Winter Jacket: Finding Home by Eliza Lentzski Read Free Book Online

constant companion, and now separated, the void was massive. I got lost on the way from the airport back to my apartment, but I didn’t mind the detour; I was in no real hurry to return to the rented space. There would be no one waiting for me when I got there.
    We had eaten through the charcuterie plate, and Troian hadn’t left behind any other food, so I found a grocery store in my travels and bought some essentials to get me through the next few days, mostly milk and cereal and things with which to make sandwiches. It was still very early, which made it feel more like being on vacation or at summer camp than an actual permanent move.
    When I returned to my new apartment, groceries in tow, there was a children’s picture book on the kitchen counter that I hadn’t noticed before. Flipping though it, I discovered the story of how a hermit crab whose shell had gotten too snug for his body had ventured off onto the ocean floor to find a new home. At first he thinks the shell is a little boring, but he soon meets a variety of sea creatures who help him, little by little, feel more at home in his new environment. When I reached the end of the children’s story, my heart seized inside my chest. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect, supportive partner than Hunter.
    She called, a few hours later.
    “Where are you?” I asked. “Are you back home already?”
    “Uh huh. I’m in your bed, under the covers; Sylvia’s curled on my lap, purring up a storm.”
    “Damn lucky cat,” I scowled. “How was your flight?”
    “A little boy in the seat behind me kicked the back of my chair nearly the entire flight.”
    “Makes you want to run out and have a dozen of them, huh?”
    “Actually …” she trailed off.
    I cleared my throat. “I read your picture book.”
    “You’re pretty talented at changing the subject,” she mused.
    Whenever Hunter brought up the topic of wanting children some time in the future, I became a deer in headlights. My biological clock had never started ticking, but I’d dated women in the past whose desire to have children had been more like a ticking time bomb. It was only natural that the topic would come up from time to time, though. She worked in the maternity ward of a hospital.
    I didn’t take her bait. “Am I supposed to be the hermit crab?”
    “One of the volunteers was reading that book to the kids the other day, and I thought of you. It’s probably dumb though,” she back-peddled.
    “It’s not dumb; it’s perfect, Hunt. Just like you.”
    “I know you’re nervous because of all this change. I am, too,” she admitted. “I got you the book to help you feel brave when you’re out on the ocean floor.”
    I closed my eyes and my tear ducts began to fill up. It was a feeling I was getting more accustomed to lately. “I don’t deserve you,” I rasped. “You’re too good to me.”
    “Just remember that when some ingénue on a casting couch is throwing herself at you.” The amusement in her tone let me know she was teasing me, but I imagined that it might be a real worry of hers.
    “I’m just here to write words on a page. Troi’s the one fighting off the Hollywood starlets.”
    “Lucky Nikole,” Hunter murmured.
    “At least she’s got a ring now,” I remarked.
    “Speaking of Troian, can you tell her I’m sorry for how I acted yesterday? I’m embarrassed just thinking about my behavior.”
    “You were fine, baby,” I assured her. “Troi will get over it.”
    “If you say so.”
    “So which sea creature are you?” I asked, flipping through the glossy pages of the children’s book. “I don’t see any cuttlefish in here.”
    “We’ll have to add a cuttlefish page in there later,” she suggested. “Maybe next time I’m out there.”
    “I like that idea,” I smiled into the phone.
    I spent the remainder of my first day on my own watching television and flipping through some of the screenwriting books Troian had left as an unsubtle hint. I took good notes as