Thank God the house is still empty.

I dragged my exhausted ass back into the house and down to the basement. That was the stupidest idea ever.

Well, maybe not the stupidest—I knew where I stood now, right?

High school romances weren’t known for lasting forever. It was hard to give up that dream, though, the one where we were the exception to the rule.

I fell onto the couch and grabbed the remote for the TV, clicking blindly through the channels until… wait, was that Maddie?

It was, one of her earlier movies. Wow, she was hot at my age. Absolutely smoking. I settled in to watch her and miss her some more.

On the next commercial break, I discovered they were doing a marathon of her movies today. There’s my day planned.

An hour later, when I was crying along with Maddie during the part of the movie where everything seemed to have gone to shit, someone knocked on the basement window.

Fuck off. I’m not home to visitors.

They knocked again, and then I heard damn Mike’s voice. “Lew, let me in!”

Damn it, he was interrupting my and Maddie’s tearfest. “Go away! I’m not going to let you fool me again!” Fool me twice, shame on me, right? I didn’t want to find out what Fool Me Three Times was. Probably a diagnosis of terminal stupidity.

We're sorry, Mrs. King, but your son is officially Too Stupid to Live. We recommend a nice padded room and not letting him play with sharp objects.

Mike knocked again. "Lew! For fuck's sake, open the door."

It's not locked, you moron. Did you even try the handle? I wasn't going to tell him that, though.

There was a rustling outside the window and the light changed as he held up a heavily loaded bag. "I brought chicken."

I couldn't help looking. Oh, God, it's from Grandpa's Chicken. My absolute favorite path to a heart attack.

No, I was being strong. Yes, it hurt now, but I was moving forward with my life.

My stomach growled. I'd forgotten I hadn't had either breakfast or lunch. Shut up. I'll feed you later.

"Dad and I talked after you left. He told me what a bonehead I was."

I concentrated on the screen, which was unfortunately showing Maddie's tearfully happy reunion with the leading man, which would shortly be followed by their Happily Ever After.

"Lew, the chicken's getting cold."

I chewed the inside of my lip. Letting that chicken get cold was a crime against humanity. Not that it wasn't good cold, but it was mind-blowing fresh and hot. I threw Mike a dirty look and turned back to the final scene of the movie.

"Whatever you want, Lew. If you want to wait and make me work for it, that's what we'll do. Dad made me realize I wasn't really following your lead in this, even if I thought I was doing what we both wanted, because I wasn't doing it the way you needed it to be done. So, I'm not in charge anymore. You are. You get to decide when you're comfortable, you get to decide if and when we take another step forward."

Now I was being tempted by two things outside my window—the chicken, and the Mike I'd thought I'd gotten to know in high school. The credits started to roll as Maddie and her hero drove off into the sunset and I wondered for a moment how well that marriage would have worked in the end once all the adventures and drama were over.

"At least come get the chicken," Mike said in a tired voice. "I can't eat it all, I need to lose another ten pounds if I want a chance at the new Fieldstein production for the fall."

Lose another ten pounds? He was cut and almost as fat-free as skim milk already. I muted the television—dumbass commercials blasting at twice the volume of the programs—and peeked at him out of the corner of my eye.

He looked sad. Of course, he might have been acting, but it was hard to say. And the chicken was getting cold. “I’ll meet you at the front door.” I got up and headed for the stairs and made darn sure I never looked back at him. He wasn’t out of the woods yet and I didn’t want to raise useless hopes.

Mike was waiting for me when I got to the front door. “Here. Enjoy it.” He handed me the bag and took a step away back down the walk. “I’ll leave you alone. But you have my number if you ever think you could give me a third chance. I promise I won’t blow it this time.”

I looked in the bag as he started to walk away. It wasn’t just the chicken, he’d gotten spicy fries and what looked like… Oh, it was. Grandpa’s did this chocolate bread pudding that was like you’d died and gone toward the light. I kept expecting to hear angels singing when I ate it.

And down the side of the bag, there was something else. I dug my hand in until I was able to pinch something soft and velvety between my fingers and pull it out.

It was a little stuffed dalmatian, sitting politely on his haunches. I’d had one just like it since I was a baby and it had gone everywhere with me, even when I was a teenager. I’d clipped him to my backpack and dragged him back and forth to school every day, until one weekend my nephew had taken him outside to play and he’d never come back. Where had Mike found it? “Mike?” I held the dog up in inquiry.

He stopped with one hand on the doorhandle of his car. “I was coming home from a friend’s one weekend and stopped for gas. They had this weird little shop full of crazy stuff—I thought I could get something neat for the apartment. And I found him. I’ve been hanging onto him for about a year and a half now, but I didn’t want to just mail him to you, and I was too chicken to make the trip down to give him to you in person. Anyway, he should be yours. You’re the one I bought him for. Don’t let the kids play with him, okay?” He opened the car door and bent to get in.

“Mike!” I hugged the dog to me and realized I was, indeed, too stupid to live. “You might as well come have some chicken. This is my second time this week and I’ll grow out of my scrubs if I eat all of it.”

“You’re sure?” he asked, his eyes searching my face.

I nodded. “Come on, we can eat in the breakfast nook.” Then I turned and took the chicken into the house and hoped he’d follow me.