“Oh, uh, sure,” I allowed, tucking my arms awkwardlybehind my back. “I probably can’t talk long. I’m technically not supposed to have visitors.”
Carter inhaled through his teeth. “It’s quite serious. Is it because you ran away?”
“Is that what Jamie told you?” I asked, horrified. Was that what he’d toldeveryone? “I didn’t run away. I just… my dad and I got into an argument. I took a breather. It wasn’t a big deal.”
“A big enough deal for you to be grounded.”
I didn’t have a reply to that one.
“Do you have… maybe… five minutes?”
I brought Carter to a little area against the house, out of view from the patio door, and we crouched down to talk. He didn’t seem to mind kneeling in the grass, the fabric of his chinos darkening with a new stain.
“I feel like we keep just missing each other,” he said. “I think the universe is conspiring against us.”
“No kidding.” I rubbed my arm, feeling awkward. The last time we’d technically saw each other had been last Wednesday, when we’d played chess while Jamie was at book club. It felt like a lifetime ago. “I, uh. Well. How did it go at Ms. Jennings’s party?”
“Oh, we didn’t stay long. After Dr. Conan threw up into the punch bowl, we made our exit.”
I slapped a hand over my palm. How hadthatgossip not reached me? Being groundedsucked.
“I was a little bummed because I’d been bragging about you to my parents.” Carter gave a forced chuckle. “At this point, they probably think I’m making you up.”
“Why do you want me to meet them so badly?” I triedto keep my voice sounding playful, but true inquisition slipped through. “Are they trying to push someone else on you or something?”
Carter didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
Okay. I hadn’t expected to hitthatnail square on the head.
“This is what I’ve been trying to say for a while—trying to work up the courage to say.” Carter rubbed his palms together before laying them on his lower thighs. “My parents think I’m too reserved, too… well. The word they use iseccentric, but I know they really meanstrange. They think I need their help… dating.”
Which was why they’d brought him to Alderton-Du Ponte’s Senior Night, then. Ms. Jennings had used that same word.I have heard they’re looking for their eccentric son someone to settle down with.“Why do they want you to date so badly?”
“To prove to their friends that their son is just as successful as everyone else’s.” Carter smiled down at the dirt, but it wasn’t a happy one. “I don’t do that well in school. I don’t date. In their eyes, I’m… less than acceptable.”
“But your ASMR channel?—”
“They don’t know about it. It’s a secret from everyone. If they found out, it’d just make it worse. Their… disappointment.” He shook his head a little. “Which, like—I don’t really care if they’re that disappointed, I guess. I can handle that. But in the dating world… I wish they’d butt out.”
I studied him for a moment, piecing things together. “Lydia.”
Carter looked over. “Yes. My mom’s pick is Lydia. I’m not really surewhy. She’s nice, she’s fine—her parents are in realty, have a house in the Hamptons. But you—” His eyes brightened as he picked up my hand. “They’d love you.”
Kneeling in the dirt with Carter holding my hand, I very nearly could’ve laughed. “You didn’t actually like me, then. Not like that.”
“I think you’re great, Eleanor.” Something urgent filled Carter’s expression. “When you DM’d me back in April, I truly thought it was fate. They’d finally stop with the snide comments about my love life, they’d stop trying to set me up with their friends’ daughters, and… well.” A blush stole across his cheeks. “When you’d told me you were going to attend Mullhound in the fall, I thought it’d be perfect.”
“Perfect,” I echoed, and the words spelled themselves out in my head on instinct.P-E-R-F-E-C-T.
“I thought, after spending time with you, we were on the same page.”
You’re different from everyone else,he’d said last week.I get this feeling that… you’d understand.He could see my motives from the beginning, because his had always been similar. But his had been born even before I’d known Mr. ASMR was Carter Pembleton, because Carter knew who I’d been from the very beginning. His real name had been private, but mine hadn’t been. He’d known, and he’d plotted.
I couldn’t be that upset because he was just like me.
“And I…” Carter still held onto my hand, fingers brushing across my knuckles in a way that was almost soothing. “I heard the recording.”
“What recording?”
