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Chapter 20
GABE
I can’t take my eyes off Tillie as she tells the crab story.
She leans forward so she can see more of the listeners, her red cheeks appearing glowingly tan in the diner’s feeble lighting. “So, I’m beside my sister as she’s putting the ring on her husband, and suddenly I see the biggest, ugliest, blackest crab that ever crawled from hell.”
“Land crabs!” someone yells.
“That’s it!” she says. “Only it wasn’t alone. It brought a legion of its minions, bent on attacking those of us innocently watching the happy wedding.”
Now that’s an exaggeration. Most of them were scared to death and trying to escape.
Anya’s friend Kelly, in pink PJ bottoms, holds both hands in fists by her mouth. “I hate when they come in groups.”
Tillie swirls her straw in her swanky. “Same. I had no idea this could even happen. Of course, chaos erupted. Guests jumped on chairs. I considered climbing the trellis.”
“You did?” I had no idea she was that scared.
“Totally. My sister made us all go barefoot, and one of thosethingswas going to snap off my toes!”
I can’t let her keep saying that. It isn’t true. “They don’t attack people like that—”
Kelly jumps in. “Don’t interrupt the story with facts!”
Tillie loses it for a moment with laughter, then goes on. “And then, in dashes our unlikely hero, snatching up the crabs and flinging them into the ocean.”
“Carefully setting them in the ocean,” I correct.
“Stop with the facts!” Kelly insists again.
I give in and sit back in my chair. They can tell the story however they want.
“And the wedding is saved.” Tillie wraps her arm around mine. “So, of course, I walked over to thank him.”
“And the rest is history!” Mendo says. “Until she beat his ass at a booze brawl in his own bar.”
“We were there!” Mitchell says, plucking at his Steelers jersey. He’s all about the Steelers even though he has to ship the merch from the States. “I got one of those lava drinks.”
“Best drink ever,” Anya adds.
“How long are you here for?” Kelly asks Tillie.
“Two weeks. Well, I guess I’m down to seven days now.” She glances up at me, and I squeeze her arm. We have avoided saying the day count out loud.
“That’s gonna feel short, man,” Mendo says. “Or maybe you can have a quickie wedding and live happily ever after.”
Soria shakes her head. She works at the airport. “Yeah, no. We can’t get her a visa that fast. She’d have to go back. But if you get married, maybe you could get an emergency request through. Gabe could go to the States to wait out the visa.”
“Oh no,” Tillie says. “We’re happy with our two weeks.” But her smile falters.
“Don’t worry about us,” I tell them, but a hush falls over the group.
I know what they’re thinking: I finally date a girl, and it has to end. I break my no-tourist rule, and for what? Heartbreak.
“Isn’t she from Georgia?” Kelly ventures, but Anya sends her a murderous look.
Right, let’s not go there.
