Page 28 of Roommating

“They’ll be delighted. Go and come back with details when you’re finished,” Marcia says.

I tell her I will before heading to my room. I’ve barely taken five steps when I overhear Marcia hiss, “How are we going to fix this?”

“I don’t know. Let me think,” Adam says.

I backtrack to the kitchen. “Fix what?”

Marcia blinks rapidly. “Nothing.”

Adam dips his head.

Cagey.

“Spill,” I demand, but then my stomach knots. What if this is a personal family matter? I swallow hard. “Never mind. It’s probably none of my business.”

“It’s not that. We’re just in a bit of a pickle, but we’ll figure it out, right, Adam?”

“Uh…” Adam shrugs weakly and rubs the back of his neck. “Sure?”

A swarm of butterflies takes flight in my belly. “You’re making me nervous. Please put me out of my misery.”

Marcia slides into a chair at the table. “I’m locked out of my banking website.”

I let out a breath of relief. “That’s it? What happened?”

She darts her eyes to Adam, who leans against the island looking guilty. “I wanted to transfer money to my IRA but forgot my password. Adam told me to click ‘reset your password,’ which sounded simple at the time, until I answered the security question wrong three times and I got locked out.” She scrubs a hand down her face. “Why did I think the name of my first-grade teacher was a good security question? It’s been sixty-five years!”

“Why didn’t you just look up your password or wait for me to help you?”

She pushes out her lips. “I figured you’d be tired from working and school. Adam volunteered to help.”

“Oh he did, did he?” I level my eyes at him with a hand on my hip.Not this again.

He grimaces. “I was only trying to be helpful.” In a lower voice, he adds, “No other reason, I swear.” He raises his palms. “But I fucked up.”

I chuckle. “First of all, calm down.” I glance between them. “I can fix this. Hand me the laptop.”

He does, and I sit down at the table with both of them on either side of me. Within a minute, I’m on the phone with the bank. Within five minutes, Marcia has verified her identity and her account has been restored. Ten minutes later, her password manager has been updated. I log out of her computer and lower the lid. “In the future, just wait for me to get home, okay?”

Marcia slides her chair closer to me and gives me a one-arm hug and a kiss on the cheek. “You’re the best.”

I make a gloating face at Adam, but he looks so sheepish, I burst into laughter. “I’m sure you are great at many things, but please leave the computer stuff to me. Okay, boomer?”

He chuckles. “Lesson learned.”

I stand, prepared to go to my room and finally share the news about my promotion with my mom and Carley. Before I go, I say, “If you want to be useful with all the free time on your hands, my library will be looking for a page to replace me. Maybe you should apply for the job.” I imagine Adam discovering a PB&J sandwich inside a book and repress a laugh.

Since this is obviously a joke, I’m not at all prepared for his next words.

“Actually, I like that idea a lot. How do I do that?”

Chapter Fourteen

Iwasn’t serious about Adam applying for the library page job, buthewas. It turns out he did a teen internship at the Free Library of Philadelphia in high school, which included a crash course in the Dewey Decimal System. When Marcia reminisced about taking little-boy Adam to the library where he discovered and devoured Marc Brown’s Arthur series, my heart pinched thinking about Nana, and I said I would put in a good word for him once the promotion was official.

Two days later, I’m in the workroom at the library sorting through supplies for an upcoming program for teens when my phone pings with a text.

Adam:I’m at the library. Is this an okay time?

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