Reminiscing

“But there was no rules back in Neanderthal times, Jen…”
“Shut the hell up. We’re not that old.”
“No…just feels that way sometimes.”
“I know. But you’re right, too – we didn’t care about rules back then. Do you miss that?”
“You kidding?”
“Look, just because you were a sadistic, sarcastic anarchist seven years ago doesn’t mean you’d take that road now.”
“I thought you knew me.”
“So you miss playing with fire?”
“…Literally…? Or figuratively?”
“Both, dumbass.”
“That’s my girl.”
“Yeah, I miss it, too.”
“Remember that cruise we took?”
“Alaska? What, am I supposed to be brain damaged, too?”
“Not funny. I was thinking about it the other day. Not the cruise itself, though. I was thinking about the night we decided to go. And the year before we actually left…collecting coins everywhere we went, and that damn hollow book we all kept our savings in.”
“What the hell, Matthew. When did you get all sentimental?”
“Jen…”
“You know what? We should go on another cruise. Get the old gang back together, do all the same things. Bet Jacques would love to go to the Caribbean this time around – I could leave the kids with my mom for a week –”
“You can’t leave your kids.”
“Well, they’re sure as hell not coming with us! That would rather ruin the ambiance, don’t you think? We can’t get trashed and smoke cigarettes with kids around.”
“We can’t get trashed and smoke cigarettes anyway.”
“Why –?”
“Do you have a death wish?”
“Not in so many words.”
“Sorry. That was stupid.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“It just slipped out, you know?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“You don’t really want to go on another cruise, do you?”
“I guess not. Would you go with me if I did?”
“Jen. Go home. Careful – I slip on these stairs all the time.”
“Back in the day you would have pushed me down. When did you turn into a softy?”
“When you got cancer.”
“I love it when you’re blunt.”
“You drive like a dying woman.”
“That’s my boy.”