“Ugh.” She buries her head in her hands. “Don’t remind me.”
“I’ll never forget the way Cade ended up singing both Liesl and Rolf’s parts, like some kind of confused narcissist.”
“I couldn’t think of the lyrics,” she moans.
“Oh, I know. We all knew.” I can’t help but laugh at the memory. Best musical I’ve ever been to.
“I’m glad you were so entertained.” Paige glares at me again, but the muffled sound of her ringtone pulls her attention away. She fishes her phone from her purse and answers.
From Paige’s side of the conversation, I can tell that it’s Ji. They talk for a moment. Paige says something about hybrid boar-pigs and bathrooms, and I don’t even attempt to interpret that. Several moments later, Paige says goodbye, puts her phone back in her purse, and tosses it into my backseat before leaning against her headrest.
“Now, are you going to tell me why your bearded lawn gnome merited the emergency phrase?” I ask, curiosity getting the better of me.
“Oh, so, so many reasons why.” She blows out a breath. And that breath tells me all I need to know about the kind of day she’s had. I mentally reroute us to a new destination and start driving to the one place that always puts a real smile on her face.
She puts out her fingers as she recounts her date’s offenses. “He’s got the manners of a pubescent tween, he thinks TOTO is overrated, and he’s a taxidermist.”
This contains so many Paige-isms that it’s hard to know where to start unpacking. “A taxidermist? What’s wrong with that? Someone’s got to stuff the animals in the natural history museums.”
“Yes, but I don’t want to be Mrs. Taxidermist,” Paige says.
“Mmm, well, I guess it doesn’t matter. He was a goner from the moment he insulted TOTO.”
She throws up her hands. “Right? Thank you. He said ‘Africa’ was overplayed. It’s a classic. You can’t overplay a classic.”
“Gosh, the gall of this guy,” I tease.
Paige hits my arm again. I smirk. Paige loves all music, but her first concert was TOTO, and ever since, the band has been on the list of things you don’t cross her on.
“Why did you go out with him in the first place?” It’s the question that’s been burning in my mind ever since I saw him.
Paige squirms and starts picking an invisible thread off her T-shirt. “He didn’t seem so bad online.” She doesn’t expound, and by her aloof response, I can tell our discussion on dating has come to an end—w
hich I don’t mind one bit.
“And your car? I didn’t see it in the parking lot,” I say, doing my best to change the subject.
“Dory broke down today.” She uses the name we bequeathed her little blue car in high school.
“What, again?” Oh, yikes, ithasbeen a day for Paige.
“Yep.”
“Poor Dory.”
“Yeah, that’s what the mechanic said when he told me the transmission needs to be replaced. She’s going to be the death of me.”
“After a day like today, you know what you need?”
“A pomegranate face mask andAmerica’s Got Talent?”
I grin. “If you have time, I was thinking Trello Park.”
Paige sucks in a breath of air and instantly perks up. “Uh, yes. I will make time. You’re my hero. You know that, right?”
Paige and I continue our easy conversation as we drive through several tree-lined streets before getting onto the highway and driving toward Trello Park in Pine Lakes. Paige pulls her long hair into a ponytail with a hair tie she left in my cup holder a week ago, and we talk about her big day at work tomorrow. Since January, Paige has been a copywriting intern for Wonderman & Fleck, a local advertising agency. But this internship was only meant as a stepping stone to get Paige out of Colorado and into her dream job in California.
Ever since attending college at UC Berkeley, Paige has had her heart set on working for Z3 Group, a thriving ad agency in San Francisco. They won’t seriously consider her unless she has at least an internship, which is why Paige took the one at Wonderman & Fleck.
