Paige arches an eyebrow. “How much are they willing to pay?”
“She wants to know what the payout is,” I say then listen to my pretend phone. “They want to know if you’ll accept a prepaid shopping trip on Fifth Avenue.”
Paige’s nose wrinkles.
“An all-expense paid Caribbean cruise?” I try.
“Meh.” She looks bored.
“A sugar cookie?”
Paige’s eyes light up, and she nods.
“You’ve got a deal,” I say into the fake phone and hang up. I love how Paige dives head-long into the ridiculous things I do. Everything is more fun when she’s around.
From behind my back, I produce a thin square box big enough to fit a small pizza and place it in her hands. Paige bites her lip and looks up at me, then she opens the box, revealing a giant frosted sugar cookie with purple lettering scrawled across the top.
Paige reads the frosted words aloud. “Those jerks! They don’t know talent when they see it.” She coughs out a laugh, then her eyebrows furrow. She peeks around my back. “What did the other cookie say?”
“What other cookie?” I block her gaze, standing in front of the other box.
“The identical one right behind you.” She puts out an arm to reach around me, but I lean to the side, cutting her off. Then she quickly shifts directions and nabs the second box, flipping it open and reading the second sugar cookie before I can stop her.
“Congrats, Paige!” she reads. “I knew you could do it!” She punches me in the arm, but her laughter immediately counteracts any effect it has. “You’re such a punk.”
I raise both hands innocently. “I’m no fortune teller.”
She closes the lid and stacks it on the other box. “I’m going to eat both of those.”
“You better,” I say.
“Thank you.” Her smile is brief, and as it fades, the mood around us shifts.
I finally address the elephant in the room. “Did you get hurt?”
Paige looks at me quizzically, and I point to her blazer, where the majority of her friend’s drink got dumped on her.
“I mean, did you get burned at all?” I add. I’ve never had hot coffee spill all over me before, but I can imagine the pain would be up there with paper cuts under fingernails.
“Luckily, it was cold brew, so I was spared the third-degree burns. But I’m pretty sure my pride went up in flames.” Paige smirks, but it quickly melts into a frown.
“Hey.” I tug on the sleeve of her blazer, and she looks up at me. “Michael Jordan was cut from the varsity basketball team in high school. And J.K. Rowling was turned down by twelve different publishers before the first Harry Potter was picked up.”
“Don’t forget the owl who took three whole licks to get to the center of his Tootsie Pop.”
“You’re a brat, Devons,” I say, shaking my head.
A smile curls the corner of her mouth, making her dimple appear.
I try again. “What I’m saying is you’ve got the talent, and it’s only a matter of time before someone scoops you up.”
My words have the opposite effect I intended—her chin starts to quiver, and her eyes go misty. She reaches for a tissue, then another. Paige goes through several more tissues, and each one makes me feel more and more useless as I watch her cry out her bad day. I keep my arms at my side, willing them not to move, to encircle her. Then my eyes flick to her blazer, which is the site of the biggest stain. Oddly, it seems to be shaped like Michigan—and nearly the size of it too.
Paige muffles a sob, and I’m just about ready to unbutton my shirt and let her wear it just to take away one of her problems today. I might not be allowed back on her work campus ever again, but hey, I would do anything to turn this day around for her. That’s when I think of a less-scandalous solution.
“I’ll be right back,” I tell Paige, and she nods into her tissue.
I jog out of the building and to my car. When I open my trunk, I see more of Paige’s belongings than my own. Suddenly I’m grateful my mom doesn’t make a habit of looking in the back of my car, because the accumulation of Paige’s stuff in here is giving off strong couple vibes. She’s left a pair of running shorts in a Target bag meant to be returned two months ago, a copy ofSense and Sensibility, and two pairs of shoes, just to name a few.
