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After a lunch of chicken fingers and fries, we went right for the water, draping ourselves on the inner tubes.
“This is perfect,” Natalie said as we floated, buoyed by the waves.
We had to pay a little bit of attention so we didn’t get carried too far by the current, but otherwise, we could just chill.
“Have you put up your dating profile yet?” Natalie asked.
“No. I’m still tweaking it,” I said.
“Are you nervous?” she asked.
“I guess? I don’t know. It’s not like I have to do anything with it. I can ignore all the messages if I want,” I said.
“True,” she said. “I wrote up a little profile. I’ll show it to you later.”
“We can dive into the online dating waters together,” I said.
“Deal,” she said, holding out her bracelet. I bumped it with mine.
* * *
We floated until we were starting to get crispy and needed more sunblock.
I’d rented another umbrella, so we sat in the shade and read for a while.
“What do you think?” Natalie passed me her phone and I read he profile. It was cute and fun and just like her.
“You sure you’re ready to get back into it?” I hadn’t been ready to date for at least a year after my breakup, and even when I’d been mentally prepared, it had still been hard to agree to see someone new.
“Yeah. I think I am.”
She deserved someone who would treat her right. I hoped she would be careful about who she decided to go out with.
“Maybe we can double date,” she suggested.
“Sure,” I said, even though I didn’t like the idea. I didn’t like it at all.
* * *
Natalie and I found a sweet little welcome mat in one of the Castleton shops for Linley and Gray, and they were very appreciative when we showed up to help, but we found that our help wasn’t needed. Paige and Esme had also come over, so there were actually too many people helping, and we decided that we were in the way, so left Gray and Linley to it.
Gretchen had finally planned her gender reveal party, and I was required to attend. Her father had a friend who owned a tiny plane, and the plan was to fly it over the party with a banner. It was less dangerous than blowing something up, but I still thought it was a ridiculous thing to do. The party was going to be hosted by a friend of Gretchen’s parents who had a really huge yard and lots of parking. Esme had been hired as the bartender and had come up with a signature cocktail and mocktail (for Gretchen and anyone else she bullied into not drinking).
“I was going to call it placenta, but I didn’t want to get fired,” Esme told me. I was just relieved she was going to be there. I needed as many friends with me to get through that event as possible.
The weekend before the party, I had dinner at my parents again. This time Wyatt and Gretchen weren’t there because they had some other shit to do. Whatever. At least I didn’t have to hear her talk.
“When was the last time it was just the three of us?” Mom asked.
I couldn’t remember a time it had just been me and my parents. Wyatt was always here.
They asked me how work was, but that didn’t take up a whole lot of time, mostly since I saw Dad nearly every day. Fortunately, my mom gave me gossip updates she’d heard via Gretchen, and I helped draw that out for a long time. As long as we weren’t talking about me.
Sometimes I wondered if my parents were proud of me. I knew they were proud of Wyatt, even though he’d also gone into the family business, and hadn’t finished college. I’d gotten my degree by the skin of my teeth, but I was pretty fucking proud of it.
I thought about what Natalie had said about jobs. Maybe it was time to make a change. Or even just ask to do something else. If I was being honest with myself, I was bored out of my mind most days. I wanted to do something I cared about. Something that I felt like was contributing to something.
I wished I had a trust fund or something so I could just do my little shell projects and travel around the world and take naps in the middle of the day.
