Page 23 of Speechless

“Hi Mum. I’m good. I, well, I need some advice.” There’s a long pause. She’s not used to this kind of call. “There’s a erm . . . there’s a girl.”

A very long pause. I know I’ve got her attention now.

“A girl? A girl! Henry, tell me everything! Is it serious? How long have you been together? How did you meet her? Do you have a photo? Oh, I’m sure she’s gorgeous. When can I—”

“Mum, calm down. There’s a girl, that I met. We’re not, we’re not anything, really.”

“Oh.”

Her disappointment is palpable and I feel like an idiot for not being clearer straight away. I should have thought this through before picking up the phone. Getting her hopes up and letting her down breaks my heart. All my mum has ever wanted is for me to be happy, to find a perfect love like she had with my dad. I know she’s proud of my success, but she never cared about fame or money, less than I do even.

“I’m sorry, Mum. I didn’t mean to confuse you. I just, well, she seems special. We’ve had a few conversations. You’d be shocked to hear how easy it was when we first met, actually. I’d like to get to know her better. But now I’m not sure how to go about that, without scaring her away. You know I don’t really have any experience with this part. I was hoping maybe you’d have some motherly advice?”

“Oh Henry, that’s easy darling. I know it won’t sound appealing to you, but just do as your mum says. Take the girl to dinner.”

11

Lucy

“No more surfing. Everything hurts.”

I’m doing my best to convince Graham we need a day off as I'm flipping banana pancakes for breakfast.

“Come on Luce, don’t abandon me! I finally have a surfing buddy. Everyone here works too much.” He ruffles my hair a bit. “I’m gonna go grab a quick shower. Holler when the food’s ready.”

I’m already so sore and I’ve barely even done anything besides paddle and fall down. He agreed to give me a break, wave-dependent, so I pray to the moon for a full-on tempest. After the dramatic morning I had, waking up on the futon, I just want to lie around and eat my feelings.

Maybe I’ll bake some brownies.

My chocolatey trance is interrupted by the other thing taking up too much space in my brain.

“Hi. Did you get some more rest?” Henry asks, walking into the kitchen.

It takes a moment to collect myself. Henry’s body is only a few feet away from me and I’m using every bit of effort not to lean into him. I know it’s only in my head, but I just felt so connected to him when I woke up today, like our bodies were destined to fit together. It’s been so long since I’ve been with anyone other than Jack. Being near Henry, inhaling his scent; I feel like I’m nineteen again, with no idea how to coolly interact with him.

I’m still flustered about what happened earlier, but he seems perfectly normal. But what is his normal? I’m not sure I know yet. He keeps saying he has trouble with words and sometimes he does seem shy. Then other times he’s perfectly confident and dare I say, eloquent. More than I am at least.

“Yeah, a bit. Want some pancakes?”

“Thanks, I’m okay. Just had a protein bar.” Of course he did. And that’s why everything about his body is hard. Jesus, now I’m thinking about all thepartsof him that get hard.

“I wanted to ask you something. If that’s all right.”

His fingers start fidgeting while his muscles go taut, his eyes darting around the same way they did earlier this morning. Why does he look nervous? For a moment I wonder if he can read minds and knows where mine was a second ago.

“Of course. What’s up?”

“Would you, erm—would you like to go out to dinner tonight?”

He must notice my eyes go wide in surprise. Is he asking me out?

I instinctively start eating one of the finished pancakes with my hands—like a damn heathen. After one massive bite I set it down and hope he missed this lovely moment of stress eating.

“I, erm, I’d like to treat you—you’ve been cooking so much for everyone. I thought you might like to go out? As a thank you.”

Okay. Not a date.

But still intriguing.

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