“Oh my god,” Ellis says. “First of all, it’s congressman, notMP, you British dork. Second, I didn’t know thatat the time. He supported universal childcare.”
Fondness overcomes me and I find myself snuggling into Ellis. Even though Daniel isright there. Damn these fungi! “Did you want to go into politics?” I ask.
He shrugged. “Yeah. I was young and impassioned.”
“As opposed to now—wrinkled and disaffected,” I tease.
Daniel grins from across the fire. “But I literally did run into him outside of a grocery store one day, canvassing. He was so winning and persuasive, I actually donated money to the bloke’s campaign. And then I asked El if he wanted to intern for me.”
Green-sweatshirt girl rolls her eyes. “That’s how the bromance started. These two are disgusting.”
“I treat all my employees equally,” Daniel protests.
“Yeah, but Ellis is your special best boy,” Max says.
Everyone laughs but I look at Ellis with surprise. “Wait, so you didn’t go to school to do this job?”
He shakes his head. “Nope. I barely knew the difference between a pine tree and a ficus when I started here. Daniel taught me everything I know.” It’s kind of said jokingly, but I can sense the earnestness behind it. “My major in college was Latin.”
“What?” It almost sobers me, that revelation. “What in the hell? Whoareyou?”
Everyone laughs again but I’m kind of serious. This guy—he truly does go where the wind takes him.
“I wanted to go to college to learn shit,” he says, in a lower voice, a conversation just between us now. “But when I started interning at Watson and Associates, something clicked. I knew this was a job I could love.”
“And do you? Love it?” I ask.
“I really do. I owe Daniel a lot,” he says with a fond glance over at him. “He’s gone above and beyond for me.”
Oh, god. I was going to now get in between two men who were pretty much in love with each other.
Again, that’s a problem for Future Cassia. The night continues, the guitar strumming, the stars bright in the sky. At one point, someone asks me how I ended up in Joshua Tree, and I explain my birthday tradition.
Which then, of course, prompts a rousing and terrible rendition of “Happy Birthday.” Ellis brings me a pot brownie with a candle stuck in it that I blow out. “Thank you,” I say with a laugh, passing on the brownie. I don’t need to be completely wrecked tonight.
“You do thiseveryyear?” Daniel asks as he strums lightly on his guitar. In my current state, I don’t find this embarrassing. He holds the guitar like a natural part of his body. Like it’s a hobby but one he’s had as long as I’ve been in therapy. And it’s nice to hear in themiddle of nowhere, the air dry as bone and cold as hell. The fire crackles and almost everyone is huddled around it in various states of wellness.
I poke at the fire with a long stick. Earlier, I had stared at this stick for what felt like hours, marveling at the intricacies ofwood. I almost called my grandfather to talk about it, but Ellis gently moved my phone out of reach. “Yeah, I’ve been doing this every year since I turned…twenty? So, a long time.”
“Ten years, then?” Daniel says with a put-on innocence.
“Ha.” I look up at him across the fire, feelingmerry. “Nice try, fellow Asian. If I look thirty, I’m probably a retiree.”
Ellis shakes his head. “Cass, you have no idea what you look like.”
I catch the infatuation under the words and shoot a quick glance at him. Mm. Still cute. Probably still very good in bed.
Still very much twelve years younger than me. I think of a line fromBeautiful Girls, one of my favorite movies. Noah Emmerich is making fun of Timothy Hutton’s character for having weird vibes with teenage Natalie Portman (it was the nineties, okay?) and says, “The girl was a zygote when you were in the seventh grade.”
Yikes.
But the uncomfortable moment passes, because I simply can’t be negative right now while feeling so great. I feel like I am at the peak of a good wine buzz. Maybe it’s the company. The desert sky. The sounds of other happy people around me.
“God, I would kill for a taco right now,” someone grumbles nearby.
“You always want tacos,” Daniel says with good humor.
“That’s because tacos are the perfect food,” the grumbler, I think his name is Parker, says.
