Daybreak.

Rather, early afternoon. Erika was happy to find Jeff was a late sleeper too. She couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed before 1PM, especially on vacation, and certainly not today. She felt like she could happily stare at the ceiling, listening to the gentle rise and fall of Jeff’s breathing. Lost in contentment, she hadn’t even clocked that he was also awake, and that he so wanted to talk to her about anything he could think of.

“So, uh, where are you from?”

Erika shot up to see Jeff lying on his side, his head propped up on his hand.

“OAKLAND!”

It’s not that she was particularly enthusiastic about the bay city, but she was so eager to say something, ANYTHING to him too.

“Oh, yeah, cool! Yeah, I’m from Minneapolis!”

The air was still for just a few seconds. Too long. Jeff just had to follow up.

“Well, I mean, I live in Chanhassen, it’s this small city about 20 minutes west of Minneapolis. But you know, it’s a whole conversation when you say ‘Chanhassen’ instead of ‘Minneapolis’, so I just always say Minneapolis because I don’t really care to explain it to people.”

They both let out an anxious chuckle. Was the small talk this hard yesterday?

“Oh no, I get it, I usually don’t like talking to people either, but I…”

She stopped short.

“Jeff, I um…”

There was that stillness again.

“Last night was really great!”

She could feel her heart flutter, not quite knowing what to say, and just wanting to hang on his words. He stammered again:

“I mean, uh, you know, I don’t mean that like I don’t want to see you again, I’d like more nights like that, you know, with you, and uh, and days too!”

She laughed, being only slightly less anxious than him.

“I would too, but, um… Oakland and Minneapolis are a ways apart.”

She didn’t feel the weight of the words until they left her lips. Her heart sank. His did too.

“Oh yeah, I guess they…. They are, aren’t they?”

“Yeah.”

She grasped for the glimmer of hope that they might be able to see each other again when they made it back to The States. She could stomach an AirTran flight out to Minneapolis, as long as she didn’t have to check a bag. He would have braved a 2 day Greyhound bus trip with no luggage at all.

“Well, um, would you maybe want to stay in touch? Like, exchange numbers or something?”

Jeff shot up too.

“Yeah! Yeah, that would be great!”

Sitting position aside, Jeff wasn’t feeling as optimistic. Numbers wouldn’t be enough to guarantee that they’d see each other again. Maybe nothing was. But in that moment, knowing that something in him was different than the night before, different from all the previous trips to Tokyo, he did the unthinkable.

“Ooh, I know!”

Springing from the bed, still clad in nothing but his Dragonball underpants (imported, naturally), he grabbed his Orange body pillow from its resting place on the sofa from the night before, pulled the autograph Sharpie from his jacket pocket, and after scanning the pillow for the perfect spot, he scrawled his number right by Orange’s go-go boots. He thrust it towards Erika, as though she had somewhere to put it.

“There ya go! Now you’ll have something to remember me by!”

Erika laughed, then her face settled into a wistful smile.

“I would have remembered you just fine without the pillow, but I won’t say no.”

Jeff cracked a sly grin.

“I won’t ask you to do the same with yours, but just know that I’m gonna want that pillow back.”

Erika’s smile widened just a bit.

“All you have to do is come to Oakland and get it, then.”