Goodbye for Now Read Free Page B

after all.”
    Did she kiss him then or did he kiss her? Or were they so close by that point that the next inhale pulled their mouths together, that the ferocious beating of Sam’s heart rocked him actually into her? Or was it fate or compatibility or chemistry or computer science? Sam forgot to care. Sam forgot to think about it. Sam forgot to think about anything at all.
    They kissed for a while. Then they stopped kissing for a while and just sat and breathed together. Meredith’s apartment was decorated with model airplanes hanging all over the ceiling. The shadows they flickered in the candlelight made Sam feel like he was flying. Or maybe that wasn’t why. Then Meredith said, “Well that was nice. What took you so long?”
    Sam tried to say lightly, “What took you so long?” He tried to work “lily-livered” back into conversation while his heart rate came down. Instead he accidentally answered honestly. “I think … I’m pretty sure this will be my last first kiss. Ever. I wanted to savor it.”
    “How’d it go?” asked Meredith.
    “I forget,” said Sam, and she smiled, but that was accidentally honest as well. “Let me try again.”

LONDON CALLING
    S am rolled over the next morning to fully consider the still-asleep, teeth-unbrushed, bed-headed Meredith for a minute or two before he said, “So, should I move in or what?”
    “What?”
    “Should I move in now? Or do you want to wait?”
    “I was thinking brunch,” said Meredith.
    “Then packing?”
    “I was thinking brunch then maybe a walk. Are you kidding?”
    “It’s a top-notch algorithm, Merde,” said Sam.
    “Top-notch?”
    “It’s not wrong. I made it myself, you know. You’re dealing with a quality product here.”
    “Still. I think I’d like to be more than twelve hours out from our first kiss before you move in.”
    Sam thought about it. “Should you move in with me then?”
    “I’m not sure that’s exactly the issue here, but don’t be insane—I’m not moving into your studio apartment.”
    “Why not?”
    “Your bedroom is a platform. Your kitchen is a burner. I have two dogs.”
    “And a lot of tiny airplanes. Here it is then.”
    “Go to London. Then we’ll talk.”
    Sam was going to London for the annual international social networking technology conference, this one dubbed, “London, City of Love: This Is Your Heart on Tech,” a title which was both stupid and confusing,London being the city of many things (tea, mummies, and jacket potatoes sprang immediately to mind), but not, per se, love. The meeting had been scheduled, of course, long before he knew that this would be the week he would fall in love himself. He lobbied to bring Meredith with him. “Marketing should have a presence,” he said to Jamie and then tried, “My presentation’s on the algorithm. We’d be a great advertisement for it.” But these requests were denied. “I believe I will have more of your undivided attention if you come alone,” Jamie said.
    This was only sort of true. It was a busy trip. There were endless meetings and investors to present to, talks to attend, cocktail hours and breakfasts at which to make an appearance, plus all the technology glitches to fix, the ones that are inevitable on borrowed equipment far from home when lots of money and clout are at stake and all your competition is looking on and everything has to go exactly right. It didn’t make a lot of sense to Sam that there should be so many technical glitches—and that so many of them should be his problem—when everyone in a three-block radius was a computer person and the whole point of the conference was technology, but there wasn’t much time to ponder that. There was all of that to do plus museums to explore, churches to visit, markets to wander, pints to drink, and theater to see. There was all of that plus wandering city streets in the rain and gazing into the river and drinking tea in cafés while longing for Meredith. He felt bereft to be