“Do you knoweveryonein this town?” he asks after a moment. I smile and shake my head.
“Not everyone, but close. I grew up here, as did my parents and grandparents. Add in working in the school, and it’s almost inevitable.”
“Did you ever leave, or have you always lived here?”
“I went to college in-state, so I technically left Seaside Point then, but I missed it like crazy and came back a lot of weekends. Sometimes I’m embarrassed that I never tried anywhere else, but most of the time I wonder why anyone would ever want to leave. I have everything I could ever want in this little town.”
He’s looking down at the basket of chips, lost in his thoughts, though I can’t decide if it’s in a good or bad way.
“I can see that,” he says finally, and I smile, relieved. I don’t know why I want Graham to like Seaside Point, but I do. “It’s a good place. Good mix of a getaway and a small town you’d want to settle down in, I imagine. You can’t say that about a lot of places: it’s usually one or the other.” Pleasure blooms in my heart at the idea of this grumpy man enjoying my favorite place on earth, especially when he’s seemingly been everywhere. “I bet it was nice growing up somewhere like this.”
“What about you? Where did you grow up?”
“Everywhere and nowhere,” he says, and I remain quiet, eager to hear anything he’s willing to share with me about himself. “We moved a lot. I was rarely in the same school for more than two years.”
“That had to be rough,” I say low.
In another world where my grandparents didn’t take us in, that could have been Grant and me, moving around from town to town, living our parents’ nomadic lifestyle as they tried to make something of their art dreams.
“I guess, but it taught me a lot. How to read people, how to choose and make friends quickly, and how to climb the social ladder. No matter what school I was in, I always made my way into the popular crowd. I think it helped me get where I am now. If I hadn't learned those skills so young, I probably wouldn’t have the job I have. I’ve used those skills to network, to make quick relationships, and build connections.”
“Ahh, I suppose that explains your villain origin story of seeing friendships as networking. So, you’ve been doing it ever since?” He lifts a shoulder, grabbing a chip and chewing it thoughtfully.
“I guess, in a way. My job is making sure new locations open smoothly, become profitable, and run efficiently from the start, so I’m often moving from one location to the next.”
“So how does Seaside Point stack up? Is it exciting because it’s your first time being the head of a project, or a disappointment because it’s not a huge, full resort?” There’s momentary flash on his face confirming my theory that he wasn’t happy to be assigned Seaside Point. It’s gone almost as soon as it came, replaced with something new, more contemplative. It’s almost as if that was his reaction when he was first given the job, but now, after some time, he’s changed his view.
“It’s...” His eyes drift to me, gaze locking with mine in a way that has the world pausing, the other diners' voices dulling. Emotion crosses his face, a mixture of sincerity and honesty, erasing the normally cold and distant look. Warmth that has nothing to do with the beating sun moves through me. For amoment, he’s the man who chatted with me in a dimly lit bar, the one who I was completely enthralled by. “It’s grown on me.” The words hang in the air between us, and my mind starts to run with them, making stories that don’t belong in a workplace relationship. After a moment, he looks off into the distance, making me feel silly for romanticizing a singlelook. “It’s just not what I expected. I’m used to full resorts, ones that are a kind of ecosystem in and of themselves, where I only have to focus on the inner workings.”
“You had to have known, though, that was what you were getting when you came here.”
He nods. “I did.”
“So why accept it? If it wasn’t what you wanted, why take the job? Sutton told me you’re hot shit at Daydream. I bet if you had told them you wanted something bigger and better, you’d have gotten it.”
His gaze moves back to me, and he lifts an eyebrow.
“Are you talking to Sutton about me?”
A blush burns on my cheeks, but I brush it off, lift a nonchalant shoulder. “She may have given me some intel to figure out how to deal with your surly attitude.”
“Was it helpful?”
“She told me not to back down, and I’d be just fine.”
He’s quiet for a moment before I get another one of those near-invisible lip tilts and an unexpected answer to my earlier question.
“I accepted the job because I needed a challenge,” he says, that spark of entertainment melting away, replaced with something different, a burnout or a complacency that I am far too familiar with. He goes silent, and for a bit, I think that’s all I’m going to get. It’s more than I expected, if I’m being honest, so I’m willing to take it, but then he expands. “I’d been going through the motions for a while, trying to build a career, to geteach new promotion. The only person who rose in the Daydream Resorts ranks faster than me and at a younger age is Rowan, and he’s part robot.” I know that much from Sutton. “But I kept getting these promotions that I was aiming for, kept setting goals and hitting each one, and every time it felt...hollow. I kept wanting more, thinking it would make that feeling go away, but nothing seemed to work.” The words sound like a confession of sorts, and if it were anyone else, I’d reach out and hold his hand. “I know it sounds stuck-up and very first-world problems of me, wanting a more impressive, high-paying, high-powered job because nothing makes me feel satisfied,” he says, with a humorless laugh, shaking his head. “I probably sound like such a jackass.”
I give in to the urge then, reaching over and placing my hand over his. His eyes lift, and I shake my head when we meet. “No, you don’t. I get it,” I say, hesitant.
“You don’t have to say that, I know it sounds out there, to be bored with doing well.”
“No, no. I do. I get it.” I lick my lips, my pulse pounding, suddenly nervous. “They gave me the option to transfer to another school, keep teaching next school year, and I didn’t take it, even though it was the safe choice. The smart choice. I think… I think I was looking for a way out for a while. I was unhappy and unfulfilled. It’s weird to say you don’t love your job when it’s teaching kids and, in a way, shaping the future. Especially when your whole life, you were told that’s what you would be best at. I went to school for years, working to be a teacher, only to realize...” I look off, taking in a deep breath before giving Graham a confession I’ve never said to anyone else, whispered so low that if his hand didn’t shift to squeeze mine tighter, I’d think he couldn’t hear me. “I don’t like it. Teaching made me miserable, and then the guilt of hating it made me evenmoremiserable. I ignored it for a while, but by the end of this year, Iwas so tired. I was burnt out in a way I’d never experienced.” I take a deep breath, laying another confession out on the table. “But since I left, I haven’t felt tired at all. So I get it. I get doing something that makes no sense at all just to see if it might make you feel alive. Sometimes you just have to be brave and take a leap of faith and trust that the universe will catch you.”
“I think you’re the bravest person I know, June,” he says, squeezing my hand once more and making my heart leap.
“I quit my job, I didn’t run into a burning building,” I say, trying to break the tension. It doesn’t: instead, he continues to stare at me.
