SEVEN Sebastian #4
“Good choice.” I move my arm, draping it over the back of the metal seat. I inadvertently brush my fingers against her ponytail and pull my hand away before she can notice. “How many times are you going to check the models for Claudia when you get home? I’m predicting seven times for me.”
Quincy’s eyelashes flutter closed then open. A real laugh tumbles out of her, and I’m the proudest motherfucker in the world because of it. It makes me want to buy a confetti cannon. To track down some streamers and noisemakers so I can put this moment in the goddamn history books.
July eighth: The night I made Quincy Monroe laugh.
I’d do just about anything to hear it again.
“That’s it?” she scoffs. “I’ll be upwards of eleven times. Fifteen, maybe.”
“The NHC is going to think you’re stalking them.”
“Maybe I am.” She stretches out her legs, feet swinging back and forth.
The car rocks with her. Her grip on the dinosaur loosens.
We’re making progress, and I roll with it.
“Are you covering it for whatever it is you’re working on?
Is it reality television? Wanted: arrogant storm chaser is looking for a wife. ”
“Sounds like a good name for a dating show.” I snort. “And what I’m working on is a docuseries that’s probably going to be shit, but at least it gets me out of the office and into the fresh air.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s complicated.”
“I thought we were playing Truth or Dare. Scared, Dunn?”
Fucking terrified, actually. Not even my best friends have seen this side of me.
“All right, fine. I’ll spill my guts to you, Monroe. Stop begging.”
“You’re obnoxious.” Her knee nudges mine. Presses into my bare skin and holds. It’s like I’m being shocked with a live wire. “I don’t want to know.”
“I’m going to tell you anyway. It’s been nice to have a change of scenery.
This project is less rigid. It gives me more freedom to explore things that are important to me.
” I stare out at the horizon. Lightning flashes in the distance, and I smile.
There must be a storm rolling in. They always make me introspective.
“It keeps things interesting when everything starts to feel monotonous.”
“A change of scenery isn’t a bad thing.”
“No, it’s not.”
“But it can be scary.”
“Yeah.” I nod. I can smell the impending rain. The fresh aroma and sharpness in the air. This next part is for me more than it is for her. “Scary isn’t bad either, though.”
“No.” Hushed agreement. Her own heaviness she’s carrying. “Sometimes it means you’re heading down the right path at the right time.”
We settle into silence. It’s light, comfortable. The easiest it’s ever been between us. She runs her fingers down the length of Reginald’s tail then repeats the movement. I hum a tune under my breath, stopping when I see her give a nervous glance toward the ground.
“Are you going to chase Claudia?” I ask.
“It’s the first landfall of the year. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
“I’m sure you’ll get some good content for your show.”
“Probably. Maybe.” Quincy tips her chin up, eyes bright under the light of the stars. “I know I’m really good at what I do, but sometimes I wonder how much of a difference I’m making out there.”
“Are you kidding? You’re educating. Showing the cause and effect of what happens when weather is involved.
You’re saving lives.” The Ferris wheel moves again, the start of our descent.
“It pains me to say this, but the work you do is valuable, Monroe. You know your shit. More than most people in our field.”
“When you say that—” She sighs. Crosses her ankles before uncrossing them and resting her chin on the dinosaur’s head.
“It makes it sound like I’m important. And no one in our field has ever said the work I do is important.
It’s usually that I’m taking up space from a man who should have the platform I have. ”
“Fuck them. You are important.” Anger rushes through me, a swift current. I roll my lips together, holding back asking for names. A list of people who have ever been shitty to her so I can make them pay. “You’ve never doubted yourself before. Why start now?”
“Change of scenery, remember? And it being scary. I’m doing things I haven’t done before, waiting for news I’m not used to waiting for, and it’s making me question my place in all of this.
” Her smile is weak, fracturing at the edges.
It lasts the briefest of seconds before she shrugs and relaxes.
“It’ll pass. There will be a moment when I recognize I’m a badass bitch, and all will be well again. ”
“For what it’s worth? You’re definitely a badass bitch.” I tug on the end of her ponytail. Lean in close so I can drop my voice to a whisper. I swear her eyes move to my mouth. “Just not at carnival games.”
That earns me a stuffed animal to the face. An elbow in my ribs and a mumbled you are exasperating. When our car enters the platform, she stands the second the safety bar releases. She hurries over to my sister, smiling from ear to ear when Mia wraps her arms around her in a hug.
Quincy keeps Reginald tucked against her side. She tosses a final look back my way, and that feels important too.