“What is it?” Caleb asked.
“What?”
“You have that look.”
“Specificity is a gift, Caleb.”
“It’s the one you got when you were trying to solve something you couldn’t.”
He could still read me, too. I lowered my voice. “I have to tell work I can’t do this special episode.” I stopped when a divot appeared between his brows. I didn’t mention my other need to figure out whether I should entertain meeting up with Wells, or just stick to my comfortable communication moratorium.
“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry,” Natalie said, interrupting my mental volleying as she rushed to our table. Caleb movedto offer her his seat, which she sank into. “If it isn’t Caleb the Cape Cod curator.”
Even though Natalie had been prepared to dislike Caleb, by the second drink, she’d relaxed, her trademark tinkling laugh filling me with warmth. I had imagined the sidewalk seating would feel congested, but the nighttime view of Union Square Park was anything but. As day glossed into night, large, glowing lights blanketed the green space, and my muscles were sore from a day spent carrying boxes, lifting and lurching and squatting.
Natalie bit into a buttered Parker House roll. “Heaven.”
“All the produce is sourced from the green market,” Caleb said. “Along with all those artisanal foods. Spicy jams and braided sourdough loaves.”
I held an icy glass against my achy knee, volleying glances between my two friends.One is silver and the other’s gold, went that old rhyme. They were two of the people I’d been closest to on the planet, besides Wells. Here with me on this beautiful night. Laughing. Bantering. Where my Caleb was bumbling, this one was charming. As kids, I’d hoped we’d grow up and be in each other’s lives forever. Through the pang, though, I was already grateful he was back in my life.
“You’re in the right place,” Caleb said, peeking beneath the table. “Knee still bothers you, huh?”
“It always has,” Natalie chimed in. “At least, since I’ve known her.”
“Surgery at sixteen can do that to a person.” I shrugged. “It was the only way to reconstruct my ligaments, but when they saidarthritis, I wish I’d heard them. Who knew that years after skiing precisely one time, I’d be sitting here holding a water glass to my knee?”
“You were laid up for months,” Caleb said. “All I can picture that last year of high school is someone holding your books while you crutched down the hallway.”
“Notmysenior year,” I said pointedly. The year he’d moved on from me. “I was fine by then.”
Caleb speared an olive, then trapped it between his teeth. He raised his eyebrows at me, bearing into the flesh of the green Castelvetrano. “I wouldn’t know,” he murmured.
Natalie let out a low whistle. “Time to clear the air, much?”
“All right. I’ll bite.” I placed my empty water glass back on the table, the ice jangling at its bottom. “Why did you invent ghosting my senior year?”
“Ah. The claim I ditched you,” Caleb said. He moved the olive pit to the side of his plate. “When I could very much say the same.”
“Uh-oh.” Natalie signaled our waiter. “Another round,” she mouthed.
I sat upright. “It’s not aclaim. We were inseparable. Then you left, and we never spoke again.” I worked to keep my tone light, even though something unpleasant hummed in my chest. Ruining nice nights went against everything I stood for. I was a smoother. “It’s been over fifteen years. I can take it now.” Though I’d learned my lesson about indulging innot making things awkwardhandshakes.
Caleb leaned forward to speak over a series of car horn honks. “Livi, that’s not at all how it was.”
My nickname again. I sipped my drink. “It’s fine—”
“No,” he urged. “It’s not. Tell me what you mean.”
I swallowed hard. “I showed up at your door on Thanksgiving break. Your mother said you weren’t there. I said I’d come back later, and she said you weren’t up to hanging out anymore.”
Two stripes of pink appeared above the scruff on Caleb’s face. “What?”
I gave a half shrug. “It was... humiliating. She said you didn’t want to hurt me, and then something stereotypical like‘boys will be boys,’ and something about you being glad I was your childhood friend, but you were focusing on schoolwork and your new life. So.”
“Olivia,” he said slowly. “You came by?”
I stared. “Yes...”
