Free Under the Surface by Katrina Penaflor

friends.”
    I unlock the
door to my apartment. “You’re lucky you warned me you were coming over. I
actually cleaned up today.”
    “What, you
live like a slob?” He asks jokingly.
    “ No, I don ’t live like
a slob. I just had some dirty clothes around the house, and dishes in the
kitchen. It’s all clean now, so you’ re welcome. ”
    “Damn, and
here I thought I would come over and find your bras all over the place.”
    “Try and
contain yourself. We’re under my roof now.”
    “Okay boss
lady, I’ll behave. Now, what are we going to do?”
    “ I don ’t know,
you’re the one who wanted to hang out. Are you hungry?”
    “Starving. Cook
me something good.”
    “I’m not
cooking you anything. Make yourself some food. I’m eating leftovers.”
    “Fine. But
I’m going to help myself to your kitchen.”
    “Go ahead.”
    “What
leftovers are you eating?”
    “Mac and
cheese,” I say while I pull it out of the fridge. “And there’s only enough
for me.” I pop it in the microwave to heat it up. After I take it out, I
make a show of how good it smells. “Mmm, delicious.”
    “That’s not
fair, Emmy. I love mac and cheese.”
    There he goes
calling me Emmy again. I remember him using it before. “Why do you use that
nickname on me?”
    “ I don ’t know,” Ren says while he looks through my cabinets. “I just like it. I
feel like it’s what I’m supposed to call you. You don’t like it?”
    I’m
undecided. “ I don ’t know.”
    He just shrugs
while flipping through my cabinets. “You don’t have any regular food in this
house. Just boxed cake mix and a bunch of wine.”
    “I can’t
think of two more important kitchen staples. There’s some stuff in the freezer,
you can eat that.”
    He pulls out
some frozen burritos and puts them in the microwave. Ren then pulls himself up
to sit on the counter. “You want to go to the beach?”
    “This late at
night?”
    “Yeah, we can
drive down to the water, make a fire on the beach.”
    I haven’t
made it to the water in a long time. “Let’ s do it. ”
    A smiles
reaches across Ren’s face. “Excellent. You got any blankets we can get sandy?
It’ll be cold tonight.”
    “Sure, I’ll
grab something.”
    I get two
older blankets and quickly change into more comfortable clothing. Ren is just
finishing his food when I get back into the kitchen.
    “Should we
bring anything else? We’ll need stuff to start a fire.”
    “Nah, this
will be fine. We can go to my dad’s house. There’s plenty of stuff there to
start a fire.”
    His dad’s
house? Somehow I don’t really feel comfortable going there.
    “Do we need
to go to your dad’s house? Won’t he mind? It’s pretty late.”
    “He won’t
mind. I’ve shown up in the middle of the night before. If we don’t wake him up
then it’s fine. If you bring a change of clothes we can even spend the night
there.”
    “Okay,” I say hesitantly. “But if we decide we don’t want to stay we can
head back here tonight?”
    Ren gets off
the counter he was sitting on. “If you don’t want to sleep there I’ll drive us
back.”
    “Promise?”
    “Promise.”
    * *
    “You ever make it over to Newport before?”
    The drive
here took about forty-five minutes, and it’s after three in the morning.
    “No, but I’ve
always wanted to. I just wish I could see it during the day.”
    “We can
tomorrow morning if we stay here tonight. My dad really won’t mind, seriously.”
    Ren pulls up
to the most picturesque home I have ever seen. It’s hard to make out all the
details in the dark, but the house looks like a larger sized, two story cottage — it ’ s something out of a storybook. There are
even white shutters lining the windows.
    “Wow, this
place looks beautiful.”
    “My dad makes
sure to keep it in good shape. My mom picked it out after we all moved to
Newport. This is actually close to where they first met. She was in town doing
a shoot, back when my dad lived here. She loved it