Chapter 30 Summer
Mere minutes later, the sight of the first pink paper plane in my apartment has my stomach panging with regret.
I stare down the dim hallway, just inside the front door, straining my ears for a sign of Parker. Scrambling to figure out how to explain this date to him, as though I were doing something wrong by going on it. But my apartment is dead silent save for the sounds of the street below.
Still, I tiptoe up to the paper plane, unfolding it to find the words Follow us…
in Parker’s handwriting. The next plane, just steps away, is blank on the inside, but points to the remaining trail of folded pink Post-it notes.
I follow them down the hall, past the kitchen, and into the living room which has been transformed into a scene right out of our childhood.
My mouth falls open as I take it in. The couch cushions and throw blankets have been rearranged into a pillow fort, the kind Parker and I first met inside.
We used to build these in the basement of his parents’ old house every single weekend growing up.
We’d hide in our self-made bubble, sneaking the rom-coms we weren’t allowed to watch, but couldn’t get enough of.
Watching people get their happy endings while burrowed under a thick comforter, our arms and legs pressed together.
Heart thumping, I crawl into the fort. He’s strung twinkle lights inside, over cozy piles of blankets and pillows. In the middle, another pink plane sits on top of a faded square of paper.
My type, is all it says.
I flip over the square. It’s an old picture of the four of us I’ve never seen before.
Parker and me in the middle, Zac and Melody flanking us.
We’re bathed in bluish light I recognize from our unsanctioned swim sessions, wrapped in towels and sitting on the tiled floor by the pool at our old high school.
This was the night Parker had broken us in for a midnight swim, to get my mind off my parents’ divorce.
And while Zac, Melody, and I smile brightly ahead… Parker is staring at me, the beginnings of a smile on his face as though he got distracted on the way to the camera.
My type.
I snap a picture of the photo and text it to Parker without preamble or follow-up, but the wordless demand is clear: Explain. Tell me what this means.
My phone lights up with a call right away, though I hadn’t expected to hear from him. He should be at Brooks’s, setting up for his first official session with Noah.
“Hi?” My voice is breathless, heart in my throat.
“Even then,” he says quietly.
“What do you mean?”
“Even then, you were the most beautiful girl I’d ever laid eyes on.”
I breathe a laugh even as something miserable twists inside me. “Shouldn’t you be working? Especially now that you’re out there poaching our clients.”
“How pissed off was Don when Noah broke the news?”
“He was all fake smiles until Noah left. Then he stormed into his office and threw a muffin at the wall. I think he forgot we can see right into the room.” His warm laugh against my ear has my stomach swooping violently.
I flop back onto the pillows, staring up at the twinkle lights.
“So, I found a pillow fort in my living room. Any idea where it came from?”
“A pillow fort? Weird.” There’s a smile in his voice.
“We’ve been so busy with training, I thought it might be nice to bring back Summer Fridays.
Put a rom-com on, see what we could get up to with a loose drawstring…
You know, the usual.” Parker makes a soft sound, and I picture him sitting down on a workout bench. “I left something on your bookcase.”
“Oh?” I shuffle out of the pillow fort, gasping when I find a new box set of books on my shelf. “The Hidden Moon series! Thanks, Park. But you really didn’t have to get me the whole set.”
“It was the only way to get them with the sprayed edges. I thought they’d look nice on your shelves.”
I flip over the box to find the purple page edges, dotted with crescent moons and little stars. “They’re beautiful.”
“If I’m honest, it’s a little bit for me, too. I’m finding I have a lot of questions about alien sex.”
I laugh. “I hear he’s got three tongues in the third book.”
“Well, shit. Good for him.”
I run a finger over the painted edges. Parker’s given me plenty of gifts through the years; we’ve sat in tons of pillow forts. But in the wake of our moment at the B&B, this feels…
Different.
“Safe to say I regret making plans,” I whisper. “It could’ve been us and triple-tongue Tritus tonight.”
“I’d make sure he was tongueless Tritus before he reached you,” Parker says darkly. He pauses. “You have plans?”
“I’m…” I close my eyes, guilt and regret clawing at my insides. “I’m going on a date.”
His end of the call goes so eerily quiet that I check it’s still connected. It is, the seconds on the screen ticking by, the silence more stifling as they do.
“Who?” Parker asks softly.
“I bumped into Grant today. I don’t know if you remember him, but he’s—”
“I know who he is.” He sucks in a breath. “You like him?”
“He’s…” Not you. “Nice.” I hold my breath, waiting for him to tell me you’re not going. Hoping he’ll say go out with me instead. But Parker only gives a thoughtful hum. “I’m going to cancel. I didn’t realize you had this whole thing planned, and…”
“No, don’t do that. You should go. On the…” He clears his throat. “With Grant. You always spoke so highly of him.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very. You deserve it, Summer.”
The pounding in my chest subsides, leaving acute humiliation. Where in the smutty alien romance did I think I was, hoping he would protest?
This is reality. One in which I’m friends with a man who’s had decades to ask me out if he wanted to.
And that’s the thing about Parker: He’s impulsive.
Wears his mood on his sleeve, good or bad.
And here he is, perfectly calm as I tell him about my date with someone else.
While I’m standing here, foolishly hoping he’ll tell me not to go.
I set down the books and rub a hand over my face. “I deserve what?”
“To be happy, whatever that looks like for you.” I hear movement on his end of the call, then the sound of tires crunching on asphalt. “Noah’s here. I’m sorry I made a mess of your living room. I just—I thought…”
My heart throbs at something in his voice.
Another long pause and I hold my breath, waiting for more. But the line goes silent.