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Her dad shrugged and took a sip of his wine.
“Like, anything you know, or Ansel knows, or you and Anselbothknow that you might want to tell me?”
“Huh?” she stammered. Saber was not a very good liar.
“Sorry,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve just gotten a weird vibe around you two. I know, it sounds crazy, I think it’s just a dad’s paranoia about his daughter growing up, but my first thought when I saw his email was that this whole thing, thepromotion, was aboutyou. It’s extremely weird that he specified that I have to take you with me.”
“Oh my god, Dad,” Saber stammered, forcing a laugh. “If there’s something weird going on, I don’t know about it.”
“Yeah, maybe I’m being crazy.” He shrugged. “One day maybe you’ll have a kid and you’ll get it.”
“Ok.” Saber swallowed again, wishing she could run away, could call Ansel and yell at him, could just go back in time and restart everything and do it differently.
“Anyway,” her dad said. “Them’s the breaks, kid. I’m not happy about it, but we’re moving to California. I have to leave again in just a few days to go meet the team.”
Saber ran to her room and called Ansel, waving at Lozen to ignore her.
“Hello Saber.” He sounded strangely tired, like talking to her exhausted him in some way.
“Youalreadytransferred my dad?”
“Last night. I told you I would, Saber.”
“I didn’t think you were totally serious!”
“I’malwaystotally serious.”
“He doesn’t want to go!”
“I know, he said as much to his manager, but if he knew the whole story—”
“It’s not fair for you to make decisions like that for other people!”
For a moment neither of them spoke.
“Well,” Ansel said. “Now you’ll be near your friend. Didn’t you say that she was going to Southern California?”
“She didn’t get a scholarship, Ansel. She’s probably going to UW in Seattle now. How do I knowshe’llbe safe? How will I know for sure I am? Or my friends?”
Silence.
“Say something!”
“I’m sorry, Saber. My decision is final,” Ansel said, then hung up the phone.
31
It was noon, three days later, Monday. Saber and Lozen had skipped school. The sky was a vivid white, the air icy cold. The weather report kept saying snow, more and sooner every time Lozen refreshed the app.
“Four inches,” she said. “Fuck. I hate snow.”
“Ok, can you stop checking?” Saber said snappishly. “I’m kind of freaking out.”
“Ugh,” Lozen said, and puffed out her cheeks, blowing out a long, slow breath. A little puff of steam hung in the air like an unsaid word.
Saber sighed.
“Sorry, I’m just…”
