“Anyway, gotta head out,” Mike said as he practically ran toward the door. “More later.”
Andrew and I watched him speed-hunch his way out until the door slammed behind him.
“Fuck.”
“But maybe the new owner will be better? More responsive?” We both knew that trading up from Mike was unlikely, given the way he did business. All he cared about was the dollar signs; it didn’t matter who or what bought the building.
Andrew leaned down to tighten the clips on the bar I was supposed to be lifting. “Well, that would be good for you, but it won’t apply to me.”
I fought against a quicksand sensation. “Why? What do you mean?”
“I found a place.”
Andrew didn’t look happy about it, but why would he be? Not only was he ripping up the roots of his new business, he was also putting himself in his father’s crosshairs. It wasn’t my fight, but why did I suddenly feel like I was partly responsible for his decision?
“But wait a sec,” I said, trying to get him to look at me. “Don’t you want to wait to find out what the buyer wants to do?”
He shook his head. “No point. New landlords always raise the rent, which means mine will probably go up in the next few months, if they even let me stay. I didn’t budget for an increase until the end of year one. Things are going well, but it’s tight right now, especially because I have to relocate.”
He was retreating from me and I knew better than to push, but I couldn’t help it. I needed more information from him, so I could understand what he was up against.
“Where is the new space?”
“Other side of town. Smaller spot, used to be a little garage. It’s a mess right now, but I’ll make it work.”
“Were you going to tell me?”
He stopped fussing with the weights to finally look at me. “I mean, yeah, eventually. But I was sort of avoiding thinking about it until I had to. I guess it’s time.”
The words were right there at the tip of my tongue. I wanted to tell him to hold on a little longer, to wait until I could makepeace with the gift that felt like anything but. The fact that the thought had even crossed my mind was progress. I was inching my way toward feeling okay with something I never thought I could. But I wasn’treadyready.
“Enough talking,” he said, pointing to the bar at my feet. “You’re here to work. Let’s go.”
I grabbed on to the weight and when I tried to hoist it, it definitely felt like a “drag” and not a “pull.”
chapter thirty-five
May your days be merry, andbright...”
Sam sang along to the music piped in at the Wismer Pond and skated in a graceful backward circle around me, ending with a spin.
“Ooh, show me how to do that,” Carly said to Sam. “I can only do a half-turn.”
It was an epic gathering of the clans for a night of holiday skating, with Carly and Joe and Sam and Nolan meeting for the first time. Andrew and I were the only ones who knew both sides of the friend groups, but as expected, it was a perfect night so far. They’d all heard about each other forever and it made sense that the people I loved would all love one another. It felt like the right idea to take advantage of the holiday vibes at the pond for their first introduction, before the McGee family shipped off for Long Island and then back to Japan.
Sam and Carly worked on their spins together while I absorbed the magic of the moment. Even though Nolan and I had grown up skating at the pond it felt like I was seeing it for the first time. All the trees surrounding it were decorated withmulticolored lights, the big-bulb 1950s type, and the little rental shack was dressed up to look like gingerbread. The crowd was displaying a variety of skating abilities, from people falling on their butts in ways that almost guaranteed morning-after back pain, to kids using PVC skating trainers to help them stay upright, to rowdy teens careening through the other skaters, to show-offs doing fancy stuff in the center of the ice. Everyone in my little group seemed to be passable to good at skating, with one giant, adorably tentative exception.
Andrew was a glacier in a parka on the other side of the pond, with his toe pick dug into the ice so deeply I worried that we might see water. Nolan was toning down his hockey skills to coach Andrew on the basics while Joe cheered him on, effectively edging me out of the lesson. Andrew looked like he couldn’t understand why his body was betraying him, and the truth was I couldn’t figure it out either. He was sporty and strong, and shockingly graceful, so why was he so tentative on the ice?
Carly and Sam skated over and caught me watching Andrew.
“You know this is like Joe’s dream come true,” Carly said. “You and Andrew hanging out. He said he predicted it at the Fall Fest.”
“We’re not hanging out, we’re ‘having fun,’ ” I corrected as I skated backward.
“What’s the difference?” Sam asked.
“We didn’t define anything.” I did reverse crossovers and tried not to catch my rear skate on my front. “Remember? It’s casual.”
