T W E N T Y - S E V E N
“You seriously have no idea?” I interrogate Perry, while she continues her handy work on her third scarf this week.
“I might have a minor idea.”
“Who’s side are you on?” I gawk at her.
Perry’s brow lifts in resemblance to the Cheshire cat. “Sometimes surprises are a good thing, Banks Malie.”
“We can’t all hang out if you guys are going to gang up on me.”
She tips her head back over the arm of the loveseat, letting out a soundless giggle.
“Girls stick together, Perry.”
“Quit being so dramatic. That’s my job,” she murmurs. “I promise you’re going to like it.”
“Tell me and I’ll decide for myself.”
“Did he surprise you for his birthday?”
“That was different. That was about him. This is a random Thursday.”
Perry rolls her eyes before she raises her wrist, checking her nonexistent watch. “He’ll be here in two hours. I believe you can stick it out another hundred and twenty minutes.”
“Why do I let you stay here again?”
“Because you love me.” She puckers her lips and blows me a kiss.
My teeth grind together for the next 7,200 seconds. Long enough for me to need a serious painkiller and for Perry to throw my puffer in my face .
“Why is Kai on his way up?” I grunt after the material falls to my feet and I must bend over to grab it.
“He and I are going with you guys,” Perry snickers, digging through a box of shoes to find her tall boots.
“You couldn’t have mentioned that?”
“And miss this little tantrum? Not a chance.”
I tug on my jacket while going to unlock my deadbolt.
Perry carries her boots over to the edge of my bed and pulls them on over her leggings. I am dressed similarly, though I wore one of Charlie’s flannels.
“It’s ridiculous that it’s still this freaking cold in late June,” she whines, nodding at the glazed-over window.
“Let’s book a one-way to Cabo.”
“Don’t test me, B,” she grins. “I don’t have a boyfriend or job. I can run at any time.”
“He could send me cards.”
Perry starts assembling her own layers. “Phone sex is great but nothing beats the real thing.”
“I hate that you’re right.”
“Right about what?”
My brother picks that moment to walk through the door.
“Everything,” Perry answers, while Kai rolls his eyes.
“Where are we going?” I corner my brother, knowing he’s too gullible to lie.
Kai helps himself to my fridge.
“Don’t even,” Perry warns, while Kai opens my leftovers and proceeds to stick his greasy little fingers in them.
I shoot him a glare.
A faint knock raps against the door before producing my boyfriend, the ultimate secret keeper, Next-Door-Charlie .
A flash of pearly teeth at my presence and I’m goo as he wraps his arms around my waist, tugging me into him.
He kisses my forehead. “Hi, baby,” he says and is quickly followed by, “stopping eating all their food, you animal.”
“Can we please go before she has an aneurysm?” I hear Perry’s boots click against the floor and then a wince from my brother as she flicks him with her nail and steals the container from him.
I feel Charlie chuckle. “I suppose I’ve kept you in suspense long enough.”
Perry smacks Kai one more time before we all exit my apartment.
I swear I saw him stick his tongue out at her as he slammed the door in her face, forcing her to go all the way around to the other side of my sedan.
Charlie pushes the front seat all the way back before turning over the ignition.
We’re taking my car because apparently parking can be sparse and Charlie’s truck could prove to be a challenge.
Charlie takes us just outside city limits and even the foggy evening couldn’t keep me from recognizing just where he is intent on taking us.
Through the moisture, bright beams of yellow and pinks stuck straight up into the night. A series of rainbows to its left and a purple tower to its right.
We’re at the summer carnival.
Well what should be the summer carnival, yet winter has clung on and on leaving us with a chill and low clouds .
Charlie slows by the parking attendant, waiting for a direction when I turn to him.
He grins and winks at me before taking an orange ticket and going to the according row.
“Are you still mad?” He ducks down, letting his lips brush against my ear.
“No, but you could have just told me.” I lightly punch his side.
“I want a huge funnel cake,” Perry announces, throwing her arms up in the air. “With strawberries and way too much whipped cream.”
“And diabetes,” Kai adds, earning himself a third flick of Perry’s nail behind his ear.
“I’ll go halves with you, P.”
“Love you, B, but I’m not sharing.”
I laugh as we approach the ticketing booth.
Kai and Charlie flash barcodes from their phones and like that, we enter the carnival.
I haven’t been since Kai and I were just tots, since it only comes to town every couple of years, but I’ve always had a thing for the big coaster that I was too little to ride.
“Five bucks says I can beat you in free throws,” Kai badgers Charlie as we near the games.
“Five bucks won’t even get you a game,” Charlie says.
“Alright, twenty.”
“Stop while you’re ahead, shrimp,” Perry suggests.
“Who you calling shrimp, big bird?”
Perry angles her arms like wings and gives them a flap. “Fuck.”
“ What are you doing?” Kai snips .
“You didn’t fly away. Typically these babies blow away the shrimp dicks no problem.”
“Probably because it’s more like a lobster.”
I feel bile at the back of my throat.
“No need to lie, Matsumara,” Perry squints. “We’re all friends here. We’ll still keep you around, even if you’ve never given a woman an orgasm.”
Kai snorts.
“That’s why you run through so many, isn't it? No one wants a second round?” Perry turns on her heel, flipping him another bird as she follows the scent of corn dogs.
Charlie did his best, but that zinger Perry dropped the mic with, got him. He practically has tears in his eyes from laughter.
“Fuck off, Charlie,” Kai mutters. “You know she’s lying. You’ve seen it.”
I gag, while Charlie nearly topples over in the mist of his fit.
“Why would you two be staring at each other’s penises?” I regret asking that the moment the words leave my mouth.
“Curiosity.”
Charlie coughs when I tilt my head back with a lifted brow.
“Not that kind,” he says.
“It’s okay if I wasn’t your first pick Matsumara.” I pucker my lips and blow a kiss.
Charlie lets me go and throws Kai in a headlock. “Fuck you too,” he growls, dragging my brother to the free-throw line.
Perry licks her lips after adding a generous amount of mustard to her corn dog.
“So is it the sex?” Perry taunts me in a low tone, shoving a bite in her mouth.
“What?” I lick the ketchup I just spilled on my finger while attempting to open one of those little packets.
“You literally glow. He's like a drug and you're always high. I can’t get over it. Sex must be the logical answer. Banks just needed to get laid.”
“Isn't that how first love is?” I reach for a napkin. “It’s more than just the sex.” I roll my eyes.
“You guys are way past first love status.” Perry takes another bite. “I thought the novelty would have worn off by now. I mean it's been a month since I got here but I'm still gaping.”
“Maybe... it's time you get back out there,” I suggest. “Get laid yourself.”
She dramatically gasps with half a corn dog between her lips. “Is the Banks Matsumara telling me to... to date?”
“Okay, smartass,” I rattle. “I'm just saying, if you aren't looking for a job, you're sitting at the apartment—knitting.”
“There's nothing wrong with knitting,” she defends. “How is it any different than your books?”
She had me there.
“Fine,” I take a bite of my own. “What's your plan then? Stay glued to my hip and pretend as if the entire male population won't notice you? ”
“Exactly.” She flashes her pearly whites. “Not all of us fall right into the arms of a Charlie.”
I bite down a smile. “Charlie has his own faults, P,” I say softly. “As great as most things are, we have our own issues too.”
“You’re supposed to.” She chews another piece of corn dog. “How boring would it be if both of you were perfect all the time? What matters is that you keep choosing one another. That he would…” she sighs. “He would chew his own arm off if it would please you, B.”
I can hear the anguish in her voice. How much she desires that for herself. How badly I want it for her as well.
“Sometimes…” I exhale. “Sometimes I just feel like there’s something huge that he’s hiding from me.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Something though.”
Perry stares at me innocently. “We all have our secrets.”
“Yeah,” I murmur. “And I get that but—”
“What’s really bothering you?”
I rest my chin on my shoulder, noting that Charlie and Kai are still distracted by the free throw games.
“What if…” I shut my eyes. “What if I am so blinded by my love for him that I am missing all the red flags?”
“Because something happened with his family and he doesn’t want to talk about it, you think that’s a red flag?”
I understood how crazy that sounds.
I watch Perry shove another corn dog in her mouth and reach for one of my own.
I could tell her about his ‘clumsiness’.
I chew on that thought as I chew my corn dog .
Even though, I want to talk to her. I want her opinion, I keep my mouth shut.
“You’re right,” I nod. “Let’s forget it.”
“B?” Perry lifts a brow, showing her concern.
I smile. “I’m overreacting,” I sidestep. “Just old habits of looking for reasons that I don’t deserve this.”
“B,” she pouts, reaching for my hand. “I can think of a lot of worse things than being so in love that you overlook a few flaws, but at the end of the day, those little things don’t matter as much. Not like the good little things anyway,” she winks.