Page 5 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
“Your mom’s cats don’t count,” Kelli said dryly.
Cal and I snickered, and he put his hand in the small of my back as we slipped down the hall toward David’s bedroom. We followed David in, and Cal went to a cooler pushed up against the end of the bed. He popped it open and held up a chilled bottle of rosé. Then, like the gentleman he was, he grabbed a red solo cup from where it sat in its wrapping on David’s dresser and popped the cork. He poured me a glass and held it out to me.
“Thank you,” I said.
Kelli peered into the cooler and grabbed her beer. David watched her all the while, and she straightened up to give him a snarky look. “Can I help you?”
“Why are you always so mean to me?”
Kelli smiled. “Because it’s fun.”
“But it’s graduation night,” he said. “If you’re going to be nice to me, now is the time for it.”
Kelli pursed her lips and pressed her finger to her chin. “No promises, but I’ll see what I can do. Come on, losers. Let’s go get wasted.”
I made to follow Kelli out of David’s room, but Cal caught my wrist. “Can I talk to you alone for a minute, Lina?”
“Of course,” I said. Kelli had paused to look back at us. “Go ahead, Kelli. I’ll catch up.”
David and Kelli left, and Cal closed the door behind him. I cocked my head to the side, confused. “Is everything okay, Cal? You seem off.”
“I have to talk to you about something.”
“Okay,” I said nervously.
He sat down on David’s bed, and I sat beside him. Then, sensing that I wasn’t going to like what he had to say, I drained the contents of my pink wine, winced, and dragged the back of my hand across my mouth.
Cal was wringing his hands, and he wouldn’t look at me when he started speaking. “I haven’t told you something. Something big. I—I didn’t want things to change.”
“Just spit it out, Cal. You’re scaring me.”
He sighed and lifted his blue gaze to meet my stare. “I got into Harvard.”
I blinked. “Harvard?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“Cal… that’s great! Wait, why are you upset about this? This is what you’ve always wanted! It’s your dream school!”
“Yeah, I know. But it’s in Boston.”
I licked my lips and leaned over to put my empty cup on David’s nightstand. “That’s okay. We can work around it. I can come with you, even.”
“Lina…”
A gave him a firm look. “What? Don’t give me that tone, Callum.”
“What tone?”
“That ‘I know what’s best for you’ tone.”
He shook his head. “I’m not—”
“You are,” I said a little too fiercely. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Cal, I turned down my acceptance to the Pratt Institute for you. Because I thought you were staying in Pittsburgh.”
Cal pinched the bridge of his nose. “I never asked you to do that.”
“You didn’t need to ask me. I wanted to. I can’t picture my life without you in it. I can come to Boston with you. Get a job. We can rent a place. A shitty studio or something and make it ours, and—”
