Page 36 of Until Next Summer

“Yech,” I accidentally say.

“Hey.” Cooper laughs. “Don’t yuck my yum.”

“I’ve got plenty of yums you can yuck,” I tell him. “Have you ever tried gefilte fish?”

Cooper pulls a face. “Only once.”

“Put some horseradish on it, and mmm! It’s my favorite part of Passover.”

“I thought it might be hiding the matzah…” Cooper lifts his eyebrows and flashes me his winning smile, which has no doubt dropped panties all over Boston and the surrounding tristate area.

Before I can think of a response, my phone bursts to life, vibrating with two weeks’ worth of notifications. Apparently, we’re far enough from camp to have service.

“Whoa,” Cooper says, looking down at the alerts filling my screen. “A lot of people must be missing you.”

“It’s mostly business,” I say dismissively. I have an auto-reply on, but I should probably check in occasionally in case there’s anything urgent. “And a guy,” I add, when a text from Aaron pops up.

“A guy?” Cooper asks, wiggling his eyebrows.

“It’s…complicated.”

According to the timing on the notification, Aaron sent the text three days after I got to camp. I wonder if the dating waters aren’t as warm and welcoming as he thought. Maybe he’s had a change of heart and wants to put an end to this silly break.

I tap the message.

Aaron:Hey, what’s your Netflix password?

“Actually,” I say with a resigned sigh, “It’s not that complicated.”

“Must have been a good text,” Cooper says. “Or a bad one?”

I glance over. He’s focused on the road ahead, and something about sitting side by side and the lack of eye contact makes it easier to open up. So I give him the highlights of my relationship with Aaron, from my dad setting us up all the way to what I’m now thinking of as his indecent proposal.

“ ‘We were on a break!’ ” Cooper exclaims when I’ve finished. “Sorry,Friendsreference.”

“Oh, I got it,” I say, laughing. It feels good to talk about what happened, and even better to laugh about it. “Although I’m not sure if I’m Ross or Rachel in this scenario.”

“You’re too good-looking to be Ross,” Cooper says, and my neck flushes with heat, thinking back to the way he looked at me that first day outside the showers.

“Well, either way, Aaron’s back in Chicago, treating this summer like it’s one big fling, and I’m here.”

“Hey, you can have a summer fling, too,” Cooper says.

“I could, but I won’t.”

“Why not?”

I sigh, struggling to find the words without knocking Cooper’s own disregard for the rules or making myself sound too lame. “I guess you could say I’m not fun enough for something like that.”

“Says who?”

“A lot of people.”

“That guy?” Cooper gestures toward my phone.

“He may have said something about my lacking in the fun department.” Cooper scoffs and I hurry to add, “But it’s okay. I mean, who would I even have a fling with? The campers are off-limits, Zac isveryhappily married, and Mr. Billy is so ancient…”

“How about that cute chef with all the sexy aprons?”

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