Page 83 of The Sound of Harmony

“Are you sure?” Kendrick usually got the bare minimum of cool politeness from Gwendolyn. It was very unlike her to do him a favor.

She cut her eyes to the cashier. She lowered her voice. “The stuff I put up with, it’s the least they can do. Let’s see.” She looked at the price tag and mumbled some numbers. “After the fifteen percent discount, that brings it down to four seventy-three. Plus tax will make it five even. How often does that work out so neatly?”

Kendrick pulled a five-dollar bill out of his wallet. “That was quick.”

“Basic accounting,” Gwendolyn said. “I do that a lot.”

When they got to the counter, the cashier took forever to ring them up. He couldn’t figure out how to include the faculty discount, then he tried to calculate it after the sales tax. Kendrick sighed. Gwendolyn fumed. The kid behind the counter whined, “I’m an art student, what do I know about numbers?”

“I could give you exact change right now,” Gwendolyn said. “But I’m going to walk you through this.” Which she did. Step by agonizing step, and then she paid with twenties and made the kid count her change back to her. She refused a bag, ushered Kendrick out to the sidewalk, and handed him his staff paper.

“That was quite a performance,” Kendrick said.

Gwendolyn rolled her eyes. “College towns can be so annoying.”

“But you work for CU.”

“Yes, and my job would be perfect if it weren’t for the students.”

They both laughed.

“So,” Gwendolyn said. “I talked to Emma today. She seems happy.”

“She’s not complaining about me too much?”

Gwendolyn’s gaze twitched to the ground and then back at him. “She never complains about you.”

“Good.”

“I don’t like it. It’s suspicious.”

Kendrick’s brain hummed a warning at a low frequency, several lines below the bass staff. “How is that suspicious?”

Gwendolyn put on the same expression she’d used with the cashier. “Because it means she doesn’t feel secure enough to complain.”

“Or maybe I don’t give her anything to complain about?” Kendrick did a mental eyeroll. Only Gwendolyn would take a lack of complaints as a bad sign. He knew that she didn’t like him much, but this was just silly.

“Emma is still fragile.” Gwendolyn touched her jaw. He wondered if it was unconscious or deliberate. “She’s still getting back what she lost.”

It was the second time Kendrick had heard that, but that wasn’t the Emma he knew. His Emma was quiet, and didn’t share everything that was on her mind, but that was her way of processing the world. She wasn’t weak. Far from it. But her sister and her best friend seemed to think otherwise. “Is there something in particular I should know?” he asked.

Gwendolyn tilted her nose in the air. “Just that she tells me everything and that I’m always watching.”

“I know,” Kendrick said. “I’ve known that since before I met you. And somehow, I dared to date your sister anyway.”

“I’m serious,” Gwendolyn said.

“So am I.” He picked at a bent corner of the notebook, trying to straighten it. He moved some loose gravel with his toe, and finally looked back at Gwendolyn. “She thinks the world of you, you know. I’m glad you’re looking out for her.”

Gwendolyn gave him a silent nod, her gaze so hard and intense it was like looking at sapphires. “Just so we understand each other.”

“We do. We absolutely do.”

Two students edged around them to the bookstore’s door. One was dressed as Spider-Man. The other was Captain America. It was way too early in the season for a Halloween party, especially on a Tuesday afternoon. Kendrick looked at Gwendolyn for an explanation.

“No idea,” she said. “On the way here, a girl in a shark onesie asked me for a dollar.”

“Was she hungover?”