As I expected, after Teddy and I caught a quick lunch by ourselves, I had phone messages, texts, and emails from Manny. All of them started with apologies and ended with pleas to get in touch so we could meet up.
I went back to my mother’s, took a swim, and had a shower, all the while trying to calm down. I vacillated between fury at the stupid red alert and all the problems it could have caused, to the fact I still had Manny’s stupid letter jacket and was ready to throw it in his face. I knew if I saw him, I had to be calm, cool, collected. No, not if but when.
The morning’s combined shock of seeing Manny in person again as well as the adrenalin surge of the fake code red drill were leeched out by laps in the pool. The possibility I could look Manny in the eyes and return his letter jac
