“As a matter of fact, it’s available all morning, too.” I glance to Kavya. “We’re going on a field trip to visit some of our suppliers at their local farms.”
“Cool. Good day for it.”
“Want to lend us your truck?” Kavya asks. “Nicholas’s car is tiny.”
“Kavya!” I say. “We can’t just ask that.”
Kavya doesn’t betray any emotion on her face. “What? We’re going to the country. We should have a truck.” She looks at Clay. “You understand.”
Clay huffs out a laugh. “No one else drives my truck. Can either of you even drive stick?”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just ask that,” Kavya says.
Clay holds both of his hands up. “Okay. Fine. But you’re still not driving my vehicle.” He considers us again. “I can drive you if you need a truck, though.”
I blink, surprised. “I wouldn’t want to interrupt your work.”
“You’re not,” he says. “Just leave enough space in the back to fit a toilet. We’ll stop at the resale store, and you can pick out a new shitter for the shop. I want to replace that old one and check out the pipework. I’ve got a little scrap to drop on the way, too.”
I notice that this is actually Clay doing me two favors, depending on how you look at it, and I make a mental note to do something for him in return.
“Just throw in a couple of those cheese Danishes,” he adds, “and we’ll make it a deal.”
Kavya snorts out a laugh, and I smile and stick out my hand.
“Sold. Let’s load up the truck.”
CLAY
Nicholas sits in the middle seat, chatting and laughing between me and Kavya.
He bumps into me as I bounce down a dirt road to the first farm, and I feel like all my senses are on high alert. It’s so visceral to have him here.
Seeing him reminds me of everything we did together, everything we’re going to do, but it’s more than that. I never have anyone right next to me in the middle seat. Or the passenger seat, for that matter.
Still, I don’t show anything on my face, my eyes like steel on the road.
Driving him today is like fixing his shelves all over again. I’m taking care of Nicholas, even though I’m not sure it’s appropriate. I hope like hell he hasn’t noticed.
We park at the first farm, an old white farmhouse surrounded by greenhouses and hoops of plastic. It’s a warm morning, and only a few wispy clouds lazily pass in the sky as we step out of the car.
“It’s a shame you won’t be able to get a proper tour of the farms,” Nicholas says. “You’ll have to come back.”
Kavya heaves a box from the back of the truck, which she places on a small bench. “This is the only one that’s purely aflower farm,” she says. “The other ones are farms that grow flowers.”
“Right.”
A woman in pajama pants, boots, and a T-shirt comes walking around a few shrubs. She’s got a coffee mug in one hand, and in the other, she holds her dog’s leash. The black-and-white mutt prances happily at her side.
“Zooey!” Kavya says, surprised.
“Oh gosh,” Zooey says as she comes forward with the dog. Pausing, she points at the ground. “Buttercup, sit.”
The dog sits.
Kavya holds her water bottle at a strange angle. “Hey. And hi, Buttercup,” she adds.
Zooey looks down at herself. “I didn’t expect to see anyone.”
