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“I’m not being altruistic, so don’t go thinking that I’m just doing him a favor.”
“Yeah. I know. Is he being reasonable?”
“I’m right here,” he said. “And I kind of resent being talked about like I’m not.”
“Welcome to my world,” said Camilla. “I’m only the youngest in this family. That’s basically my entire life. You people talking about what I want or should want while I’m right there.”
“Yeah. Well. Shouldn’t have been born last.”
“I had to be born last. Our mother died so quickly after me, there was no chance to get another one in.”
Quinn was a little taken off guard by the gallows humor, but Levi laughed. “Fair enough, Cam. Fair enough.”
He took a stack of paper plates out of the cabinet and set them on the counter, and she felt like she was getting a small window into how he had done things when his siblings were at home. Paper plates, pizza. And he had tried to learn to cook pizza, but was apparently very bad at it. And suddenly she was curious.
“Can you cook?”
“Yes,” he said. “I would never have survived if I couldn’t.”
“He learned eventually,” said Camilla.
“Yeah. The casserole brigade was around most nights before I did.”
Suddenly, he got a strange expression on his face, his jaw going tight. He looked away. She couldn’t read that moment, and Camilla hadn’t noticed it.
It was weird, to feel this companionable with him. Especially after the fight this morning. And after being dumped in the pond yesterday.
But she wanted to talk to him about the extent of the issues in the office. And the ways in which she could maybe help him organize if she understood exactly what his issues were.
But she didn’t want to bring it up in front of his sister, either.
They were sweet together. And it was strange, to see him be sweet. Maybe sweet was the wrong word, because there was a roughness to him no matter what.
But he had learned to cook for her.
For all of his siblings.
She was resisting this, him becoming more of a three-dimensional human. Especially one with deep, hard struggles.
Because it just made her feel even worse. This morning, she had felt overwhelmed by the unveiling of his parents’ graves. And then this evening, she kept thinking of all the times she had shoved text in his face, and the way that she had acted about college degrees.
Of course he felt like she was belittling him. This was a deep wound. Something that had undoubtedly colored his whole life. Made things difficult for him.
Made him feel like less.
When he had said that he skipped school, she could see why now.
It wasn’t about different values; it was about different strengths.
And she had been awful to assume the things that she had.
“Well,” said Camilla, “I think I’m going to go pack, since I’ll be leaving tomorrow afternoon. I have to drive all the way back to Santa Clara. I appreciate you being here, Quinn. Even if Levi won’t say it, I will.”
“It’s not a problem. I mean, it isn’t a burden. It hasn’t been.”
Levi didn’t say anything.
Camilla waved and then walked out of the room, leaving the two of them alone in the kitchen.
