“Dunno.” My menu is underneath the thumb debacle, and even though Iusuallyget the Caprese pizza, I’d still like to look. Everything else is different about tonight. No reason my order shouldn’t be too.
He drops my thumb and picks up his water glass. He looks sorta proud of himself, which is disconcerting. Does he think that just went well? I bury myself in my menu and pretend to seriously consider another option besides the Caprese pizza. I find none.
“Have you two decided?” The waiter winks at me, and for a second I see Rob and me through his eyes: a young couple in love. Maybe a little bit awkward, but definitely not just friends. I’ll take it.
“What would you like?” Rob asks.
“The Caprese.”
Rob laughs and shakes his head. “Thanks for giving me a hard time, Caplet.”
“He’ll have the pasta Bolognese,” I shoot back.
Rob opens his mouth to protest, but the bow tie waiter cuts in, “Your date has great taste.”
Rob smiles and turns his hands up. “I can’t argue with that.”
When he’s gone, Rob again puts his hands across the table, but this time he takes both of mine in his in one clean, swift movement. It doesn’t feel awkward, just nice. I think maybe we’re getting better at this. The interaction with the waiter seemed to give us some confidence.
“You still haven’t told me about the summer.” I try to keep my voice steady because it’s distracting, his fingers on mine like this. But distracting in a good way. Like a really great song playing when you’re trying to study for an English exam.
“It was good.” He shrugs. “You know Kwebec, not much to report. It never changes. Larry is still there, and he’s as crazy as ever.”
Larry is the camp director. No one knows exactly how old he is. Sometimes he looks eighty, and sometimes he looks forty. It’s the weirdest thing. He isn’t married, so it’s not like you can tell by his wife or anything, and as far as I know he has no children.
“Cool.”
“It rained a lot.” Rob pauses, considering it. “Yeah, it was sorta annoying, actually. There’s only so long you can keep those kids indoors.”
The waiter comes over with our bread, but Rob doesn’t immediately drop my hands. Instead, he turns them over in his and draws little circles on my palms. He traces the lines of my veins like he’s a fortune-teller.
“What do you see?” I peer at his fingers.
“You will live a long life,” he says in his best Dumbledore voice.
“That’s it?”
“What else do you want?” He looks up at me, his voice Rob again.
“It’s mydestiny. Something good.”
I break our hands apart and reach for a piece of bread. Rob starts talking about Jake and whether or not their before-school surfing routine is going to work through the fall.
“I think Jake is probably headed to CC next year,” he says. CC is the community college here. It’s different than the big university in town, where my dad teaches. CC isn’t a great school, but Jake also isn’t exactly a fantastic student. I think this really upsets Charlie. She wants to go to Middlebury in Vermont next year, and sometimes, in their better moments, she wants him to come with her.
“When are our applications due?”
“I think end of September,” he says. “You’re applying early, right?”
“You have to ask?”
He smiles, reaches across, and squeezes my hand. It’s starting to feel normal now.
“You think this is going to work out, right?” I ask. “I mean, it’s so supercompetitive these days.”
Rob flips his hand to dismiss the comment. “We’re fine.Unless Lauren decides to forgo Harvard. Then we’re screwed.”
I laugh, but I can feel the bread turn over in my stomach. I hadn’t even thought about anybody else applying. What’s stopping Lauren or even Stacy Tempeski from edging in on our spots?
