Once again, it appeared I wasn’t enough for him.
***
We ate outside on the front porch, crowded together around the glass-topped table. Da’s food was incredible, and our ceaseless laughter drifted up into the twilit sky. Austin and Samira werethe first to call it a night. “We’re going to Fable,” they announced after we’d devoured the decadent olive oil and salted chocolate brownies Samira had made.
“You’re never going to get a table…” Marco warned. Fable was his family’s whimsical dessert and cocktail lounge. It was almost like a speakeasy in the sense that there was no sign of its existence beyond a brassy gold plaque with a quill on it. Seconds after knocking on the nondescript front door of a side-street rowhouse, the host opened one of the wooden panes and asked for your name. Inside, it was like a magical library with gleaming wood walls, flickering candles, cozy velvet and leather chairs, and bookcases upon bookcases.
There was always a waitlist.
“Then we’ll squeeze in at the bar,” Austin responded. His eyes darted to Samira. “I need a nightcap.”
“The seasonal mocktails are very popular,” Marco noted. “I recommend the s’more martini. It’s mixed with a liquor substitute.”
“As’more martini?” Connor and I said simultaneously, and I felt myself flush as he asked: “How can that possibly taste good?”
“Because I invented it,” Marco said.
My parents and the McCallisters laughed, the sound crackling like a campfire. I rolled my eyes when Marco smiled smugly and straightened up in his seat. “Boom,toasted,” Mr. McCallister said with a wink.
“Oh, jeez, Dad…” Connor groaned as Da and Mr. McCallister shared a fist bump for a Dad Joke well-done.
Marco and I went to hang out in what my family called the “Garden” after the McCallisters headed home (Connor and Lauren hand in hand!). Years ago, Da and Austin had ambitiously planted a large vegetable patch, which was now flanked by flourishing herb and flower gardens. Dad had been the architect of a split-rail fence complete with wire mesh, in order to keep deer and other critters from trespassing. It outlined a square, and in the center of the Garden was a brick patio with an inlaid koi pond and wrought-iron summer furniture. After slipping through the garden gate, I flicked on the market lights I’d strung up overhead and then flung myself onto the couch’s red cushions. “Graceful,” Marco commented.
“And beautiful,” I quipped. “You can’t forget beautiful.”
She is beauty and she is grace, I remembered him joking after I’d tripped down the stairs at Austin and Katie’s engagement party.
Ugh,Katie.
I couldn’t even think about her right now, because if I did, I’d either focus on the off chance that she and Austin might not recover from this fight and I would get Austin back…or we’d get Austin back, but he’d be devastated without Katie.
Why was there this tug-of-war?
“Did you have fun?” I asked Marco after he’d settled in the chair across from me.
Because I’d barely spent any time with him tonight. He’d cooked dinner with Da and then talked about everything under the sun with Dad during appetizers. He and Samira had even been whispering back and forth earlier.
“Yes.” Marco grinned. “A lot of fun.”
“Good,” I said, grinning back. “I think it’s safe to say that if you showed up out of the blue, no one would be particularly mad about it.”
“Well, your dad—Harry—and I did talk about me working here,” Marco replied. “Every now and again, I need a change of scenery to write.”
“Wait,write?” I asked.
“I’m working at Ember & Ash a few nights a week,” Marco said, “but one of my lit professors asked me to be his research assistant this summer. He writes historical fiction, in the same vein as Amor Towles.”
I gave him a blank look.
Marco gave me an incredulous one. “You don’t know who Amor Towles is?”
“I’ve never been a big reader,” I admitted, intrigued that he seemed to be. “Only when we’re at the beach.”
“Fair enough,” Marco said. “ButA Gentleman in Moscow? You really haven’t heard—”
“Okay, yes.” I snapped my fingers. “It’s on Dad’s bookshelf. Someone gave it to him for Christmas one year.”
Katie, I realized.Freaking Katie.
