Chapter Fifteen Luke
Chapter Fifteen
Luke
July is our busiest month. The store is always slammed from the minute we open. At least the craziness keeps my mind off of the fact that Sera hasn’t texted me back since we went out on the boat yesterday.
The regulars beeline for the back, ducking beneath the old Nyeman’s sign to the area where they know Nana is hiding the best antiques.
The newer people browse through all the boutique stuff up front—the Cape decor, table settings, and local artisanal foods.
Mom pops in for a few minutes to get a book of samples for a client and leave the boys upstairs with Nana and Gramps while she’s out.
I barely pause all day. Between customers needing help and my mom’s interior decorating clients stopping in with questions and requests, I’m swamped.
If every day was like this all year, maybe I could go to college for real, instead of just taking a couple classes at the community college. But summer is short, and the debt is long, and it’s good that I barely have time to think of another way it could be.
Izzy comes in right at closing time and locks the door behind her, then flips the Open sign over. I thank her as I pop open the register and start counting out the drawer.
“Ready for date night?” she asks, leaning across the counter, smelling like peppermint ChapStick and sunscreen. I flinch a little at the word date, Sera’s accusation from the Fourth still fresh in my mind. I don’t think I need to check with Izzy that we’re on the same page, but maybe I should.
“In a bit. How was the beach?”
“Crowded.” She frowns. “The July Fourth crowds are still here. I wish there was like a Northport locals–only place, you know? So we didn’t have to share.
” She plays with the pennies in the take-one-leave-one dish while I check the messages on the landline.
There are a few voicemails for my mom, which is great.
Summer rentals and new local buyers looking to decorate will hopefully carry us through the winter.
A few people have asked for light handyman work, which I’ve got to schedule in, but since one of the cashiers quit, I’ve been too busy today to do that.
“Earth to Luke.” Izzy waves a hand in my face, and I lose track of the fives I’m counting.
“Sorry, yeah, a beach for just us, sounds…” I think about the Beach at the End of the Universe, Sera lying back on the space rock in her bikini, the sun in her hair, her scream of laughter as she jumped into the icy water.
I shake my head to clear her out of it. No matter what happens between us, I’m not sharing our beach with anyone else. “Cool, but probably unrealistic.”
Izzy rolls her eyes, picks up the ones, and counts them for me. “You ready now?” She hefts the tote bag she has over her shoulder. “I rented a bunch of those old sci-fi DVDs that you love from the library. I thought we could have a movie night, since my parents are still out on Martha’s Vineyard.”
“That sounds perfect, Iz.” I smile. “Dinner first?” I ask, my stomach cramping. I shoved a bag of chocolate-covered almonds in my mouth around lunch and it didn’t suffice. Plus Mom won’t love that. They were ten-dollar almonds.
“Sure. Waterviews?” she suggests.
I waver. I love Maddy’s family’s place, and their prices are low, but Sera might be there.
“Maybe fish-and-chips instead?”
“Sure.”
“Great. Give me five.”
I slide all the cash into the deposit bag and head back to the office to lock it in the safe. I hate being in here, even though Mom’s totally redone it. Every time it’s like I’m going to walk in on my dad and that woman again.
Izzy and I leave out the back once all the lights are off. I lock up and head to my truck, opening the door for Izzy to get in. I move some of my random sketches off the seat into the back so she has somewhere to sit.
“Thank you.” She leans up and kisses my cheek. The contact is brief, familiar, nice, but a little…empty. I can’t help but notice it doesn’t travel inward and sizzle in my chest the way even just being near Sera does.
Izzy’s family lives inland, closer to the high school, in a newer development where half the houses’ cedar siding is still fresh and yellow.
We stop at the fried seafood stand and get our food to go.
Izzy chats the whole time about how she’s thinking about taking more film classes next year.
I nod along, but I’m not fully here. I get like this a lot.
This feeling like I’m living in a movie of my own life, a disconnect where my mind doesn’t feel like it has any control over my body.
I can’t stop thinking about the rent that’s due next week on the shop.
I should’ve just asked Izzy to wait another fifteen minutes while I called and booked those consultations for Mom and the work for me.
We need as much income this summer as we can get before the offseason hits and all the money leaves the Cape.
Izzy notices I’m spacing and gently taps my arm.
“All there?”
I sigh and shake it off, turning to smile my thanks at her for pulling me out of it. “Yeah. I’m good. Just hungry.”
Izzy’s house is bright and open and unbelievably clean.
It’s like the homes Mom does decor for. Our house is nothing like this.
She’s an only child, so the entryway is populated by a table of photos of her from infancy until graduation last year.
There are also family shots on the beach here on the Cape or on vacation.
And a couple posed photos of just her parents.
Sera’s family has more money than us too, but I don’t think about it as much with them.
They’re less intimidating than Izzy’s parents are to me, but that’s probably because I’ve known them longer.
I don’t know why I’m comparing them, though.
“Shoes off so my mom doesn’t have a fit,” Izzy reminds me.
She kicks her sandals off on the tiled floor and drops her bag on the bench before heading toward the basement door.
I slide off my sneakers and then go to the kitchen for plates and paper towels, knowing how careful we have to be to not make a mess.
Downstairs, Izzy’s fiddling with an old gaming console under their huge wall-mounted TV. I put the food on the coffee table, along with the plates, and then collapse onto the massive L-shaped couch.
“I love this couch,” I say, eyes closed. And for a moment, even though I’m wicked hungry, I swear I could fall asleep.
“I know you do,” Izzy says, voice teasing and sexy and low.
A small bubble of want creeps up in my stomach, and I relax.
The thing with the kiss earlier was just a fluke.
I’m not losing interest. If I did, I know where my mind would go, and it can’t go there.
“Okay. I got it working,” Izzy says. “Which movie first? Close Encounters, Blade, X-Men? I also have all of The X-Files.”
“I vote X-Men,” I say, sitting back up and opening the food before the fries get soggy. The X-Files would take days.
“Nerd,” Izzy says happily, popping the movie out of its plastic case and into the machine.
We eat and watch in silence for a while.
When we’re done, Izzy gathers up all the trash and takes it upstairs.
She comes back with a couple sodas and curls up next to me.
Instinct has me wrapping my arm around her.
I wonder who she cuddles with at school because I’ve never seen her watch a movie without being snuggled up.
“Who do you movie cuddle with at school?” I ask.
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean.”
She brushes her pink bangs out of her face, though they’re closer to her original blond this week than they were last week. “Why? Are you jealous?”
I laugh. “No, Iz. I was just wondering.”
“You could be jealous, you know.” She swings her leg over my lap. She leans forward and presses her forehead to mine, grins. I slide my hands onto her hips, the familiarity of what comes next taking over.
“I’m not,” I say.
“Oh, a challenge. I like it.” She leans in and kisses me, and I wait for a beat to see if that little spark of heat will crawl up out of the depths of my chest and respond. But just like earlier, it’s gone. I pull back. Izzy looks at me, her brow furrowed.
“What’s with you tonight?” she asks, climbing off my lap.
“Izzy. I—I think we should stop hooking up.”
“What?” She sits up straight, her feet tucked under her so she’s at eye level with me. “But we agreed we’d have fun this summer…”
“I know. But…I don’t know, it was fun last year, and this year—honestly, I’m so tired and busy, I’d rather just watch the movie and talk about that insane CGI. Be friends and not make things…overcomplicated.”
Izzy won’t look at the screen, where Magneto is strapping Rogue into his mutation machine. “This is about Sera, isn’t it?” Her voice isn’t mad exactly, but she does sound disappointed.
“What? No.” I haven’t talked to her about Sera at all, not since two summers ago, when I spilled my guts to her at this random party the night Sera turned me down.
Back then, Izzy listened and told me it was okay to be upset, but that all romance didn’t have to be so serious.
I agreed. Less serious seemed better then, but now…
She deserves someone who wants to spend the days with her watching The X-Files and making out.
“It is,” she insists. “I have eyes, Luke.”
“It’s not. Plus she’s hanging out with that kid from Boston.”
Izzy scoffs. “You guys are being so stupid. You’re lying to yourselves, and you’re lying to each other.”
“We’re not—we’re—”
“Just friends?” she says, smirking.
“Yes.”
“Whatever you say, Luke.” She hops off the couch. “I feel all sticky from the beach. I’m just going to shower and go to bed. You know the way out, right?”
“Yeah, but, Izzy, I—”
She puts her hand up. “It’s fine, Luke. I just—I need some space.”
On the drive home, I sift back through all the conversations I’ve had with Sera since she came back this summer.
I’m looking for evidence of any kind to tell me I should let that tiny bit of hope that sprouted up the minute I saw her walk into Lorell’s grow at all, or if I’m still just the world’s biggest idiot.
It’s still light out when I get home. My brothers are at a sleepover, and Mom’s in the kitchen, making tea, looking tired and surprised to see me.
I hope she wasn’t looking forward to a night alone.
But I also hope she’s got something for me to do to feel useful and keep my mind from wandering next door.