Page 92 of Lovetown, USA
She makes a face at me. “Why would you say that?”
But Cam is laughing. “It’s all good. What do you think, though? Pop should give me the money, right?”
She shrugs. “Well first of all, if this girl likes you for you, she shouldn’t care how much money you spend. Y’all are college students.” She sits there for a minute like she just listened to her own words and changed her mind. “Wait. Did you know how she was when you pursued her?”
He nods.
“Oh. Then yeah. You probably need to get a job.”
Cam’s shoulders sag. “So nobody cares that I gotta keep my grades up?”
“I care deeply,” I say. “So if it’s between grades and a girlfriend, you got some hard choices to make, son.”
“I shouldn’t have to choose,” he pouts. “She might be the one, Dad.”
“Negro, please. You went down there and got your little dick wet and now you think you’re in love.”
“Trey!” Lane shakes her head at me. “Don’t do that. He’s still young enough to believe in all that.”
“So are you,” I say with a smile.
She stares down at her plate, missing the thumbs-up Cam gives me.
“So you like her, then.”
He nods. “She’s beautiful. And sweet. She has this thick southern accent. And she wants a big family like I do.”
“And?”
“And we got the same kinda vibe.”
“So she’s goofy, too?”
Cam sucks his teeth. “Listen, I need to keep her. You always told me when you find a good woman, don’t let her get away.”
Lane and I lock eyes. Without looking away, because it’s hard not to stare at that face, I ask Cam, “How much?”
“Just an extra two-hundred. Maybe three. She knows you’re a doctor,” he adds quietly.
“Why isthatrelevant?” I ask, laughing, breaking my stare.
“I was trying to impress her, obvi. Pop, come on. Why you bein’ difficult? You know how this works.”
“Alright, alright.” I blow out a breath. “I’ll start at three. It’ll go down in fifty dollar increments until you get a job. That oughta keep the fire lit under your narrow ass.”
“Thank you!” He rubs his hands together. “Can you go ahead and front me the first payment? I need to send her a cash app so she’ll unblock me.”
“Jesus,” I mutter as I dig my phone out of my pocket. “Fuckin’ Gen Z.”
Cam inhales the rest of his salmon, happily bobbing his head to a beat the rest of us can’t hear.
“What about you, Miss Lane?”
She raises her eyebrows at Camron.
“You want a big family?”
“Hell, no,” she says, before clamping my mouth shut. “Sorry,” she mutters to our laughter. “What I meant was, I don’t want kids. Like, at all. Never have.” She smiles at Cam. “No offense.”
