japan. This is a good time for you, isn't it?" Kyle asked, maintaining the plastic smile he'd learned from years of watching his father on TV.
Without waiting for an answer, Kyle took his shocked father's elbow and steered him out of the lounge and back to his office. "Hold his calls please, won't you, Brenda?" Kyle called out as they left.
Kyle ushered his father into his office and locked the door behind them. By now, Rob had finally regained most of his wits and turned around to face his once-again handsome son. "Kyle! How is this possible? We saw every doctor in the country-"
"Didn't matter. It was love. Love redeemed me."
Rob chuckled. "Well, I'm glad I could help."
Kyle managed to keep his temper in spite of his father's arrogant presumptions and maintained the smile on his face while Rob continued. "But that's not important now. What matters is that you're healthy and healed, and we can move you out of that apartment and back home-"
"I'm not moving back to the city," Kyle interrupted, now disposing of the Ken-doll smile.
"Well of course you are! How else do you plan to attend Buckston?"
"I'm not going back to Buckston either."
"Oh, Kyle. Don't worry about missing that year of school. I'll talk to the headmaster, throw a few bucks his way for a new art wing or something, and it'll be fine."
"I have no doubt you could pull something like that off," Kyle agreed, running his hands over the dark mahogany of Rob's desk, "But that's not the issue. I don't want to go back to the loft, and I don't want to go back to Buckston. I want things to remain as they are."
"Remain as they are?" Rob repeated incredulously. "You want to rot away in that shack in Brooklyn, no friends, no high school diploma, no nothing?"
Kyle smiled bitterly. "You didn't seem to have a problem with it just a few months earlier."
"Oh! God! That was different. I mean you were-you were-"
"A hideously scarred freak? Is that what you were going to say?"
"Your options were taken away," Rob explained diplomatically. "I mean, yes, it was a traumatic time in our lives, but we got through it. And now it's time for us to get back to our life."
Kyle narrowed his eyes. "What's all this 'we,' 'us,' and 'our' stuff? I haven't seen you in a year!" He walked up to his father, shaking his head. "I'm not going to stand here and blame you for what you did or didn't do. That's not why I came here. All I came to do is ask that you allow things to remain as they are. Let Zola and Will stay on with me. Let me keep the apartment. Once I get my GED, you can sell it."
Rob's eyes widened. "GED? That's for lowlifes and backwoods hicks who can't do any better. No son of mine is going to throw away a good education on something like that!"
"How do you know that my good looks are permanent?" Kyle asked with a sly smile. He didn't miss the subtle shift in his father's expression from outrage to fear. "What if I have some horrible, disfiguring disease that's chronic, but incurable? Are you really going to take that chance?"
"That couldn't happen…could it?"
"I'm not asking for anything that you can't comfortably provide. Give me another year—another year to do what I need to do. That's all I ask."
Just then, both Rob's Bluetooth lit up with a call, as did his desk phone. "Kyle, I have to take these."
Kyle sighed. "Sure, Dad. Are you going to let me have my way?"
Rob was already waving him out of his office. "Sure, sure. We'll keep in touch."
As Kyle left his father's office, he felt a bittersweet sense of relief that in the midst of the incredible changes in his life, there were some things that he could rely on to stay the same.
When Kyle returned home, he found Will sitting on the balcony, staring out at the afternoon sun.
"You know you shouldn't look directly into that thing, right?" Kyle teased his friend.
"Thanks, Mom. I'll remember that," Will snarked back, then added, "We're on our own for dinner. Zola's been out all day getting ready for her family to come over."
Kyle smiled. That knowledge made his visit to his father that afternoon all the more bearable. "Pizza?" he asked.
"Actually, I was thinking of making dinner. I can finally make something a little more elaborate than soup, comfortably."
"Have you been out here all day?"
Will smiled. "Yeah. I've been watching the sun move across the sky, going from the east to the west, morning to afternoon. I'm hoping we have an amazing sunset and we get some pink and purple streaks."
Kyle looked down. "You never realize the things you take for granted until they're taken away from you."
"That's true. But I'd like to think of getting my sight back as adding a new highlight to my life, instead of bringing all the meaning back to it. I had a pretty good life before this too." The two men smiled at each other.
"We have a lot of work to do," Will told his pupil. "The fact that we spent more time on your love life than your education over the last year doesn't help. But don't worry; I already started ordering the books we'll need to get ready for the GED."
Kyle nodded. "I got my dad to agree to give us a year more in the apartment, so at least that's covered."
"Awesome-balls! The next test is in September, so we only have a few months to prepare if that's the one you and Lindy want to take."
"It is. I'll give her a call now-"
"Actually…she called while you were out," Will said. He looked guilty. "She's trying to clear out her dad's old apartment and settle a few things before she moves back in. She said she'll call soon."
Kyle felt like he'd been struck in the chest. "Why…why didn't she call me and tell me that?"
Will shrugged. "She said she had tried to call you but you didn't answer. So she called me."
Kyle pulled out his cellphone and sure enough, there was one missed call, but no voicemail. She must have called while he was in the loud, crowded lobby at the news station and he didn't hear the ring.
"I'll call her back-"
"She said she was going to be busy for a few days and might not be able to talk," Will warned him. "Maybe you should just pull a Mr. Clean and get your house in order."
Kyle frowned in suspicion. "What do you mean?"
"Kyle, remember what I said when you first found Lindy? Baby steps? You took some big leaps there, but now it's time to go back to the ol' toddler trot."
"But…I love her. We love each other."
"I know that. But in the grand scheme of things, you two haven't known each other that long. And…I hate to say it, but Lindy's at somewhat of a disadvantage."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, think about it. She's never hidden her identity. She's worn her entire life on her sleeve. And you've seen her at some of the worst moments of her life. But there's still so much she doesn't know about you." Will saw how his words bothered his friend, so he laid his hand on his shoulder. "She'll come around. I promise."
But patience had never been one of Kyle's strong points. Even now, with this new outlook on life, restlessness had overtaken him.
He tried to dodge it. He spent the rest of the afternoon planning the reconstruction of the greenhouse, figuring out which roses to plant and where in the structure. He decided that now was the time to finally furnish his bedroom – make it feel like home instead of a prison. He'd been a nightowl when he was cursed, staying up all night and falling asleep wherever he happened to be in the apartment, whenever the urge hit him. But now he was going to live in the sunlight again. He was going to live like a man, instead of a beast.
And he owed it all to Lindy.
He tried to keep Will's advice in mind – to take the baby steps with their relationship. But he ached for her. He wanted to touch her, to kiss her. He'd had to fight his desires when he was cursed, finding himself just too repulsive to act on them. He'd believed that once the curse was lifted and he was normal again, there wouldn't be anything standing in his way of him being with Lindy, of showing her what she meant to him.
Except there was now something standing in his way, something that he hadn't anticipated: himself.
Lindy had called him "Hunter" last night when he left her. She still thought of that other part of him – that elusive, wounded animal – as her love.
Kyle never imagined he'd have to compete with himself. Especially when it was an uglier, less confident version of himself.
The hours of the evening seemed painfully drawn out. Kyle worked on the greenhouse, ate Will's Chicken Kiev, did some research on preparing for the GED exam. Finally, Kyle could no longer keep busy and he found himself walking up to Lindy's room.
He could feel her everywhere. He'd decorated the room for her arrival, choosing the furniture, the posters, and the linens, but every part had become a symbol of her. Kyle lay on her bed, breathing in the faintest remnant of her perfume on the sheets. He'd sleep there that night. It was the closest he could come that night to being with her.
He'd begun to drift off, begun to feel dreams hovering just above his consciousness. Then there was a bright ringing noise in his ears. He sat bolt upright, his heart pounding in surprise.
He brought the cell phone to his ear wearily. "Huhlo," he said dully, not bothering to check who was calling.
It was a single word, a single sound, breathed softly into the phone back to him.
"Hi."
It was one word, and Kyle felt he was going to choke on the feeling of joy rising up from his core.
"Hi," he managed to say. "Are you ok?"
"I am," Lindy told him. "I woke you, didn't I?"
"No," he lied. "No, I hadn't quite gotten there yet."
"How was your day?"
"Busy, I guess. Went to see dear ol' dad."
"And?"
"He was too busy to argue with me. We have the apartment for another year."
"That's good." She sighed. "I can't wait to come home."
Kyle's heart leapt from hearing that Lindy thought of the apartment as her home. "When do you think that'll be?" he asked, not caring if he sounded anxious.
She laughed, but there was sadness in the laugh. "Pibner was more than happy to see me go, so all that's left now is getting rid of the stuff in my dad's apartment. Fortunately, he'd sold most of the good stuff to pay for his, ahem, hobby."
"Yeah," was all Kyle could say. He thought he'd had it bad that day, having his father absolve himself of any blame for his actions and then blow his son off for a phone call. He couldn't imagine what it must have felt like for Lindy. To watch your father give up anything and everything to keep him in his habit.
It then occurred to Kyle: Lindy's father was willing to give up his daughter to a total stranger in order to save his life. What could have happened to her, if Kyle's intentions hadn't been as pure as they were?
Lindy's voice shook Kyle out of his thoughts. "My uncle John has decided to help him get back on his feet after he's done in rehab." She paused for a moment. "He asked me…if I wanted to move up to Great Neck and live with him and my aunt."
"But you said no…right?"
"Of course I did." She changed the subject. "Did you find out anything new about the GED?"
Kyle relayed to her what Will had told him about the next test. They both realized it gave them less than three months to prepare, but it was something they wanted to get over and done with.
"I'm gonna come home as soon as I can," Lindy whispered. "I promise."
Kyle nodded, even though he knew she couldn't see him. "I'll wait as long as I have to."
And Kyle meant it. Truly, he'd wait for Lindy forever, if that's what it took.
