Page 49 of Can't Stop Now

“…This pillow, I couldn’t decide if green or pink would go better with the…”

Jacob opened one of Will’s photos. It was from the Cleveland art festival, where Will had taken a picture of the crowds around the booths, overlooking the whole festival. Jacob could see the old antique dealer, and saw himself in the photo, talking to the guy about the antique lock that he never bought. Jacob smiled a little to himself.

“So what do you think of the vase?” Carrie asked, and Jacob had to answer.

“Oh, the vase…” he quickly went back to her messages and clicked on the last link she sent. “It looks great,” he said.

“Awesome! I think so too. Okay, now I’ll start sending over the fun stuff: light fixtures…” Carrie kept talking, and Jacob clicked back to look at Will’s photos.

The next few were from Chicago. Jacob realized that he hadn’t known Will had been taking so many snapshots with his phone. There were shots of the Chicago streets, the park they had gone to, one of the lake at night, with the lights shining bright on it. He remembered how Will had told him that night that he needed to be vulnerable, be open, and Jacob had told him that awfully embarrassing story. Jacob laughed quietly.

“I know, aren’t the little birds on that so cute?” Carrie said, laughing too.

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Jacob said, not knowing what she was talking about.

From Omaha, there was only one photo. It was one that Will must have taken while Jacob had been absorbed in playing pinball at the bar. It was shot from the side, Jacob’s arms squarely resting on the pinball paddles, his face looking down intently at the machine.Well, at least Will can take pictures that make me look cool, Jacob thought, grinning.

“Jacob, I really want your opinion on this next one,” Carrie said, and Jacob clicked over to the link in her message. He opened it and saw that it was a painting of a mountain landscape. It was beautiful and seemed somehow familiar.

“What is this one? What mountains are those?” Jacob asked.

“Um, I don’t know. I just thought it was pretty. You like?” Carrie said.

Jacob scrolled down to the description of the painting. It said that they were the Flatirons, mountains close to Boulder, Colorado. That’s why Jacob recognized them: they had walked by those mountains just days ago, seeing them as they walked through Boulder.

“I… I really like that one,” Jacob said, his voice quiet.

“Great! Okay, here’s the next link…” Carrie went on.

Jacob clicked back to the photos on Facebook and realized that one of them wasn’t in public view, but was sent to his own private messages. He opened it up, and immediately knew what it was. It was the photo of him, standing and smiling on that street in Boulder, holding hands with Will as he stood on his tiptoes and planted a kiss on Jacob’s cheek.

Jacob swallowed hard as he saw the photo, and a tear fell from his eye and onto his laptop keyboard.God damn it, Jacob thought, feeling his emotions crash down on him once again. Carrie was continuing to talk about stuff that she wanted to buy from Ikea, and went on for minutes, not realizing that Jacob was crying on the other end.

The words that Will had said to him the night before rang over and over again in Jacob’s head. “Because I’m fucking falling for you, Jacob. Or I already have fallen for you,” Will had said, and he had left before Jacob could say anything more. Jacob pulled in a shaky breath, knowing he couldn’t go on like this, and realizing what he had to do.

“Jacob. Jacob? Are you still there? Do you think that last one would look good on our b—I mean,mybed?” Carrie laughed.

“Carrie,” Jacob said, his voice hoarse.

“Huh? What’s up, Jacob, is everything alright?” she asked.

“Carrie…” Jacob trailed off, pulling in a deep breath, “there’s something I have to tell you.”

Twenty-Eight

Will

Will woke up the next morning and slowly opened his eyes, the bright Arizona sunlight shining through his window. He immediately wanted to go back to sleep. His house was empty, both his parents had gone to work early in the morning.Everyone’s gainfully employed except me, Will thought, rolling over in bed.

He picked up his cell phone, but there were no new messages. He sighed, not knowing at all what he should do with his day.Well, I can’t just lay in bed all day, he thought, willing himself to get up.

He dragged himself to the shower and got in. As always, the shower helped improve his mood, and even the slightest bit helped. He got out, drying off and went back to his room, putting on clothes. He turned on his laptop and began looking again at job postings.

He was about an hour into applying to jobs when he heard a knock at the door. He ignored it, knowing that his mom often got packages delivered and the mailman would just leave them at the front door. Another few seconds passed, and another knock came. Will looked up from his laptop, trying to decide if he should answer. There certainly wasn’t anyone in Arizona that would be coming to see him.

He continued ignoring it, but a whole minute passed, and the knock still came.

“Shit,” Will said under his breath, hoping it wasn’t an angry neighbor or someone trying to sell something. Just then, he heard his phone buzz from next to his laptop. He saw the name on the screen: Jacob.