Racquetball turns out nicely. Marvin is already out of breath only five minutes in, struggling to keep up with me. He's laughing, though, and we're both having fun.

"Where's the heat, Marvin?" I tease, picking the ball up from where he's dropped it. "Where's the fire?"

"In my lungs," he breathes. "Come on, let's try this again."

We try it again, and I end up winning, of course. Marvin groans, but he's still in good spirits about it, even when he collapses exhaustedly on the floor.

I stand over him and point my racquet at him. "Loser. Need a hand?"

"Just leave me," he says, letting out a tired laugh. "God, you're a pain in the ass."

I ignore his request and reach out to pull him up. We leave the court elbowing and teasing each other, and God, it's like we didn't spend an entire two years apart.

I'm still at his place the next evening, and for once I'm actually enjoying spending a lot of time together in a relationship. Back then I would try to keep my distance for a while, maybe because I was scared of things getting too serious. And I was. But things are different now.

I don't even realize that it's Friday until there's a knock on the door and Marvin tells me it must be Trina dropping Jason off.

I sit up from the couch, where I've just gotten comfortable. "Wait, really? He's coming here tonight?"

Marvin smirks. "He's twelve, Whizzer. You don't have to make a good impression on him."

I sigh as he goes to answer the door. It's not that. This is just so new again, all of it, that I don't know how to feel.

"Hi, Marvin," Trina says when her ex-husband opens the door. She glances past him at me. "Hi, Whizzer."

"Whizzer's here?" Jason asks.

I hold my hands out at my sides. "Pretty much."

"Thanks for dropping him off," Marvin tells Trina, taking Jason by the shoulder. She nods to him, says goodbye to Jason, and then leaves as we're heading back into the living room.

I turn to face the kid as he's going to sit down on the couch. "So. How's it going, bud?"

"It's good. I'm glad you're here. It's always boring with just my dad."

Marvin looks indignant. "Hey, I've asked you if you wanted to go out and do something," he protests.

"Like going to the chiropractor with you?" Jason asks, and I laugh at the look on Marvin's face.

"Hey, Jason." I sit down next to him. "I guess you know by now that your father and I are... uh... back together."

He nods. "I heard my mom and Mendel talking about it."

"Oh." I look at Marvin, who just shrugs, like, how am I supposed to know why my ex-wife would be telling our son about my relationship? "Well. If you ever want to talk about something, just know I'm here."

"How come you left in the first place?" he says.

Marvin and I share another look. We've hardly even talked about it with each other, even though we both clearly know what happened. I mostly haven't brought it up because I don't want to ruin how well the relationship's going. But obviously, unlike the last time, I want our relationship to be built on honesty.

"Well, I guess we just grew apart. We both had things we needed to work on and your father didn't want to make things harder for you, so he made the... responsible... choice and we ended things." I don't tell him about the big fight we had.

Jason seems to understand. "So it was better for you two to break up?"

"It was," replies Marvin. He reaches out and pats my knee. "But Whizzer and I... we're working things out now. And you don't need to worry, okay? He's not going anywhere."

I smile. I'm not going anywhere.

"Okay." Jason looks back at me. "I'm glad you're back, Whizzer."

"Me, too, kid," I say, taking Marvin's hand.

After Jason's gone to get ready for bed, the two of us are quiet. I'll admit, I'm still apprehensive about this relationship. It's like I said earlier, it's new. And based on how it went last time...

"Things are different now," Marvin breaks the silence, as if he's thinking the same thing I am. "Right? I mean, with you and I."

"Of course they are." I rub his back from where I'm sitting. "You were right, what you told Jason. I'm not going anywhere."

"I know you're not. I'm just... scared."

"We don't need to be scared," I assure him. "We've got this together."

Marvin turns and looks at me. "I..." He pauses. "Yeah. You're right. We've got this." He smiles, then gets up, and I'm alone on the couch. I spot the good old chess board across the room.

"Hey, Marvin!" I call out. "We should play chess again sometime."

"Mm, I'm more partial to racquetball," he calls back.

I smile. "Racquetball it is, then."