I itched for him to like me as much as I liked him. I already envisioned us whisking away to suburban Chicago over theholidays to meet his parents. But the passionate overtures I was anticipating were not yet forthcoming.
I shoved my silent phone into my back pocket. Ivan, the drummer in Ethan’s band, was playing too loud for me to hear my own thoughts, let alone the notifications on my phone.
Lemonface was starting to get better gigs but, due to Ethan’s Donut Barn work schedule, usually turned them down in favor of bars closer to Lewellen. Tonight they were playing at a college hangout that doubled as an Italian restaurant. There were too many families eating garlic knots for Ivan to be goingthishard.
“We are Lemonface!” Ethan called out into the crowd. Though I still wasn’t sold on the name, I hollered back dutifully, the lone wooer. He found my face in the crowd and sent me an embarrassed head shake. “Good night!”
After the show, I helped the band pack up the old minivan Ethan inherited from his mom. It took longer without Petey, who’d been uncharacteristically scarce since he’d been drafted to an AHL team and was now packing for his big move up to Edmonton.
“It’s still early enough to head into Minneapolis tonight,” Benson argued, throwing shut the door to the Dodge Caravan.
Ethan inhaled sharply through his nose, and immediately, I knew this conversation was gearing up for their standard fight about the direction of the band.
I stepped between them. “Ethan was supposed to drive me home. I have a practice LSAT in the morning.”
“I thought you were like…computer-y,” Ivan said to me, but before I could respond, Ethan was already pouncing on my excuse.
“I have to take her back to campus. Another time.”
Ethan opened the passenger door for me. I stepped in, grateful I wouldn’t have to explain to Ivan that, yes, I was “computer-y,” but I was in the midst of a crisis over my postgrad future. Through my professors—most of whom were coders who’d been chewed up and spit out by dozens of tech companies—I was discovering that the tech industry was unpredictable and volatile. But the lawyer who taught my intellectual property seminar was a partner at the same firm he’d clerked for as a law student, his entire career at one address. His “home away from home,” he called it. It sounded perfect.
“Sure, man. Whatever,” Benson sneered.
And that was how Ethan and I wound up alone on the dirt road affectionately referred to as Pothole Alley back to campus.
“I don’t have a practice exam tomorrow, by the way. I just figured you needed a hard out.”
He sighed. “You were right.” The band’s forever sore spot was Ethan’s shift schedule and his destiny as the Lewellen donut king.
“Worked out for me. Campus rides stop at ten and Petey’s been MIA lately.”
“He’s been in Saint Paul. Wooing your sister.”
“Really?” I asked, incredulous. I tried to imagine where Petey slept in the Frogtown apartment where Laurel was crashing to save money while student teaching. Last time I visited, she was sleeping on a recliner and using a T-shirt quilt as a room divider.
He clicked his tongue. “The clock’s ticking, Beekman. He has to convince Lo she’s actually dating him before he moves to Canada.”
My eyes widened. “Well, that’s a fool’s errand.”
“Love makes fools of us all,” he said, then sang it to himself under his breath. He did that sometimes. “Is that anything?” he asked, referring to the lyric.
“Maybe? It kind of sounds like a Pinterest quote.” He physically recoiled. “Speaking of love, how’s the vet tech?”
He quirked his head to the side. “Who?”
“Quinn?” I attempted to conjure a name for the apple-cheeked animal lover who wore ribbons in her hair in a way that managed to look Parisian and not Minnie Mouse chic.
“Oh yeah,” he answered, drumming his thumbs on the steering wheel. “That fizzled out. I was too ‘unreliable.’ ”
“I told you to make up a different reason for forgetting to pick her up.”
“We were watchingSurvivorand they’d just hit the merge. I literally couldnotleave your dorm room at that point.Youwould’ve understood.”
Whatever phase of your early twenties involved bingeing reality competition shows for hours on end like casualties in a carbon monoxide leak, we were firmly in it.
“Let’s watch more tonight. I can stay over.” He looked at me and then back at the road. It was the first time he’d approached happiness all night. I almost wanted to say yes to see whether he’d offer up a grin.
I leaned my head back and rolled it in his direction. “Rain check?”
