Page 51 of The Big Easy & Other Lies
“I know.”
Neither of us said anything for a while. The quiet was all right. My temper cooled. “Sorry,” I said. “I don’t usually do scenes.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. Then he cleared his throat. “So. The dad thing. More of the complicated home life?”
“It’s a very small part.”
“Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a dad, but I guess I at least have the option of picking up the phone and getting his voicemail whenever I want,” he said.
I gave a small smile. “Voicemail, huh?”
“Yeah. His voicemail greeting is the only non-yelling conversation I hear from him.”
I wanted to explain what Delphine had told me, about how this was a sick anniversary I’d never thought to commemorate. But tomorrow would be another day in which my dad was still dead, and it would be the anniversary of nothing. Today wouldn’t matter.
Except for the good parts. The hand-holding with Rhett. That mattered.
“Sorry I dropped your jacket,” I said. “It felt dramatic and interesting ten minutes ago. Now I feel stupid.”
He laughed. “You’re cool.” Seeing my surprise, his face grew serious. “You know that, right? Seriously cool.”
I reddened, and he smiled but didn’t tease me. He leaned his arms on the table, moving slightly more into my space. “We were talking about Urban Renewal. Will you tell me more? I dug those sketches.”
I traced an outline for my Belles and Beaux logo on the tabletop, the name I was toying with for my brand, following the invisible loops around and around. I thought about the impossibility of getting my hands on the fabric lying in wasted piles at my house. “Ever feel like you’re beating your head against a brick wall?”
“Are you kidding? I wrote a song about it.”
I snorted and he grinned. “I’m trying not to feel overwhelmed,” I said. “But changing my concept to this Urban Renewal line changes everything. The fabrics, the designs, the music for the show. I think that my brains will fall out, and that it will happen soon.”
“It’ll work out,” he said. “You guys have voodoo here, right? Maybe you could find someone to voodoo your aunt into giving you the fabric you need.”
I smiled. “I wish. Voodoo is a real thing here, and it’s super interesting. You should do some research on it.”
“Did I just commit another microaggression?”
“Yeah.” I wrinkled my nose at him.
He sighed. “I’ll do better.”
“That’s why I like you.”
His eyes sparkled. “You like me?”
My cheeks heated. “I didn’t mean...uh, I think we were talking about my capstone stuff?”
“I could help you with the music.”
“It’s okay,” I said, taken aback at his offer. Only Bran and Livvie ever did stuff like that for me. “But I’m being dramatic again. I’ll have to listen to a bunch of stuff until I find something that fits the vibe of the design, but I’ll find it. I only need about five minutes of music. If I spend a billion hours previewing songs on iTunes, I’ll figure something out.” I dropped my head again, discouraged by the thought.
“Unless it’s cheating, why not let me try?” he asked. “All I do when I’m not in class is listen to music anyway.”
I lifted my head to study him, trying to gauge his sincerity.
“Seriously,” he said. “Let me do it. It’s not going to take me any extra time.”
“You really want to?” I asked and he nodded. “All right. Cool. Pick some music.” But I’d still keep an ear out myself.
“I’m on it,” he said.
