Dad and Maggie look perplexed by my urgency, but their expressions change to surprise when I hand over an item that I treasure—my passport.
“My collateral against your loan,” I say.“I’ll exchange your scrapbooks for my passport… when I’m ready.If that’s acceptable.”
She tugs the passport from my hand, looking baffled over my gesture.I wonder if my action seems weird to her, but it’s my way of thanking her and comforting Henry.
“Hmm, it’s customary to secure an arrangement between borrowers and lenders with something of similar value,” Dad says, validating me.
“That’s fair.Thank you,” she says, tucking my ability to travel in her purse.“May I let Henry hold on to it, though, for safekeeping?”
I swallow the lump in my throat.“That would be acceptable… My job decision is still pending.I have much to consider.But I promised Henry I wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye.This assures it.”
“Whatever your answer, Venus, it has to work foryou… But perhaps you’re ready for a new adventure.”
“New Zealand?”I ask.
“No...What’s scarier or more exciting than love and parenthood?”
Dad laughs.“Isn’t that the truth?”
“I’d better get going.”She rises from her seat, but digs through her purse again.She pulls out a postcard-sized paper and pushes it to me.“Your invitation to the museum’s launch party.Bring the whole family.Henry wanted to make it official.”
Dad reaches the invitation first and answers for us.“It’d be an honor to celebrate Henry’s achievement with him.We’ll be there.”
She steps toward the deck railing, but turns and smiles back at me.“Oh, and Venus… the rest of that box is filled with scarves.I never stopped collecting them for you.”
CHAPTER51
Henry
“I thoughtthis was supposed to be anintimategathering?”I ask Marnie as crowds gather outside the museum, twenty minutes before our private launch party.
“Um, yes.But then we invited Jay’s biker friends, and the queens from Queens and Dreams?—”
“Well, theyarecatering,” I cut in, running a hand through my hair.
“Don’t forget the contributors,” Dot chimes in.“Like my wife and Jack Graham.Youhadto invite them.”
“And their families,” Marnie says.
“Oh, and I couldn’t leave out the ghost hunters club,” Eric says.“Or the alien geeks.Or the conspiracy podcasters, Beyond the Truth.”
“That’s debatable,” I huff.
“Who do you think’ll put this place on the map, huh?”Eric argues.
“Well, there’s the local TV station and that journalist, Cleo Spire.She did that piece about my business in February.I’m still getting calls from it,” Marnie says, tapping her pen against the guest list in her Trapper Keeper.“Weneedthe free publicity.”
“Hell, is that a guy wearing an alien costume?”
Everyone peers out the window around me.
“Yep, that’s Ken, president of We Are Not Alone,” Eric reports.“You wanted weird, right?”
“Don’t stress out, Henry,” Dot says with a stern pat on my back.“It’s not a party without a guy in an alien costume.”
My shoulders tense as I take a quick puff off my inhaler.
“Sorry, Henry.We got overzealous with the invites,” Marnie says, face scrunched.“The good news is that so many people are excited and invested in your success.Right?”
