Now what...?

I’m up early and milling around my room, trying to figure out how I’m going to unpack all these boxes and where am I going to put everything. Kat is still asleep and everything is very quiet. We agreed we’d be up at eight to get ready for brunch.
Once showered and ready to go we look at the map of Wicker Park.
“Oh my gosh, this is illegal.” I giggle. “We can walk there! I’m going to be four hundred pounds!”
“This is trouble.” Kat laughs.
I found the Bongo Room over a year ago when Kat and I came to Chicago and I was on the lookout for chocolate chip pancakes. Although they didn’t have any, everything else looked so delectable that I insisted we go and each time I went back to Chicago after that, I stopped in.
We get bundled up and head out. There is no wait and we realize that we made it just in time as a swarm of people came through the door.
After ordering we sit back and sigh.
“I still feel like this is vacation.” I smile.
“It’s not going to feel like it once I get on that plane!” Kat laughed.
“I know…” I trail off.
“Don’t you start. There will be no crying.” she warns.
“I’m not.” I assure her, remembering Pete saying the same thing. I reach into my messenger bag and pull out a blue Tiffany’s bag. “Got something for ya.” I push towards her.
“Ooo…” she smiled and pulled out a box that matched the bag. When she pulled out the necklace, I exclaimed, “It’s the bean! It reminded me of our first trip when we ran over to the park to see the bean sculpture before rushing to the airport!”
“Yay!” she exclaims, examining it. “ Not gonna cry, not gonna cry… she blinks while clasping the necklace around her neck. I’m chewing on my face to keep from losing it. She pulls out the card containing a letter I wrote her explaining how much she means to me.
“Don’t read that now.” I swallow.
“Ok.” she smiles. “Thank you.”
“Thank you. I couldn’t do this without you.”
“Sure you could have.”
“Hell no. Who was gonna drive?”
We both laugh and chatter on about various things.
“Promise me you’ll go to a bar one night and simply watch a Bears game, just to be around people. I know football isn’t your thing, but just go.”
I nod. “I can watch a game for a little bit. ’Bout third quarter though, I’m bored.”
I never really understood the game anyway. I start asking questions and before I know it, Kat has various table items like sugar packets and little vials on cream spread out on the table, explaining the game.
The food arrives and we’re quiet for a little bit. Again, the weird feeling I had with Pete and wanting things to just speed up so I could get over the uncomfortable feelings of missing him have returned and are continuing with Kat.
“I think I’m going to take a cab back.” she announces.
“Ok.” The train is down this weekend.
“So I need to get my things and probably get a cab at Division and Milwaukee.”
I nod. “Kay.” We pay the bill and head back.
“You want to take that road instead?” she asks as we approach a street we passed on the way to brunch.
“Sure.” I nod.
“Are you going to be able to find your way back over there?” she asks.
“Eventually!” I laugh. “The pancakes will lead me!”
Half way down the street words painted on a fence catches my eye. They read “I love you so much!”
“Hang on Kat.” I call out to her, digging in my bag for my camera. I snap a picture of the fence wondering if it’s Rob’s way of saying hello. We resume out trek home.
“Hey you guys!” Kaci’s voice calls to us from the kitchen as we walk in.
“Mornin’!”
“What have ya’ll been up to?” she asks.
“The Bongo Room!” I chirp. “Kat’s got to head to the airport now.”
“Yeah…” Kat trails off.
“Ok, well if you want, I’m going to the grocery store a little later. You can come with me and I can show you around after that.” Kaci looks at me.
“Sounds good!” My head is swimming again. This is real! I live here and there really isn’t any going back…
Kat gets her things and we head down Division, crossing the street, neither of us saying anything, and my mind void of any emotion.
“Alright!” she says as we approach a cab. “Have fun!” she hugs me hard.
“Will do!” I exclaim as if I’ll see her sometime that evening, as if she’s not going to get on a plane, as if I’m still on vacation…
She closes the cab door and I turn to walk across the street again. My hands fumble in my bag for my phone. Whatever feelings that might hit, I don’t want them. I dial Pete’s number.
“Hey darlin’! his warm, deep voice answers. I want to keep his voice in my ear always to recall when I need some sort of calming down.
“Hi!” I squeak.
“How’s it going?”
“Um. Good. Uh, Kat just got in a cab to go to the airport…”
“Oh…how you feeling?”
“Don’t know yet.”
He tells me stories of his past couple of days, getting together with some friends from law school and I tell him all about our drive up here until I look up and realize that I don’t know where I am. I must have crossed the at the wrong street. Dammit. I walk back in the other direction and find the street I need to be on, eventually making it home. Pete and I stay on the phone a little longer then it’s time for me to head to the store with Kaci.
“I think I left my list at home.” she tells me as we’re half way there.
“Uh oh.” I glance at her. I didn’t actually need anything, just didn’t want to be alone just yet.
“Don’t let me forget coffee filters.”
I nod. We weren’t at the store long before heading out again.
“Ok, so I’ll show you what’s all around here. You can walk to Art and Science from here and when the weather gets really bad you can either take the blue line on the train, or the Division bus.”
I nod, having a feeling I’ll be doing lots of nodding and lots of trying to understand everything.
“The buses will become your best friend.” she says.
“I don’t, or well, I haven’t done buses. They freak me out. I can never tell which direction they’re going in.”
“It’s tricky at first but I promise, eventually, it’ll click. Ok, so this is Bucktown. This is where all the fancy shopping is. Lots of good restaurants as well. There’s a coffee shop.” she pointed to our left. “They have great coffee.”
I glance inside as we walk by. It’s attached to this little bakery with fancy cakes displayed in the window.
“Starbucks is right there.” she pointed across the street.
“Good to know.” I smile. “I’m in need of some fabulous coffee shops. Atlanta has a lot of independent ones but I haven’t noticed too many in Chicago.”
“Well. There are like, six right here.”
“Perfect!”
We stop in a couple of stores and continue on our way, telling stories, laughing, leaves crunching under our feet, bright blue sky hovering above us. I couldn’t be happier.
“I start work in Evanston on Wednesday. How should I get there?” I ask as walk back into our place.
“What time do you have to be there?”
“Eight thirty.”
“Oh! You can take the Metra with me. It’s the commuter train.”
Could this be anymore perfect?
“Are you serious?!” I laugh.
“Yeah, it’ll drop you off right at the salon.”
“This is fabulous!” I exclaim.
“I know!”
Later I retreat back to my room, talking to mom on the phone, unpacking, stumbling over boxes, texting Kat, stopping to eat, and unpacking some more.
“You’ve made a lot of progress!” Kaci exclaims standing in my doorway.
“Yay” I clap. “Trying to…”
“It looks good.” she smiles and walks away.
It isn’t long before I’m done. Actually finished with the whole project and I fall happily into bed.