The Moon and More(52)
Author: Sarah Dessen

“Really,” my father said.

“Yeah, but Emaline didn’t use it? So her sister got really mad and had to give us a refresher course.”

My father looked at me. “Sounds exciting.”

“Oh, you know the realty business,” I told him. “Never a dull moment.”

He smiled, and I felt myself relax, relieved he’d apparently let the whole boyfriend comment slide without further comment. Then I glanced at my dad. He was still looking right at me.

With a lot of loud rattling noises, Clyde dragged a ladder out from a storeroom and set it up at the end of the counter. We all watched as my dad climbed up, pulling a flashlight from his pocket once he reached the top. As he tipped his head back, examining the spot, Clyde observed from below with more attention than I’d seen from him since we’d started this whole thing.

I looked over at Theo and Ivy, wondering if they’d noticed this as well. He was crouched down, adjusting some plugs on a power strip while she sat on a dryer, studying her phone. I walked over, leaving Benji regaling my father with more towel details.

“So,” I said to Theo. “How’s it going, you think?”

“Good,” he replied. “I mean, he’s not the most cooperative subject. We knew not to expect that, though.”

“At least he’s answering the questions,” I pointed out.

“Oh, yeah. I think Ivy just needs to get some momentum with him. All these interruptions . . .” He looked over at my dad, on the ladder, then back at the plugs. “It just makes it hard to get a good rhythm.”

“This shouldn’t take long,” I told him. “And we’ll all be out of your hair pretty soon.”

“All of you?” He got to his feet and came closer. “Because I was thinking, you know, that maybe we could . . .”

“What happened to tomorrow?” I said.

He ran a hand through his hair, looking over at the counter. “Well, really, tomorrow actually starts tonight. If you actually think about it.”

“You’re messing with my demarcation,” I pointed out.

“You’re right, you’re right.” He stepped back, holding up his hands. “Sorry.”

Neither of us spoke for a second, the only sound my dad moving the ladder, triggering another round of clattering and scraping. When it was finally quiet, Theo said, “All I’m saying is that, you know, we could hang out tonight. Just as friends, at least until—”

“Midnight,” I finished for him. “And then we turn into something else, like Cinderella after the ball? Pumpkins, maybe?”

“Fine,” he said, shaking his head. “Forget it. Demarcate away. I’ll see you tomorrow, in daylight. Not a moment before.”

I smiled, stepping a little closer to him. “I didn’t say no. I just made a princess reference.”

“I have no sisters and sparse girlfriend experience,” he said. “I don’t know what that means.”

“It means,” I said, as Ivy slid off the dryer and started coming towards us, “that I might see you later.”

He smiled, surprised and pleased, at least until Ivy said, “Are we ready to shoot when he is? Because if you’re gabbing over here, we ought to be.”

“All set on this end,” Theo told her cheerfully.

“Well, that’s half the battle,” she replied, sliding her phone back into her pocket. She looked over at Clyde, standing at the base of the ladder, then at me. “How long does this sort of thing take, again?”

“Not really sure,” I told her.

She sighed loudly, then said to Theo, “Just double-check we’re set up and ready to go. We need to establish something here, and soon.”

He nodded, turning his attention back to the camera. A beat later, I heard my father say my name. He and Benji were now walking towards me. “We should be getting back the house. Thanks again for the help today.”

“No problem.” To Benji I said, “It was fun, right?”

“Totally,” he agreed. “Much better than practicing card tricks.”

My father nodded at the camera. “Impressive setup you guys have here.”

“Yep,” Ivy said, not looking up, from her perch on the dryer. “All we need is the subject.”

My father raised his eyebrows. I said, “Clyde’s not exactly running on a schedule.”

“The roof takes precedence,” Ivy added, with a loud sigh.

“It’s actually a ceiling,” I said. I couldn’t help myself.

“—send a crew by early next week to cut in, and then go from there,” I heard my dad saying, flashlight still in hand, as he and Clyde came towards us now as well. “I’d plan on redoing that entire part of the ceiling, though. And that would be the best-case scenario. Get into more structural issues and—”

“A burst pipe would be the least of my problems,” Clyde finished for him.

My dad nodded, then started out the door, but not before shooting me a look making it clear I should follow. Outside, after my father and Benji said their good-byes, he walked over to his truck and tossed the flashlight onto the passenger seat. “Did I hear you right?” he asked me. “That kid’s your boyfriend now?”

“I didn’t say that,” I pointed out. “Clyde did.”

He just looked at me. This was not his department, and we both knew it. In our house the divisions were clear: my mother handled all things relationship, menstruation, and fashion related, while his arena was oil changes, finances, and plumbing problems. But this was too big to ignore.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said. “It’s just been a really weird day.”

“Tell me about it.” He ran a hand over his face—up, down, then up again—another one of his end-of-workday moves. “You headed home soon? Your mom’s worried about you.”

“It’s my next stop.”

“Good.” He climbed in the truck and pulled the door shut with a bang. “I’ll see you there.”

I really had planned to go right home. But once I was in the car, I realized how badly I needed some perspective. When I saw the boardwalk in the distance, I knew exactly where to find it.

Five minutes later, I was walking up to the ticket booth at Surfside, the rundown little amusement park that had been right on Colby’s beach since my mom was a kid. It had none of the high-tech attractions of SafariLand: no dancing or driving games, no laser tag, not even go-karts. Instead, there was just a rickety building that housed a decrepit snack bar and skeeball, duckpin bowling, and basketball tosses. Outside was a merry-go-round, a roller coaster that had been Closed for Repairs since I was in middle school, and the Ferris wheel.