Maybe I will be performing today, although I don’t know what role I’m supposed to play.
Gage lifts his head again, sidles even closer to me, and then lays his head back on my shoulder. He sighs dramatically.
“Ask me what’s wrong,” Gage instructs quietly out of the corner of his mouth.
“Oh! Um, okay.” Then loudly, I ask, “What’s wrong, good sir?”
The narrator continues. “Finally, someone wants to hear about Mr. Sadsie’s problems, and all of a sudden he remembers!"
“Now I remember!” Gage says emphatically. “I’m feeling so sad because I’m not really a camp counselor at all. I’m a prince, and I was supposed to marry a princess, but I can’t find her anymore. Fair maiden!” He addresses me. “Will you be my princess so I can be happy again?”
Gage gives me a subtle nod, so I know how to answer. “Um, of course I will, stranger I’ve never met before. What could go wrong?”
The audience laughs.
“Nice ad-libbing,” Gage whispers.
“That day, Mr. Sadsie became Prince Happy, and his frown turned upside down,” the narrator finishes while Gage switches his expression to a wide, toothy grin.
The boys making up the chorus cheer wildly, matching Gage’s ecstatic face.
“The end.”
Everyone claps, and the kids take a bow before going back to their seats. Gage stays in the spot next to me, still scooted over as close to me as he can be.
“That was weird,” I whisper to Gage once the next group of campers take the stage. “What was supposed to be the point of that skit?”
Gage chuckles. “No idea. It came from the brains of a bunch of ten-year-old boys. We’re lucky it wasn’t weirder. You should have heard all the unhinged ideas I nixed. Not to mention the fart jokes.” He’s quiet for a moment. “They said I was acting sad all week, and that was the inspiration for the skit.”
I frown. “Were you?” I ask. “Sad all week?”
Gage slides his eyes over to look at me. “Maybe a little.”
“Why?”
“I missed you.” He twists his face back into the exaggerated Mr. Sadsie expression.
I chuckle. “We saw each other around. There was no need to miss me,” I say, even though I felt exactly the same way, like I couldn’t wait to be in the same room with him without hundreds of kids surrounding us.
This week was no different from the seven others we’ve spent with the campers so far this summer, as far as needing to keep our distance from each other, but itfeltdifferent. I felt unsettled after our falling out last weekend, not sure where we stood, even after the brief conversation we had when we got back to camp on Sunday.
“Are we hanging out again this weekend?” Gage asks, his eyes reflecting the same vague anxiety I’ve been feeling all week.
My eyes water, and I blink back the tears before I answer. “Yes, please.”
His relief is palpable in the way he relaxes his shoulders and slides an arm around my waist. “Okay, good. I have something I need to talk to you about.” I tense. “Not about anything we talked about last weekend,” he says quickly. “Not really. But it is time sensitive.”
I relax against him again. “It’s been kind of a stressful week,” I say. “Can we talk tomorrow? Maybe while canoeing?”
He kisses the top of my head. “Yeah, that sounds good. What do you want to do tonight, then?”
I tilt my face toward him and grin. “Not talk.”
I need the uncomplicated surge of gratification that comes with losing myself in Gage and his kisses. I’m self-aware enough to recognize that I’m using our physical relationship as a distraction from focusing on the emotional connection, but I can’t bring myself to care at the moment.
Gage returns my smile, pulling me closer to him on the bench. “As you wish, my princess.”
Chapter twenty-four
