Page 41 of The Summer of Everything

A compulsory blush doesn’t stop Wes from whispering back, “John Stewart is a legend. I stan.”

“You were…” Zay waves a hand at Ella. She’s wearing black, black, and more black, per usual. “…you, I guess.”

Ella lurches back, offended. “What does that mean?”

“Point is, you got hammered and made out with Constantine on Amalie’s parents’ bed. You two exchanged numbers, but you never called.”

“Whoa, Ella,” Cooper says, scandalized. “How could you?”

“I didn’t,” Ella says, firmly. To Zay, she screeches, “You lie!” Then she asks Wes wordlessly, eyes huge and daunting,Did I?

Wes nods once.

“How could you let that happen?” Ella smacks his shoulder.

“I was buzzed?” Wes offers pathetically.

“We got into this massive game of strip beer pong, which didn’t go to well for us,” Nico says. “That Green Lantern costume is kind of one-dimensional, so…”

“It’s dope, and you know it,” Wes argues.

“It is, but one layer of clothing in any game where you have to remove an article of clothing when you lose isn’t helpful,” Nico states.

“True that.”

Wes doesn’t remember that entire night, but he definitely recalls Nico standing nervously, scrawny arms trying to cover his chest, in a pair of cornflower blue boxers. It’s a nice, hi-def image he’s used appropriately.

“How are any of you my friends?” Ella’s hands cover her face. Her muffled voice is mortified. “Con-Constantine?Seriously?”

“Can we get back to saving Once Upon a Page?” Wes requests. “We need money.”

“Oh. Are we going to, like, cyber-rob some wealthy Fortune 500 billionaire from Silicon Valley who’s too greedy to share his wealth?” Cooper bounces in his seat.

“What?”

“I just read this book about a group of teens who hack into one of the character’s deadbeat dad’s stacks because he refuses to help pay for her college tuition,” Cooper explains, phone out. He’s Googling something.

“Um, no?” Wes replies.

“Dude, are you one of those dark web hackers?” Zay asks, hiding his own phone. “Is the Wi-Fi in here secure?”

Cooper has this almost-evil gleam in his eyes.

“We’re not doing that.” Wes shakes his head. “We need to come up with some ideas to help boost sales in the store. You know, promotional things. Ways to attract more customers.”

“Like, community events? Book signings?” Anna offers.

“Exactly,” Wes says eagerly.

“But we only have until September,” Ella adds, finally snapping out of her Constantine-shaped dark dimension. “According to my research…”

More snooping, Wes wants to interject, but Ella’s actually beinghelpfulwith this, so he doesn’t.

“… that’s when Tea Leaf and Coffee Cup House plan to begin renovations and officially take over property payments.”

“We can do this,” Wes says.

“Us?” Nico twirls his index finger around at the table. “In less than two months?”

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