If We Lived Here Read Online Free

.” Then Nick would have to become a taskmaster, a role he hated, and point the kids back to Rule #1. Eventually he’d taken down the photo and was thankful that none of the kids seemed to notice.
    “What next, Mensa?” Nick poked a finger into the cage and tapped the gerbil’s furry head. He wondered how the little guy would adjust to the new batch of kids who would come storming in the following week. Mensa began spinning wildly in his wheel.
    “I know, it’s a thrill,” said Nick. “Another year, another fresh start.” The wheel’s squeaking didn’t bother Nick, but it drove Emma bonkers. He kept Mensa at home over the summer, and even from the other end of the apartment with a cloth over the cage, Emma complained that the wheel’s turning kept her up at night. Nick was relieved that their cohabitation would coincide with the start of the school year, when students would take turns pet-sitting the gerbil on nights and weekends.
    Nick scanned his classroom, and decided to set out the seeds and soil and paper cups that the kids would need for the bean plant experiment. It was amazing, really, how varying the rate of watering or the amount of sunlight made such a difference: a lush, healthy plant beaming in the sun, versus its gangly, shriveled counterpoint languishing in the shade. Science was awesome.
    Badoop! Nick checked his phone—a text from Emma: Scored client this a.m. 14 yrs old, mom = nutcase. Also, Mrs. C called Gen for rec. TOTAL nutcase. But she’s calling references, so a good sign, right?
    He thought about calling back, but Emma kept her cell on silent at work, and reaching her office line required a ten-minute chat with Genevieve first; Nick wasn’t in the mood. He texted back: Brava on the client. You’re a star! Good sign, yes.
    A twinge of nausea gripped at Nick’s gut and he dropped into one of the child-sized chairs. Mrs. Caroline was a concern—he worried how she’d respond if he and Emma needed an exterminator or a plumbing repair. But the queasiness felt like more than just nerves over a landlady.
    It was a new variable—living with Emma. Nick breathed deeply, wondering whether the new arrangement would be like adding sunlight or taking it away. Would their relationship flourish or wither? He wished he could keep a control going, too. Because Nick liked the control. He was wary of taking their strong relationship and testing it under new conditions, as if their lives were some kind of science experiment.
    To calm himself, Nick glanced at the schedule he’d mapped out for his class—each day divided into forty-five-minute blocks of reading, math, et cetera—a routine that was soothing in its structure. Nick marveled when Emma rattled off all she had going on in a particular day, always different from the previous one. She loved the unpredictable and—as much as she complained about it—relished the crises of her high-strung clients.
    Sweet, brilliant, wonderful Emma, who’d been pushing for months to share a home with him. It was true they were both sick of lugging clothes and toiletries and everything else back and forth from one apartment to the other, uptown and downtown and back. And it did seem ludicrous to be shelling out two separate rents when on most nights one of their beds lay fallow. These were the sorts of details they discussed, and the kinds of reasons Nick’s buddies cited for shacking up with their girlfriends. And yet, Nick wasn’t convinced these minor annoyances added up to a case for such a major life change. Again, why shake up what was working well?
    Nick peered into Mensa’s cage. “It’s me and you, buddy.” Glassy eyes blinked back at him. When Nick had bought the pet two years ago, he was told gerbils were social creatures and preferred to live in pairs. So he’d gotten Mensa a companion. But the duo had been vicious together, hissing and fighting until Nick had been forced to give one away to a teacher down the hall.
    Nick believed there was