Page 118 of Fun Together
“Do you need another drink? We can go grab one.” I hope she takes the hint that I want to go somewhere to talk.
She brushes me off. “No, I’m good.”
She’s avoiding talking to me, then. I should expect that, because what exactly do I want to say to her right now?
Sorry I just confessed to maybe being in love with you in a speech in front of my entire family. Can we go have that “define the relationship” conversation that we’ve been too scared to have?
Florence dashes over carrying sparklers in her hands. “Time for sparklers,” she says, handing them out to us. “Dad says we can spell words out with them. I’m going to spell my name.”
Faye takes a sparkler from Flo’s hand. “Well, you have a beautiful name, so I can’t wait to see it,” Faye says to her.
Florence beams up at her as if she just told her she hung the moon.
We congregate together in the yard by the pool and our fearless leader, Evie, makes her way to the front of the crowd. “Everyone line up in two lines to create a path for Mom and Dad to walk through,” she says, shuffling us around and into position.
“Evie-bear, we don’t need to do this,” Mom says.
“Yes, you do! It’s what youdo, Mom. You and Dad walk through while all of us hold up our sparklers. I’ll take a photo of you two smiling. It will be gorgeous. It will be happy. It will beperfect.”
Mom exchanges a worried look with Dad before they both shrug and move to stand at the edge of the path we’ve created for them.
Since everyone is distracted by the sparklers, I take my chance to get closer to Faye. I lean down so only she can hear me. “You okay?” The question feels completely empty at this point, but I don’t know what else to say.
She nods but doesn’t smile at all. Not even a fake one. “Yep, I’m good.”
“You going to spell out your name?” I ask. I don’t like when people are mad at me, or I can’t get them to give me some kind of reaction. No reaction from her feels like I’m losing at a game I forgot I was playing. I think I’d almost prefer if she was behaving like Andrew is right now.
By which I mean, I watched him disappear into the house when everyone was lining up and haven’t seen him since.
“That might be too advanced for me. Maybe I’ll do a heart.” She pauses and shakes her head. “Or a star.”
She and I have come to a fork in the road, and we have to decide what path to take. I want to follow the one that might have some difficult spots, but it leads to the cliff we can look out at the world from. She’s still standing at the trailhead, unwilling to share the journey with me.
“Count of three!” Evie shouts.
I light my sparkler first and turn to light Faye’s with mine. How long can I wait for her to decide I’m worth the risk? How do I prove to her that Iamworth it? That’s she’s worth it.
On the third count, I spell out her name in huge swooping letters.
Most of theguests leave in a flurry of hugs and goodbyes until it’s just Faye, Evie, and I left standing in the yard. We walk together toward the house and sit down in the pool chairs.
Emmett comes out of the house with a sleeping Flo tossed over his shoulder. “We’re heading out. This one crashed shortly after Aunt Linda’s famous chocolate cake.” He gives my shoulder a squeeze as they walk past us. “Good speech.”
I swallow a lump in my throat. “Thanks, man. Drive safe.”
We sit quietly, all of us seemingly lost in our own thoughts.
Evie breaks the silence. “What’s wrong with him?” she asks, gesturing to the kitchen window where we can see Andrew moving around the kitchen.
“He’s stress cleaning,” Faye and I say at the same time.
I look at Faye. She looks anywhere but at me.
Evie looks at Andrew for a few more seconds, calculating. “I think a night swim is in order.”
“I don’t know, Eves,” I say. I’m exhausted myself. “Maybe another time.”
“Yeah, I’m kind of tired too,” Faye says. She gives Evie an apologetic smile. “Sorry.”
