Something about the (surprisingly aggressive) Panda Express lighting draws out the individual marks on his face in stark relief. A few freckles, a tiny scar on his upper lip. A mole on the rim of his ear.
“What about you?” Will asks.
I blink. “I forgot what we were talking about.”
His mouth curves up. “Do you like to read?”
“Oh. I don’t really have time for reading anymore.” I hold up the fashion magazines I just purchased at a news store. “Even these are more like market research.”
Will frowns. “That’s too bad.”
Don’t share personal details. Don’t share personal—
“When I was younger,” I say, the words spilling out of me in a gush, “I devoured books at Sea Island, where my family went during my school breaks.”
“I remember,” Will says, his eyes warm as he stretches back in his chair. “You took Zoe with you over fall break.”
“Right,” I say. “We both spent that whole break reading by the pool. Zoe kept her nose buried in some dystopian sci-fi ordragon fantasy with wars and kingdoms. I went for summery beach reads about teenagers and love and family and first jobs at shrimp shacks.”
“That tracks,” Will says.
“I could read one per day during the summer months, too,” I go on. “Wouldn’t even leave the beach unless it was to get in the ocean or run up to our house for some lunch. Up until I turned eighteen, I would read until the sun set and my sunburn formed goose bumps.”
Will’s lips part just slightly, in awe at my oversharing about my teenage reading habits. “What changed when you turned eighteen?”
I shrug, my shoulders concaving. I roll up the magazines in a tight wad. “I guess I stopped thinking of that girl in all those summer books and me as the same kind of girl.”
He’s quiet for a minute. I keep my focus on my lap. “Are you going to Sea Island this summer?” he asks.
I shake my head. “I haven’t been in years, actually.”
“No time for vacations?”
My eyes draw back up to his, hazel against blue. “What do you think?”
“I thinkI’mgoing to spend some time on this trip enjoying myself,” he says, voice almost scolding. “You’re welcome to join me. But I’m not going to force you to treat this trip like a partial vacation if you aren’t up to it.”
We’renoteating hotel food and getting our exercise in a workout room,he’d said.
“Will, it really isn’t supposed to be like—”
“Did you think I don’t know when your birthday is?”
I freeze. “Cami told you.”
His head tilts just a fraction, eyes roaming my face. “Actually,” he says, voice dropping low, “Zoe did.”
Zoe?
Did Willtellher we’d be going on this two-week trip together?
Has he told her… other things?
“Your brain is working so damn hard right now,” Will says, dryly amused. “You know you can justaskme anything you want to know about Zoe, right?”
I cock my head, thinking, and tap my phone screen to check the time. First class is boarding in less than ten minutes.
I use the bathroom and buy a Diet Coke, and then we board our next flight. Will finishes his book while I catch up on some emails.
