I was thinking about how much she’d hate it if I held her hand while Elijah makes the call. So I’m okay with holding her hand after all.
When breakfast is done, we walk down the street to the house. It’s nearly noon and Key West is wide awake now. Already, sunburned tourists are clutching oversized daiquiris to their chests.
“So we’re just hanging out today, and we’ll take off tomorrow?” I ask.
Elijah frowns. “Unfortunately, we’re operating on my grandmother’s schedule. I can’t swear we’re leaving tomorrow either.”
“A less caring road-trip fake girlfriend would suggest you leave her ass here,” I suggest.
He laughs. “Nice try, Easton.”
A couple flies past us on Vespas, and my gaze follows. That would have been me, once upon a time. I can’t blame Thomas for everything. No one emerges from med school with an appreciation for mopeds or trampolines or slicing your own bagels—three things about as likely to send you to the ER as rampant drug use.
I guess it’s just that there was still some wildness in me before Thomas. There was still some bend. Now it’s as if he’s ironed me stick-straight and dipped me in shellac. I hunger for that wild part of me, but I don’t even know where to find it anymore.
“We’re, uh, having dinner with my grandmother and Betty again,” he says.
My mouth opens. “Why?—"
“It’s a special thing, on this island. Betty planned it all for you to help win Thomas back, so you’ve got to go.”
Fuck my life. “I bet your grandmother just loves that.”
He laughs ruefully. “Yeah, we’ve already exchanged words.”
When we return to the house, I settle under an umbrella by the pool and open my phone.
Thomas
Hey, someone just dropped into my comments to say she saw you out with another guy?
Oh shit. Here we go. Suddenly this entire plan seems reckless and crazy, and why did I ever come on this trip or think this would do any good?
He sends a screenshot of the comment, which comes from someone named SweatyBettyKW:
SweatyBettyKW:Dude, I peeped your girl with some other guy last night in Key West.
User 8869: @SweatyBettyKW were they on a date?
SweatyBettyKW: @User8869 Looked like. And let me tell you...she traded UP. He was a total snack.
Betty, a woman who hit adolescence before Vietnam, is more adept at Gen Z slang than I am. Or so I assume, based on the fact that I barely understand what she’s saying.
And I guess I should be thrilled at this first sign of jealousy. It’s the whole reason I’m here. Instead, I’m just sort of irritated. A piece of me simply wants to explain, then ask him what he thinks of the UCSD study, but I’d be giving him what he wants. Reassurance, a bit of the companionship we had before. So I don’t say either one.
You ended our relationship, as I recall.
I guess it’s a manipulative answer, one that won’t allay any of his fears.
I glance toward Elijah, who’s getting ready to go for a run.
I sort of wish I was dating someone I didn’t have to manipulate in the first place.
14
ELIJAH
“Did you know that you’re statistically more likely to marry someone with the same first initial?” Easton asked. She was twelve at the time and this was a standard question from her—one that somehow combined a strange fact with her plan to marry me.
