“Oh, Michael —” She runs her fingers over the side of his face. “You're all red. I am sorry.” She's smiling. She's not sorry at all. He's still cute, even red and ragged. Maybe especially then.
September is the hottest month of the year in southern California, and there hasn't been a cloud in the sky since they've come here; there's nothing stopping the sun from beating down on the pavement underneath it, throwing a brown haze up from the ground. Lee loves the heat, spends long hours in it, napping in the sun.
Despite being the wrong ocean on the wrong side of the world, the Pacific in California feels more like the sea Lee remembers than the Atlantic that closes in on the New York coastline. Lee feels better here. It's incredible to exist somewhere where she can be whatever she wants and not have to worry about anyone commenting on it, because they're leaving in a week and probably never coming back. Man, woman, other, she can kiss him in the street or hold his hand and it doesn't matter what anyone thinks about it; in New York, she has to protect his job. Only once did it become a problem, when she was laying topless on the beach when someone came up to tell her that this was an ‘all-ages beach’ and could she please put a shirt on? until she'd stared at him and said bluntly I'm a man. He'd run off red-faced.
It's even quiet in her head, and when she complains about hearing voices at night, it's only ones that he hears too; the walls are so thin they can hear every time their neighbours start arguing. She likes to think it's the restorative power of the sea, but really it's probably because she's just relaxed. It gets better for a little while when she's relaxed. It would be nice to stay here permanently, to quit New York and all of its sad, wan, tired people.
It won't last, though. As much as she wants to pretend it will, she knows sooner or later whatever she's fleeing from will catch up to her. She'd rather go home before the sickness catches her here and taints any good memory she might have made.
Lee rolls over and settles down on top of him, careful to avoid the places she knows are burnt — shoulders and face mostly. She sighs and closes her eyes as if determined to fall back asleep, but now that she's up she's probably up for good.