“Bet money he says ‘according to my calculations’ in the next five minutes,” Janelle whispers to me. Her braids, hanging loose and framing her face, lightly stroke my arm. She uses my wrist to steady herself so I use my other hand to pull her closer to me. The heat pouring off her at my touch threatens to engulf us both in the flames.
“I think I’d be a fool to take that bet.”
“True, you would. So, over or under on the five minutes?”
I look over to Arnold, still pacing the pool, and wait for the tell-tale sign of him checking his watch. When he does, I turn to Janelle with a gleeful grin. “Under. I give it two minutes, max.”
Dani taps her foot and claps her hands, gaining all our attention. “Is this still part of the process? Are we waiting for the ring to call to us or something?”
Arnold motions for us to come closer, so we form a huddle around him. “After we left the patio, she really wanted to sit and watch the water but insisted the pool in our room didn’t give off the right vibe, so we came here. She sat in every single chair testing their quote unquote‘comfort levels,’then she stared into space for a while before she stripped off all her clothes and jumped in. Things get a little X-rated from there so I’ma shut up but yeah.”
“It’s this raggedy British accent for me. Okay, so she sat in every single chair on both sides of the pool?” Dani asks.
“No, just this side. And this,” he points to a chair right in the center, “is the one she chose so according to my calculations, it should have ended up right here.”
Janelle looks at me, grabbing my arm with an iron-tight grip and we both fall into a fit of laughter. She bends over with a cough, bumping the chair in question with her hip and moving it closer to the edge of the pool. “Shit, I can’t breathe.”
My laughter grows louder as I bring my hand to her back to help her stand back up. “What I tell you? Two minutes on the dot.”
She wipes a few tears away from her eyes and giggles again. “You know, Arnold, I always wanted to ask you. What exactly goes into those calculations of yours? What’s the science behind it?”
“’Bout to start calling you TI-83.”
Janelle slaps my arm as another fit of laughter takes over her. “Yo on his Velma shit, talkin’’bout some ‘according to my calculations.’”
“Ol’ Mystery Machine–lookin’ass.”
At this point, Dani joins in on the laughter while Arnold does his best to look irritated with us. He presses his lips into a wobbly hard line.
“You wanna tell us the wind projections from last night too?” Janelle asks, licking her finger and holding it up to the nonexistent wind.
Dani lets out a snort, which only makes Janelle and I laugh harder.
“Ayo, fuck y’all. My methods always work.”
“That’s not true. Remember when you lost your coffee mug while we were out shopping and you never found it?” Janelle asks.
He shakes his head and points his finger at her. “I stand by it, someone at Tumi stole my damn mug.”
“And I kept telling you, nobody wanted that busted-ass mug.”
“It was a nice mug!”
“Was it though? It was literally chipped on the side.”
“It gave it character.”
Janelle’s eyebrows spike up to her hairline as she mouths“character”and Arnold chuckles. This is the first time I’ve witnessed them acknowledge that they meant something to each other once upon a time. Janelle looks unfazed by it, but Arnold visibly relaxes with the interaction, like it’s taken a huge weight off his shoulders to not have to pretend that Janelle is nothing more than his fiancée’s sister.
“Whatever, it works ninety-nine percent of the time. I bet we gonna find it right here.”
“I’ll take that bet.” I would bet my last dollar on the ring not being here. Truth be told, I wouldn’t be surprised if Amerie took that ring off on purpose just to give Janelle something else to do.
“Bet. How much we talkin’…”
His words are cut off by the sound of Amerie hollering. She storms around the corner with Christian, Micah, and Eve lagging behind her.
“Hey, babe, how’s the search going?”
