July 11th, Bloomington, IN to Chicago, IL. I was stiff and my face still radiated sunburn from the day before when I woke up. I looked over at Kate. She was lying face down with her head turned to the left. She'd fallen asleep without the t-shirt she usually put on at night, and so her back was naked. Her arms and neck were sunburnt too, but her skin had already turned it brown. I think my favorite thing in the world is to see a woman twisted up in sheets with their back naked and their underwear riding up a little from shifting around in the night. I wanted to wake her up by kissing her neck and back softly until I could feel her move underneath me.

We got back on the bike and followed the guy's directions to the state highway. We could see the traffic jam inching along as we sped down a two-lane highway between two cornfields. I had that rare feeling that I avoided a disaster by chance. We cruised along for about ten miles before the road ended so we jogged back over to the interstate. It was moving fine.

We ended up on some kind of parkway, making great time. The skyline was dead ahead, the sun glowing low to our left. Eventually we hit Lakeshore Drive. Lake Michigan appeared on our right and the Sears tower grew bigger and bigger over the layers of the Chicago Skyline. I think I'd take the Chicago Skyline over any other American Skyline. There was thick traffic on the drive, but it moved fast. At one point this old guy who could barely see over his dashboard changed lanes into us, and I had to scoot left kind of blind but it didn't scare me. I think it scared Kate but I saw him coming early and made sure I sped up so when I jogged over I was going faster than the cars around me.

The apartment was a huge three-bedroom that ran from a sunroom in the front down the line of a long hallway with rooms off the side to the kitchen in the back, which had a bedroom coming off of it. Three of them lived there. It was Kit and Dean, and a woman name Emma, who I hadn't heard anything about except that she knew people in the comic book scene that Kate and Blake operated in, so we had to be careful about how we acted around her. It was really the first time since I'd met Kate that I had to engage in any kind of subterfuge with her. It was only about the second time that we'd ever hung out with other people we knew around. I think it's a big test for lovers. Anybody can do it behind closed doors. My sister made a cool and simple test for love. Two questions. Does your lover make you feel good? I mean really make you feel good inside. That's the first. When you are with them in public are you proud? That's the second question. It's always worked pretty well for me. I don't ever heed the feedback my answers give me, but that test has never lied to me without me lying to myself pretty badly first.

The apartment was hot. I'd forgotten how hot city life is in the summer. Boston hadn't really gotten warm before I left. That's the thing about Boston. It's not really hot til about the middle of July. Growing up in D.C. summer is late June on through September and it just keeps getting hotter and hotter and more and more humid. Boston's nice that way. Chicago isn't. We lay around in the front room where the windows were and the girls and boys talked to each other. I pretty much kept my mouth shut cause I figured I'd had a good start with Kate's friends and I should just go along for the ride. What's not to like about a quiet motorcycle dude? Emma came in and joined us after a while. She was really excited about the bike.