“What else is there?” she responds cheerfully. “Oh. I’m gonna have to call you back. Betty just texted me.”
“I’ll be here, fishing until Aaron arrives,” I reply.
“You can do more besides fishing, Ethan. For starters, you can romance the villagers.”
“Even the fish bait guy?”
Laughter bubbles from her. “Oh my God. I’ll be right back. Try not to dig up any more of my melons while I’m gone.”
She ends the call, and I’m left to my own devices with our co-op farm. I still don’t understand the point of this game, but it’s oddly soothing. At least the fishing part is. Barbie plans on befriending all the villagers and has already created dozens of color-coded spreadsheets.
My phone starts buzzing about ten minutes later, while I’m fishing at a different body of water I’ve discovered.
“Everything good with your sister?”
“Yup. She drove over to drop off food,” Barbie explains. “This is why I can never leave California. Where else can I get homemade spring rolls made just how I like them?”
A small lump forms in my throat. “You can’t make your own rolls? That might solve your problem.”
“Food tastes better when someone else makes it for you. It’s science.”
“Pseudo-science.”
“With a sprinkle of love,” she says. “I have to stop playing before Bell eats them all. Maybe we can pick up where we left off tonight?”
“Tomorrow, maybe? I promised Aaron I’d go with him to check out a Peruvian restaurant that just opened near his place, and he takes forever to eat.”
“I do not.” I look over my shoulder to see Aaron feigning offense from the doorway, clutching his chest as if wounded.
“Tomorrow then.” I hear the soft intake of her breath. “Try not to miss me too much.”
My chest constricts as we end the call.I’m missing you a lot more than I should.
I know better. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel for us. She wants to be near her sisters. She has her internship and the next few years planned out career-wise. Long distance is out of the equation for her.
I don’t see myself ever moving away from my family. Mom has already lost my dad and my stepdad. I want to be near her when Lara’s back in school, so she’s not too lonely.
With Barbie and me, I know our lives are about to become less intertwined. We’re like the ships that pass in the night.
Pursuing anything will only lead to preventable heartbreak when we know this comes with an expiration date. If only we were younger, back when I didn’t care as much about responsibilities and could throw caution to the wind.
“Who were you talking to?”
I’m powering my custom-built PC off as Aaron saunters to my desk. Like my sister, he also has a spare key. Also like my sister, he never knocks or texts before barging into my apartment as if he owns the place.
“Just a chatbot.”
Aaron stops short, and after a drawn-out beat, frowns. “Man, you really need to get yourself a girlfriend.”
And there my brain goes again, thinking about Barbie for the hundredth time today.
17
BARBIE
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2ND
There’s an audible click.My name rolls off his tongue in his warm cadence when I blurt out, “I saw a plane and thought of you, Pilot.”
