Read Crossing the Bridge for Free Online

toward his memory and silently acknowledged that, if we were going to get to that subject, it would be at some later point. Even the small talk seemed easier to handle after that, and when I walked Iris to her car a couple of hours later, we made plans to see each other again the next night.
    “This has definitely been the highlight of ‘Old Home Week’ for me,” I said.
    “I’d take that as a compliment if I didn’t know what else you’d been doing since you got here.”
    “Take it as a compliment anyway.”
    She smiled, but her eyes darted downward for an instant. Then she looked back up at me and nodded before kissing me on the cheek and getting in her car.

    The bar of choice the next night was a place that Tyler had recommended. It was just over the bridge and had been open for only a few months. Given that Tyler had just turned 22, I’d half expected it to be stripped-down concrete with blaring rap metal and indifferent waiters. Instead, it was an oversized and eclectically decorated living room, filled with large
couches, original art, and muted lighting. I again arrived a few minutes ahead of Iris. Shortly after she got there, a trio of acoustic musicians began playing their own earnest compositions.
    “Do you think they’re any good?” Iris said when she saw my attention flit to the stage.
    “Not really. It sounds like the guitarist can play, though. They’d probably be better off doing other people’s stuff, but you have to give them credit for trying their own.”
    This seemed to make Iris think, though what I’d said was hardly profound. She leaned forward and rested her chin on an up-propped hand.
    “My husband was a musician.”
    It would have been silly for me to pretend that I wasn’t surprised to hear she had been married. “Husband?”
    “Yeah, we met right after I got to Lexington. He was doing a composition for the dancers and we sort of connected.” She laughed. “Yeah, sort of. We were practically living together a week after I met him. One weekend a couple of months later, we just decided to get married. It was very exciting and insane and I was madly in love with him. It was something of a whirlwind.”
    “Sounds intense,” I said, still trying to grapple with this information. “How long did it last?”
    “All together a little more than a year.” She looked at me knowingly. “Like I said, it was a whirlwind.”
    “The road called?”
    “Nah, nothing so romantic. The passion just disappeared. It went from tearing each other’s clothes off to picking dirty underwear off the floor, if you
know what I mean. It turned out that I didn’t get much of a charge from the domestic thing.”
    “So you were the one who left?”
    Iris smiled and her expression became wistful. “I’m always the one who leaves. Seems to be the way it goes. At least it was with Roger and Pete as well.”
    “You’ve been married three times?”
    Iris’ eyes opened widely. “No, not married. God, could you imagine? Well, I guess you could imagine, since you just asked. No, I only lived with Roger and Pete. Sixteen and thirteen months, respectively. Roger when I was still in college, Pete a couple of years ago.”
    “Same story?”
    “No, not really. With Roger, we were coming up on graduation and doing a lot of thinking about the future and it became obvious to me that we had different futures in mind. With Pete, it just sort of sizzled then fizzled. You know, that story.”
    “Yeah, I’ve had a fleeting association with that story .”
    Iris smiled and seemed pleased at the opportunity to redirect the conversation. “Details, please.”
    “Nah, the details aren’t interesting enough. I never actually lived with anyone. You know, stuff at each other’s apartments, that kind of thing, but never any official cohabitation.”
    “Yeah, that’s smart of you. It avoids the hassle of sorting through the CDs when it’s over.”
    “Exactly. I’ve never even seriously thought about living with