I take a bite of cake, then nod. “I’d love that.”
We settle into the studio with our sketchbooks. The quiet hum of visitors passing by the room reminds me of being in the open studio at Blue Honeybee, and it’s easy to fall into our normal rhythm of working and glancing over at what the other person is doing.
I’m sketching the courtyard, a woman standing in the shadows, thinking about the way the light moves playfully around the plants. We both lose ourselves in the task for a while, until a tour group goes by, and I see Sera flinch at the rise in chatter.
“We can go,” I say, closing my sketchbook. “I’m just going to use the bathroom first.”
“Okay.” Sera smiles. “I do feel the beginning of a headache coming on. I’ll just finish this and wait for you here.”
When I’m back, Sera has packed up everything and is watching a group of kids shuffling down the hall, following behind their camp counselor. Two at the back are giggling and poking each other.
“They remind me of Oliver and Adam.” She nods in their direction just as the counselor comes over and separates them, moving one to the middle of the line.
“Yeah, but probably less annoying,” I joke, taking her hand.
As we exit back into the hot sun, a sign on a building to our right catches her attention.
“Oh, look. It’s MassArt. I think they have a small design museum. Do you want to go look?” She’s pointing across the long green lawn outside the museum, to a gray and modern building with the wordsMassachusetts College of Art and Designacross a long window wall.
“Maybe another time?” I suggest. I don’t want to look inside a school I would’ve been applying to before everything with my dad went down. And Sera has a headache anyway.
“Really? You’ll come back and go with me?”
“Of course.”
Sera’s eyes light up even as she takes her bottom lip between her teeth. I reach up and free it, rub my thumb across her soft pink lip, then leave a small kiss there. I want her to be gentle with herself, so I’ll be gentle, even though I immediately want to get us back in the truck with fewer people around. I take a slow, deep breath and push the desire back as Sera licks her lips and looks at me like she knows exactly how naked I’m picturing her right now. Then she pulls away and moves toward where we parked the truck.
“Whoa, slow up,” I say as she drags me down the sidewalk.
“Nope. Come on. I want to make out with my boyfriend in his truck.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sera
Friday morning, I wake up early and go for a walk on the beach before my parents are up. It’s my last day teaching camp. Iris is back on Monday. I collect rocks for each of the kids as thank-yous and then come back home and make a pot of coffee. The spitting of the machine is the only sound in the house. Even though Abbi is still in Maine, I can feel the tension between us. I’m sitting with my allotted share of caffeine on the porch with the fan blowing the humid air around as best it can when Mom comes down and joins me.
“You were up early.” She swats at my feet until I move them, then sits on the other end of the love seat and puts my feet in her lap.
“Feeling good today,” I admit, even though doing that makes me nervous, like I’m going to jinx it.
Mom squeezes my knee, her eyes sad. “I’m glad. Can I take you to camp today?”
“Sure.” I lift my mug up to cheers with hers and she smiles,then tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. I watch the sun catch on the freckles across her nose, so much like Abbi’s, and wonder if I’ll get to keep any memories when I die. We’re not religious, and when pressed about their beliefs my parents shrug, atheists to their core. Abbi is spiritual, but I don’t think any of us expect there’s going to be anything more than their memories of me when I’m gone. And it does now feel likewhenis soon. Funnily, I thought I’d be angrier, but I’m just wildly grateful for whatever time I have left. I push the sad thought away and pull my phone out to show Mom the new pictures Iris sent me from Paris until we have to go.
*
It’s my last day, but not the kids’, so I have a schedule for them to do presentations of their weekly projects in the morning and then free art in the afternoon. I don’t know what Iris will want to pick up with them next week, and they haven’t had a free day in a while.
Maddy shows up right when Jayda picks the kids up for their time down at the beach.
“Lunch in town?” she asks, giving me a quick hug and taking a turn around the room, admiring the kids’ work. “I remember making these at school.” She’s looking at one of the self-portrait outlines that haven’t been taken home yet. “Was it fun? Teaching?”
“Yeah. I’m going to miss it,” I admit, grabbing my bag and following her to her car. “Though not as much as your milkshakes.”
Maddy sighs dramatically. “Are you talking about when you’re dead? Stop it. You only got the news about moving up the list yesterday. You don’t know what’s going to happen. You could get a heart this year. Plus it’s still summer. Let’s enjoy it. Your application was due this week, right? You turned it in?”
“I did.”
