The Lifestyle by Taylor Hahn

Author:Taylor Hahn [Hahn, Taylor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2022-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

Back on Essex, Whitaker waited with her for a yellow cab to drive by. She could have called an Uber, but didn’t. She wanted to stand with him for a while. The street was empty but for the occasional group of young people smoking cigarettes and yelling over each other.

Georgina must have been frowning without realizing it, because Whitaker said, “Something wrong?”

“No,” she said. “Not wrong. Just thinking.”

“About what?”

“About whether you’re angry at me.”

“For making me stand out here in the cold?” he asked.

“For not going with you to Peru,” she said.

He grinned. “If I say yes, will I get something out of it?”

“I’ve heard forgiveness can be very rewarding,” Georgina said. “Though personally, I prefer getting even.”

Whitaker gently kicked the toe of his boot against a green lamppost. “Nah. There’s nothing to be angry about. Not then and definitely not now.”

“Really? I still curse John Paul Pasteroni for stealing my mechanical pencil in the fifth grade.”

Whitaker rubbed his chin in exaggerated thought. “It all makes sense now.”

“What does?”

“Why you’re so deeply troubled,” he teased.

She lifted her chin and folded her arms. “Most people tell me I’m perfect.”

He looked at her sideways, his expression playful. “Well, I’m not going to lie to you, am I?”

A block away, a yellow cab turned from Houston onto Essex, and they both jumped to the curb, plunging their hands in the air. Her shoulder connected with his chest, and his free hand wrapped around her back to keep her from falling. For a beat, she sank into the relief of his body heat before scrambling back to the sidewalk with a panicky, “Sorry!”

“A decade later and I still send you running,” Whitaker said. “Figures.”

The cab forgotten, it rolled behind him and disappeared around the corner.

“Shit!” She chased it for a few steps before giving up.

“I knew you weren’t going to come,” he said quietly.

She turned. “Then why’d you ask?”

“It was worth a shot.”

“But I was going to law school,” she said.

“I know.”

“I’d already gotten in. I’d borrowed the money. I’d bought a pocket Constitution!”

“Yeah,” he said. “I know.”

“It wasn’t fair, what you did, to be completely honest. You could have canceled your plans and come with me to New York if you wanted to be together.” It came out huffier and more petulant than she’d intended. The past was the past. Why did this matter?

He resumed kicking his toe against the lamppost. “The thing was, I already knew I’d give up everything for you.”

“So it was a test.”

“It was a kid in love.”

She turned away so he wouldn’t see her blinking back tears. A hard sensation built in her chest, making it difficult to breathe. It reminded her of the night she’d caught Nathan, only then the feeling in her chest had been emptiness. Now it was too full, like the anger she felt that Whitaker had forced her to choose and the fear that she’d picked wrong was enough to tear her open. “I should call an Uber,” she said in a traitorous, swollen voice, and looked at her screen through blurred vision.

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