Page 39 of Trial Run

“I don’t want to tell you. You’ll laugh at me.”

“I promise not to laugh.”

She shifted her eyes away from his. “It’s Hortense.”

“Hortense is the perfect name for it. Her.”

Her smile was blinding, one of the real ones. “I knew you’d get it.”

She gestured over his shoulder to the hallway behind him. “Well, I’ll give you a quick tour. Won’t take long. Kitchen and dining room are here, obviously. The living room’s straight ahead.”

He followed her back to the small living area, which held a well-used gray couch, worn carpet, a TV on a wooden table, and several dozen more plants, none of which he could identify. A few framed pencil sketches hung on the wall, pictures of rioting gardens full of blooms and greenery.

“Did you draw these?” he asked.

“Oh. Yeah, I did, in college. My wild landscape design plans.” She waved a dismissive hand at them.

“They’re really good.” The sketches had a fairytale quality, showing winding paths, archways choked with flowering vines, and ivy-covered walls.

“I’m a terrible artist. But they’re what I imagined when I planned my dream gardens. Anyway. Upstairs are two bedrooms and another bathroom. It’s not as … It’s nothing fancy.”

“It’s perfect. Thank you for having me over. When I asked you out, I didn’t mean to make you cook. This isn’t a very normal date.” He rubbed the back of his neck, thinking of his rare past dates, at expensive restaurants and the theater. She deserved that much, and more.

“I like cooking. Anyway, we’re just trying things out, right?”

“Right.” If they did this again, if she agreed to the three-week trial run idea, he’d invite her over to his house. Maybe even attempt to go out.

Marco’s head appeared over the railing of the staircase.

“You can bring them down,” Nell called up to him.

Marco carried a canvas tote bag down the steps, hoisting the heavy weight up onto the coffee table. He looked up at Ben, his expectations clear.

“Ben brought some rocks to show you, too,” she said.

“I did, but I want to see what you found, first. Did you go to the park to look for them?” Ben asked.

Marco nodded. He reached into the bag and pulled out tissue paper-wrapped bundles.

“He wanted to roll them up in paper. So they wouldn’t hit one another and break,” Nell explained.

“That was very smart.” Ben reached for the first rock and unrolled it out of the paper wrapping. “Should we take a look?”

Marco nodded. A few minutes later, they’d unwrapped all the rocks and laid them out on the table in front of them. Ben picked up each one and turned it over, examining it. Some of them were solid rock. But a couple of them were geodes.

He smiled at Marco. “I think you’ve got a couple with crystals inside.” Marco’s eyes lit up. “Look at this one. It’s round, like a golf ball. You looked for that shape, right?”

Marco nodded vigorously.

Ben met Nell’s eyes. She raised an eyebrow, a silent question, and Ben gave her a quick nod of confirmation.

“M-mom says we might not be able to go to the rock store this week.” Marco said, folding his arms across his chest. He scowled up at his mother. “I d-d-don’t …” Words failed him, and he pressed his lips together again.

“I’ll take you soon, I promise,” Nell reassured him. “I thought Ben should take a look at them first.”

“You didn’t believe me. I told you they were geodes,” Marco said, clearly holding a grudge.

“You have a good eye,” he told Marco. “We can never be sure until we check, but I feel pretty certain you found some.”

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