“I look very…,” he prompted.
“Snazzy,” Perdita concluded.
He looked thoughtful for a moment, and then finally nodded. “Snazzymeans stylish and attractive, so I’ll take that.”
There were a few seconds of a silent staring contest between them, before Perdita started speaking again.
“What are you doing here? You didn’t tell me you were coming,” she said, her arms folded as she gave her boyfriend her best attempt at a very stern glare, which only made him smile more.
“It was a last-minute thing. For some reason, my dad got invited by your dad… or your dad’s team or whatever, and he wanted me to help him with interviews. I tried to get out of it, but the divorce has been pretty hard on him, so he gets super emo if he feels like I prefer hanging out with my mom over him. Plus, the old man is very persuasive.” Thorin leaned in close and whispered, “That being said, I didn’t need too much persuading, knowing you’d be here and all.”
A shiver ran across Perdita’s arms as she tried not to react to his wordstoo obviously. Her father could be watching, after all. She stepped back a little, away from Thorin, and peered over his shoulder to ensure that this wasn’t the case. When she could confirm that they were not actively being watched, she glanced up at him again.
“Could have still given me a heads-up,” she said quietly. Perdita knew she was being somewhat unreasonable, but, in a way, she had to be. Her father had caught hertextingThorin once, and that had been enough for him to confiscate her phone for an entire month, and they weren’t even together at that point. There was another time when Thorin’s father had suspected something and had spent an entire dinner telling his son how screwed up the Button kids were, urging him to keep his distance, and then when it seemed that Thorin wasn’t heeding his warning, Jesse Philips resorted to contacting her father about her attempts at trying to “lure” and “seduce” his son. Her father was obviously livid, and retaliated by once again restricting her access to her phone for three more months. She learned then that there were penalties that came with being caught, and Thorin wasn’t afraid enough for her liking. The two kept things extremely low-key after that point.
He placed a hand on her arm tenderly and moved a little closer to her, counteracting her strategic steps back. “I know, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. It won’t happen again.”
“Good,” she said, still glancing around nervously, feeling the jitters from the anxiety that had been building in her for weeks coursing through her body.
“I’m glad I’m seeing you tonight though; I need to tell you something. I was going to tell you tomorrow night, but I think you’ll want to know before then,” Thorin said, looking serious all of a sudden. He was staring intensely down at her, his skin as pale as the moon that hung in the sky above them.
“That’s not ominous at all,” Perdita said, her eyes narrowing as she tried to read between the lines in his expression. “Is this about—”
He nodded. “Yeah. There’s been a development… a pretty significantone.” He looked even more nervous than she did now. “Can we speak in private somewhere?” he asked.
She did another quick sweep of the deck, finally spotting her dad on the other side near where the string quartet was performing, talking to a tall red-haired woman who Perdita was pretty sure was one of the donors he’d invited from NASA. Her dad would be much too distracted to notice that his daughter was missing from the first-floor deck. Not that he paid much attention to her or her siblings otherwise. It sometimes felt like they were just there to be dolls he could dress up and show off to important people.
Perdita returned her focus to Thorin and whispered, “The lower deck is out of bounds for guests. We could go there?”
“What about the security?” Thorin whispered back, his jaw tense, his eyes trained on one of the men in dark suits at their post a few feet away.
“I’m a Button, Rin. I know how to get around them,” Perdita replied.
Thorin looked nervous, but nodded. “Okay, then, Miss Button. Lead the way.”
10:16P.M.—THE HAMPTONS
As the evening tiptoed toward night and the fireworks hurtled into the sky, painting the black night in bold brushstrokes of red, green, and blue, Romeo Button stood alone.
The atmosphere around the yacht seemed to explode with excited anticipation for the imminent announcement of this year’s star prodigy, but Romeo’s spirits were not as high as the guests’ around him. He was a ghost. A phantom thing wandering the realm of the living, clinging to the hope of resurrection, deluding himself into believing he still belonged here.
As he stood by himself on the flybridge of the yacht, leaning againt a fake steering wheel, the bitter air nipping at his skin while he took in the action below from his bird’s-eye view, Romeo felt very much like Kate Winslet inTitanic. He observed how everyone else just seemed to fit so effortlessly into this world. There was no need for pretense, no need for shame, they could just exist and belong in a way he would never be able to. While being miserable, it mostly made for a very dull night.
At this point Romeo was happy to announce the winner of the stupid button-shaped trophy himself if it meant he could go home and take off this costume.
“I thought your days as Captain Underpants were over?” he heard a voice from the ether say. He startled, almost pulling aBilaland stumbling forward into the murky depths of the ocean. Thankfully, he managed to catch himself before he did—which was a relief, seeing as he couldn’t swim.
He looked up and found the amused expression and glittering gaze of Evie Gray. He quickly stood up straight, trying to look as though he hadn’t almost died by drowning just a moment ago.
“I think you’ve got the wrong guy. I’ve never been a captain of any kind,” Romeo replied.
“Not even a beloved half-dressed children’s superhero?” Evie asked.
“I don’t believe so,” Romeo said.
“So you’ve never left your room wearing underpants over your clothes?” she said with a raised brow.
“Nope, never,” he lied, his nose involuntarily wrinkling.
