Olivia
Chapter eighteen
Ifeel better after a cool shower and a good night’s sleep in the air conditioning. I hope Gage does, too.
He’s already at the mess hall when I arrive to grab some breakfast and coffee. It’s still hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk outside. The brief walk from my cabin has me sweating.
“Good morning.” Gage greets me with a kiss on the forehead.
As usual on Saturdays, there are a handful of other camp staff hanging around, but everyone mostly keeps to themselves.
“Morning,” I respond. “Are you feeling less grumpy today?”
“I am. It’s amazing how tired chasing a group of ten-year-old boys around all week can make a person.”
“Yeah, I bet.”
“What about you? Ready to spend the day in the AC with me?”
I’m always ready and eager to spend any day with Gage, but I exaggerate a groan. “If I have to.” I grin while I tease him.
He nods seriously. “You do. It’s a contractual obligation.”
I laugh. “What contract? I didn’t sign any contract.”
“Well, we’ll have to fix that. I’ll have my lawyer draw something up.”
I roll my eyes. His lawyer. I pat his chest, noting, as always, how firm it is under my hand. “You do that, champ.”
Gage grins. “I have a surprise for you.”
“Ooh, what is it?”
“Eat your breakfast.” He chuckles. “And then you’ll see.”
After breakfast, Gage walks me toward his cabin. At the doorway, he covers my eyes with his hand. “Keep ‘em closed until I say open,” he tells me.
I keep my eyes open and try to see through the cracks in his fingers as he opens the cabin door and leads me inside. Even still, I can’t see much.
“Okay, open!” I quickly close my eyes while Gage moves his hand. I make a show of opening my eyes and blinking.
On one side of the aisle between the bunk beds, Gage has hung up a white sheet. It’s stretched taut and tied off at the corners like a movie screen.
Across from the sheet, a small projector sits on the bare mattress of the bottom bunk of one of the beds. The top bunk of that same bed is decked out with pillows propped against the wall and blankets lining the mattress.
I clap my hands. “Movie day?” I ask eagerly.
“Yep!” He gestures to a tray of goodies sitting on one of the other bunks. “With snacks, of course. I even have some Dr Pepper, though it’s not cold.”
I eye the tray and see that it’s stocked with my favorites, along with some fruity gummy candies for him. He has chocolate–peanut butter pretzels, cheddar–sour cream potato chips, Milk Duds, honey-roasted peanuts, and a bag of caramel popcorn.
“This is so fun!” I exclaim. “Where did you get the projector?”
“Linda had it in one of the storage closets. They pull it out to play movies in the mess hall when the weather’s too bad for the kids to be outside. But it only takes DVDs, and the selection was not the best.”
I hold out my hand. “Well, let’s see.”
He laughs. “Not yet. First, take off your shoes and climb up to your balcony seats. Get comfortable.”
I do as I’m told and relax into the blankets and pillows on the top bunk.
“Okay,” Gage announces. “Our movie choices are pretty much every Pixar movie made in the nineties, The Parent Trap, but it’s the original Hayley Mills version not the Lindsay Lohan one, and my personal favorite: Heavyweights.”
I wrinkle my nose, trying to remember if I’ve ever heard of Heavyweights. I come up blank.
“Okay, I’ll bite. What’s Heavyweights?”
Gage’s face splits into a grin. “Only a cinematic masterpiece of the mid-90s about boys at a weight-loss summer camp. Ben Stiller plays the super intense camp owner who kills the Blob! The Blob, Olivia!”
“I’ve never heard of it. Ben Stiller’s in it?” I purse my lips. “And weight-loss camp for kids? Really? What is wrong with people?”
Gage shrugs. “It was the nineties. Body positivity wasn’t really a thing. The culture was all about being super skinny and dieting.”
I cock my head and raise one eyebrow.
Gage holds up his hands. “Okay, I feel like I’m not selling this movie, but I promise it’s really funny. You have to look past some of the more problematic plot points.”
“Where did you hear about this movie again?”
He looks away. “I watched it at Maggie’s house. She loved it when she was a kid.”
Oh. No wonder he wants to watch it, especially here at the summer camp Maggie attended as a kid.
I consider for a minute, adjusting the pillow behind me. “Do they … do they make fun of the kids?” I ask warily. I can’t imagine Gage finding that sort of thing funny, but I have to check before I blindly agree to watch it.
“No,” Gage says quickly. “Well, the villains of the movie do, but it’s portrayed as mean, which it is, instead of funny or acceptable.”
I relent. “Okay, let’s watch Heavyweights.”
Gage pumps his fist. “Yes! You won’t regret it, trust me.”
And he’s right, the movie is great, with Ben Stiller playing a hilariously unhinged camp director and coach. The kids are cute, and the underlying message is one of self-acceptance and friendship.
As the credits roll, I snuggle deeper into Gage’s side. “It was good,” I admit.
“Told you so,” he murmurs, kissing my neck in that delectable way I love.
“But now”—I playfully wiggle away from him—“it’s obviously time for a Toy Story marathon.”
He grunts and pulls me back to his side with a wink. “Intermission first.”
We spend the rest of the day cuddling and kissing while kids’ movies play in the background. When we’re hungry, we snack on the treats from the tray, but by dinner time, it’s clear we both need to eat something more substantial.
So, we walk to the mess hall for sustenance, braving the suffocating air that lingers even though it’s well into evening time.
When we finish eating, Gage leans in close to me. “I have one more surprise for you today,” he whispers in my ear. “Meet me by the little dock at 8:30. Wear a swimsuit.”
“Why?” I turn and look up at him.
His eyes sparkle. “You’ll see.”