Falling In by Avery Stark Page A

flash.
    “No,”
she finally responded.  “This really is paradise, isn’t it?”
    Two
plates of food abruptly appeared between them.
    “Eat up,
kids,” a random, middle-aged woman said before she forced the meals into their
hands and scurried off.
    Audrey
stared greedily at her dinner and said, “Who could say no to that?”
    Without
reservation, she dug into it.  The first thing that she went after was the
burger, followed closely by big bites of potato salad, charred corn and
biscuits that had been cracked open and drizzled with honey so sweet that it
made her teeth hurt.
    “Either
I was about to die from starvation,” she said through a mouthful, “or this is
the best damn food I’ve ever tasted.”
    Liam,
who was only about a quarter of the way in, set his plate down.
    “Do you
want another beer?”
    Though
her head was already swimming, Audrey decided to let herself enjoy the night,
whether that meant three beers or thirteen.  After nodding, she swallowed the
bite in her mouth and responded, “I can get it.”
    Liam
shook his head and hopped up.  When he did, he barely grazed her rosy cheek
with one of his fingers.
    “Don’t
worry about it.  I’ll be right back.”
    Her
plate of food thoroughly obliterated, Audrey fell back onto the grass with her
arms and legs splayed out, sure that her stomach was going to explode.  She
eyed the first twinkling stars of the night.  It was still early in the evening
and she could already see more of them than she ever saw in Chicago.  They
peeked out through the passing clouds, which were more and more infrequent and
moved by at a brisk pace.
    “Did I
lose you?”
    Audrey
tilted her head back and replied, “Not yet.”
    Liam
smiled and set two open beers onto the lid of a small cooler to keep them from
tipping over.  When that was done, he laid down a foot or two away and put both
arms behind his head.
    “So tell
me,” Audrey said.  “How did a guy like you end up living in a place like this?”
    She
could feel his leg scoot just a hair closer, making her stomach twist around
her dinner like a snake.
    “I made
some lucky investments with my music royalties before the housing bubble
finally popped.  With the money I made, I was able to come down here and set up
shop.”
    Audrey
was even more intrigued.
    “You
were in a band?”
    “For a
few years.  We got to travel a bit, so that was pretty cool.”
    Though
she couldn’t see it, handfuls of party-goers started to break away and leave as
the night went on.  Overhead, the bright wash of glowing stars intensified
against the silky black skies.  The view was so good that Audrey could spot the
cloudy arm of the Milky Way as it stretched all the way across, from one
horizon to the other.
    After a
little while, Liam sat back up and kicked off his shoes.
    “What
about you?”
    The
obvious question made Audrey suddenly tense up.
    “What do
you want to know?”
    Liam
grabbed a beer and swallowed down a big, powerful swig before he responded, “I
want to know what kind of kick-ass job you have where you can just up and leave
for two weeks at a time.”
    The mention
of her job--and everything that she lost soon after--threatened to temper her
good mood.
    “I
actually got laid off right before I came down,” she said as plainly as she
could.
    “Oh,
sorry.”
    “It’s
okay.  I needed a break anyway.”  She turned over on her side and looked down
the hill.  Almost everyone was gone, with only a few stragglers that hung back. 
It wasn’t too late, but the town’s average age was heavily skewed toward the
high end, which made for a lot of folks turning in well before midnight.  “So
what instrument did you play?”
    “Oh,” he
said and reached over her.  “This bad boy.”
    He set a
guitar case between them and popped it open.  When he did, the powerful scent
of good, skunky weed hit her like a wall.  It was a smell that brought back
many memories of when she and Max were young and in