Page 125 of One Adult, Please

"She's going to judge the crime boat."

"She's a mother. Judging is her tertiary function after loving and worrying. She's going to walk through that gate and she's going to see the cardboard signs and the friendship paddle and the goat and the three of you and she's going to judge all of it and then she's going to make everyone sit down and eat something with protein. It's going to be the most aggressively normal thing that's happened since the wrong people."

"We should clear the route," Joel says. "From the east gate to the big middle. If your mother's driving in, the road approach needs to be secured. I'll check the gate mechanism, make sure the vehicle access works. Beck, east perimeter. Grant, medical station prep, additional supplies for..."

"Joel."

He stops.

"Thank you for fixing the loud machine," I say.

It's not enough. The sentence is too small for what it means.

"The machine needed fixing," he says.

That's Joel's I love you.

"Okay," I say and wipe my nose on the Wondie hoodie because the hoodie has already absorbed every bodily fluid this week and what's one more. "Let's clear the route. Let's prep the gate. Let's get the food room ready because my mother is going to arrive and she's going to want to feed people because that's what my mother does."

I walk toward the door. My foot catches the edge of the console desk. I stumble. I catch myself on the doorframe. I keep walking.

Behind me, I hear the triple twitch. Three men, three hands, three micro-movements toward me that stop before they start because I caught myself.

But they twitch.

All three of them.

Every time.

30

GROUP FISH HUMIDITY SITUATION

GRACE

The underwater tunnel is doing the blue-green glow that doesn't have a name because the naming part of my brain is currently occupied with other concerns. Such as the fact that I'm standing in the fish tube with my three men.

Joel locked the tunnel. That's how serious this is.

Beck's sitting on the tunnel floor. Grant's near the far end of the tunnel, leaning against the railing.

"So," I say, and the word bounces around the glowing tunnel like it's already turned on. "I want the group heart situation. The messy, overwhelming, all-of-you-inside-me-at-once version."

Joel's eyes darken. "You sure you want all of us?"

"Yes. All of you. In the feelings way and the bodies way and the I-need-you-so-much-it's-stupid way." My hands fly up in the world's most desperate charades, trying to mime three men and one very eager me.

"We get it, Grace," Beck says, grinning.

"Yes," Grant says.

I look at him. "Yes?" I say.

"Yes."

Beck just laughs low. "You already know my answer."

I look at Joel.