Caleb and I exchange a look, a conversation passing between us like we’re an old couple. “Stay,” Caleb says. “I’ll turn this off and we can playMario Kart. I’ll make you a pack of my famous ramen.”
“Yeah, stay,” I agree. “Hang out. What are you going to do in that big house by yourself?”
A weak smile curves her lips. “Be an old cat lady.”
Caleb boos, and I join in. We start a chant of “stay, stay, stay.”
“Fine,” she concedes. “But I get to be Luigi.”
* * *
“Who launched that shell?!”Darcy shrieks. She sits at my feet on the other end of the couch. She’s doing that thing of steering her character with her entire body instead of just using the buttons on the controller. It’s endearing to see her this playful when she’s usually either sad or grouchy.
“How the tables turn,” Caleb taunts her, then immediately spins out on a banana peel.
“Ha! Karma!” she gloats.
Meanwhile, I purposely let myself fall behind in the game so it would give me the ultimate legal cheat on the last lap: Bullet Bill. I use it to blast in front of Darcy in second place and Caleb in first.
“Hey!” Darcy objects. “Was that you?”
“What?” Caleb shouts. “No! No! How did?—”
We cross the finish line in a perfect one-two-three, with me as number one. Darcy’s enraged eyes turn on me and Caleb lets out a “the fuck, man.”
“You have to let me win. I’m injured,” I simper.
“You injured yourself!” Darcy cries. “I told you that horse was a dick!”
“Think the word you used was ‘troublemaker,’” Caleb points out.
“I was being polite,” Darcy says. “I didn’t want to scare y’all off on day one. I kinda need you.”
“Aww,” Caleb says, patting his heart. “Precious.”
The replay of our race rolls on the screen. Darcy bends to get a Flamin’ Hot Cheeto out of Caleb’s bag on the coffee table.
She cocks her head. “Speaking of, Caleb, why did you give up working in the air conditioning at the hardware store to come sweat your ass off out here?”
He shrugs. “More money. Free rent. And I’ve worked at the hardware store since high school. Three years. This is something different before I start a plumbing program in August. Build up my strength a little bit. See the sun. Plenty of reasons.”
She puffs her lip out. “I love that. What about you, Jake? How the hell did you find my uncle?”
I chuckle. “Google and desperation. I’m a grad student in robotics and my robot is a fruit picker. I needed somewhere to test it and this is a fruit farm, you know?”
“But you grew up on a fruit farm. Why not test it there?”
I focus on the screen, toggling between race course options for our next round. “Complicated. This is closer to school. That, the money, the free rent, my roommate bailing on me. It all just kinda fell into place.”
“Y’all think this is destiny?” Caleb asks.
We exchange a look between the three of us. “Maybe,” Darcy says. I’m tempted to ask why she left the job with the hockey team to come back here. But her quick subject change tells me this part of the conversation is over. “Rainbow Road? Please?”
THIRTEEN
DARCY
“I’m so sorry.I don’t have change yet. We’ve got someone waiting for the bank to open. We can take cards.”
