Page 53 of Summer Longing
“True,” Elise said.
“But aside from using kelp as a food source—because I admit it could be a little while before it catches on—I think ethically, we need to grow it. You know excess nitrogen in the water is a major problem here on the coast, and the oysters filter it, but so does seaweed. And a bigger problem is the rising acidity of the oceans. The ocean is absorbing all the excess carbon in our environment and the resulting rise in acidity is threatening shellfish—they can’t develop their shells. Seaweed and kelp absorb the carbon dioxide.”
“It sounds great,” Fern said. “But what does this have to do with us?”
“Instead of sitting around and waiting for kelp to catch on, I was thinking about ways I could be proactive in getting it out there. And then I read about this guy in Maine who’s doing kelp teas.”
Elise and Fern looked at each other. “Really? I can’t imagine that flavor would be palatable at all,” Fern said.
“I know—it doesn’t sound like something that should work. But he mixes the kelp with green teas and some herbals, and somehow, it does work. I know you guys have your own Tea by the Sea blends, and I thought maybe if I gave you some kelp, you could experiment with it. And by the way, I know you’re really into the mind, body, spirit of the whole thing, and seaweed is full of antioxidants and vitamins. I just think this could be an interesting offering.”
Elise could tell by the look on Fern’s face that she thought it was interesting too. Maybe it was. Maybe two weeks ago she would have been excited about trying something new. Now she didn’t want to get involved with anything that might require her to take time away from Mira.
“We’re willing to give it a shot. Right, Elise?”
“Sure,” Elise said.
“Great!” Marco said. Behind him, the sheets of kelp waved in the breeze. The aroma of salt water and something distinctly of the sea wafted over them. If she could capture it, it would be summer in a bottle. She thought, then, about how the scent of the Strawberry Meadows tea blend filled the shop, how every customer commented on it. The kelp blend could do the same thing. Really, it might not be a bad idea.
“I have one more small request—actually, it’s not that small. It’s about that size,” he said, gesturing toward the kelp.
“Shoot,” said Fern.
“I need to dry the kelp and the best way to do that is to hang it from a line in the fresh air—like laundry. But I can’t do it outside of my apartment and there’s too much foot traffic and debris behind my parents’ house where my dad works on the boat repair. Can I use your backyard at Shell Haven?”
“I wouldn’t mind but you know we have a tenant this summer. You would have to discuss it with Ruth,” Fern said.
“I don’t know if we should bother Ruth with this. I feel like we’ve pushed things way too far as it is,” said Elise.
Fern looked at her like,And whose fault is that?
“Let me just run it by her,” Marco said. “If she has any hesitation, that will be the end of it. I’ll find someplace else. Either way, I’m very happy you two are on board with trying out the tea. I love how open you are.”
“Yeah, well. Maybe we’re a little too open sometimes,” Fern said.
Marco looked at Elise, and she shook her head with an expression that said,That was directed at me.
He lowered the kelp back into the water.
By late afternoon, Olivia had determined that sitting was worse than standing, and so she paced in the backyard.
It was more rustic than the manicured front lawn. Along with the hydrangeas, Olivia saw bunches of wildflowers and a patch of tall weeds. She found herself gravitating toward the weeds in all their messy abundance. The orderly beauty of the flowerbeds felt like a rebuke when her own life was unraveling.
The light started to shift, the slightest downgrade from bright sun to something gentler. In one corner of the yard, a patch of shade. She stood in front of a stone bench and stared at her phone. It had been buzzing all day with texts and messages from her former coworkers and clients, all of them offering their sympathy while subtly (or, in most cases, not so subtly) asking what had happened and where she was going next, so she was relieved to find it silent.
The one person she had not heard from was her assistant—former assistant—Dakota. She wondered, cynically, how long it would be before Dakota moved into Olivia’s office. It was possible Peter had just been looking for an excuse to fire her. At thirty, she was already old for the company. They could pay one of the kids just out of college a fraction of her salary, and those new hires had three times her social media presence.
Yes, she’d given them cause to push her out the door. But that didn’t change the fact that she’d been headed out to pasture anyway.
She looked at her Instagram profile, considered editing HotFeed out of her bio, then decided against it. Why rush to downgrade herself to irrelevant? She had to think of her next move. She could still start a company. It would just be that much harder to get it off the ground.
Without thinking, she bent down to sit on the bench. Pain rippled through her lower back.
How could she think of starting a company when she couldn’t even sit down? She was stuck in that town and dependent on her mother after swearing to herself she would never ask the woman for a thing. In that moment, Olivia was as far from independent as she could imagine. And there was only one person she wanted to depend on.
She dialed her father, and he answered on the first ring.
“You made it back home?” he said cheerily.
