Page 42 of The Fix-Up

“Because.” I shrugged. “He does. I can tell.”

Sunny leaned forward, her dark shiny hair falling around her shoulders like a curtain. How does hair move like that? Mine took a hot iron and a lot of patience to wrangle into something mostly smooth and straight.

“I’ve known you for two years now, Ellie, and you are a hard person to not like.”

“Stop. I’m blushing.”

She smiled. “He does not hate you. You’re getting to know each other and you both have a lot of big decisions to make. Together.” Tapping her pen against her mouth, she sat back. “You know, maybe he’s scared.”

I snorted. “Of me?”

“Maybe not you exactly but that you are a big part of what his future is going to look like.”

“But it’s the same for me. I don’t know what I’m going to do if he sticks to this plan to sell.”

“I think you need to get to know each other. It’s the only way this is going to work.”

I frowned. “So how do I do that?”

“Ellie, my dear, it’s easy. You rely on your strengths.”

FOURTEEN

[Love is]…something single people think is foolish and even you think it’s stupid, but you still want it.

—PATIENCE, AGE 16

From the sticky note correspondence of Gilbert Dalton and Ellie Sterns:

Eleanor—

Could you please move your clothing from the washing machine to the dryer? The same load has been in there for three days now.

—Gilbert

P.S. When do you have time to start cleaning out Ollie’s room?

Gil—

Whoops. Sorry about that. Moved, dried, kind of folded and put away.

—Ellie

P.S. Soon. Probably.

Eleanor—

What does “kind of folded” even mean?

—Gilbert

P.S. How soon?

Gil—

It means they’re now in the clean pile, okay?

—Ellie

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