This Is What Happy Looks Like(68)
Author: Jennifer E. Smith

Graham stepped in first, followed by Ellie, but they both paused just beside the coat rack that was shaped like a giant fishhook. Every single pair of eyes in the restaurant had snapped up at their entrance; forks were lowered and lobsters forgotten as they collectively stared at the pair by the door. Ellie’s first instinct was to duck behind the hostess stand, or to turn and walk back outside; after so much time spent worrying about this exact scenario, it was odd to stand here before a crowd of faces—some familiar, others not—and let herself be seen with Graham. But it was no longer a secret, this thing between them, and there was no longer a reason to hide.

Joe was motioning to their table, in the far corner, in an area he’d left otherwise open so that they’d have plenty of space to talk. But it wasn’t until Graham reached for her hand that she felt herself come unstuck, and she followed him to the back of the room, her eyes on the floor. At their table, Graham pulled out her chair and then sat down across from her, and Joe produced a matchbook from his pocket to light the candles, winking once at Ellie before leaving them on their own.

“So,” Graham said, leaning forward, and Ellie couldn’t help smiling.

“So.”

“You still holding up okay?”

Last night, as soon as the fireworks were finished, Ellie had walked over to where Graham was sitting. All around them, families were packing up their blankets and picking up their sleepy children. She sat down beside him in the grass, and the two of them had stayed there like that for a long time without speaking.

“You heard, right?” she’d asked eventually, and he nodded. “I guess everyone knows about us now.”

Beside her, a slow smile had bloomed across Graham’s face, and he crooked a finger into the darkness. “That guy?” he asked, pointing at a random man dragging a cooler across the lawn. He scanned the crowd for more. “And her?” he said, nodding at a pregnant woman before shifting his gaze to an elderly man with a cane. “And him?”

Ellie laughed. “Yes,” she said with mock exasperation. “Probably him too.”

Graham leaned toward her, so that their faces were only inches apart. “So that means we can do this now?” he asked, and then he kissed her, a kiss that seemed to go on forever.

She grinned as they finally broke apart. “I guess so.”

“That’s not such bad news then.”

“No, I guess not, when you put it that way.”

“As long as you’re okay,” he added, and she nodded.

“I am,” she said. “You?”

“I’m great,” he said. “Strange, isn’t it?”

She’d smiled. “Not a bit.”

Now he was leaning across the table, his face framed by the nautical map on the wall behind him, looking at her with concern.

“I’m fine,” she said. “Really. Though I still haven’t read any of the articles. I’m just operating under the assumption that every teen girl in the country probably wants to kill me. But it could have been a lot worse.”

“How’s that?”

“Your scandalous behavior managed to overshadow all the stuff about my dad,” she said, picking up her menu and smiling at him over the top of it. “Imagine that.”

“So that means your mom’s okay with everything?”

“She will be,” Ellie said. “We both will.”

Graham nodded. “I’m glad.”

“She took it better than expected. If you’d asked me yesterday, I would’ve guessed I’d be locked in my room tonight.”

He waved this away. “I’d have come to rescue you,” he told her. “I might not have a white horse, but I do have a very portly pig.”

“How romantic,” Ellie said, and Graham straightened his menu.

“So what’s good here?” he asked. “I didn’t end up staying for dinner last time. There was this girl I had to go find…”

“So this is kind of like take two?”

“No,” he said, suddenly serious. “This is definitely a first.”

Ellie looked down at the menu in her hands, but her stomach had dropped. They’d known each other for only a few weeks, but it felt like they’d already said good-bye so many times, and she wasn’t sure she had it in her to do it again.

She laid the menu aside. “I know this is awful,” she said, “but I’m actually not that hungry.”

To her surprise, Graham nodded. “I was sort of hoping you’d say that.”

“You were?”

He nodded again. “I think we should skip right to dessert,” he said with an enormous smile, the kind that started in his eyes and lit up his entire face. “I think I’ll have a whoopie pie.”

Ellie rolled her eyes. “Very funny.”

“I’m serious.”

“I’ve been coming to this place since I was a kid,” she said, reaching for the menu. “Trust me, they don’t have them here.”

Graham was leaning back in his chair, looking pleased with himself. “You think you know this place better than me?”

“I know I do,” she said, eyeing him suspiciously. “Unless…”

It had been a long time since she’d actually looked at the menu before ordering, but she opened it now, and the tiny print swam before her in the dimly lit room. She pulled a votive candle closer, the pool of wax sloshing in the little glass holder.

“Unless what?”

“Unless you did something,” she said. “Which would explain why you’re acting so weird.” She sat back in her chair and folded her arms. “Now I’m thinking maybe you worked something out with Joe…”

“Me?” he asked in his best innocent tone. “Do you really think that in between filming a movie and traipsing around the state of Maine with you I’ve had time to figure out where to get whoopie pies, then make sure to have them here on this particular night, on the off chance that you were still speaking to me after everything that happened, and would agree to have dinner here together?”

Ellie looked at him levelly. “Yes.”

“Wanna bet?”

“Definitely,” she said. “But I’m betting on you.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Meaning?”

“I think you did do all that,” she said. “I think I’m about to have my first-ever whoopie pie.”