Chapter 16 #2
“Yeah, I was chatting with him last night. I had a question about our math homework, and he’s so good at that stuff. He sounds like he’s looking forward to it. I think the two of you could be such a great match!” She wasn’t sure why Kenzie was pushing this so much.
“Luke seems great. I don’t know him all that well though. This will give us a chance to learn more about each other.” Although they were going to a movie, so Lily wasn’t sure how much time they’d actually have to talk. But she was going to go and have a good time and see how it went.
“Oh, he’s such a great guy. I’ve known him forever—like since I was eight or so.”
“If you think he’s so great, why haven’t you dated him?” Lily was curious to know, as it had initially seemed to her that Luke was interested in Kenzie.
But Kenzie laughed at the idea. “Well, it’s Luke. He’s like a brother, I’ve known him for so long. There’s no mystery there, you know?”
“I suppose.” Lily wondered, though, if that was so important. Maybe knowing someone and liking them was more important than mystery. But Kenzie seemed to have a lot more experience at dating than Lily did.
“Call me when you get home. I want to know everything!”
Lily smiled. “I will.” She looked forward to debriefing with Kenzie later.
At the end of music class, Teddy glanced her way before getting up to leave. “Do you want to come by for a while? I think I’ve figured out a new beat for the transition that we’ve been working on.”
Lily hesitated. “I’d better not today. I have a ton of homework I need to get done before I go out later.”
Teddy looked curious. “What’s going on later? Do you have a hot date?” he teased.
Lily felt her face flush. Why was she uncomfortable talking about Luke with Teddy? It wasn’t like there was any hint of romance between them. “I’m going to the movies with Luke.”
Surprise and something else flashed across Teddy’s face. “Oh, that’s right,” he said flatly. “You said he asked you out at the dance.”
“I’d sort of forgotten about it too. He didn’t mention anything until end of day yesterday and suggested this weekend, but my dad and the girlfriend are coming.” She shuddered at the thought. She was dreading their visit.
“Have you met her yet?” he asked gently.
Lily shook her head. “No. He tried to get me to meet her in Manhattan, but I wanted no part of it. I still don’t really want to, but my mother actually suggested that I offer to meet her if I can spend the next day alone with my dad. The thought of seeing them both all weekend is awful.”
“That seems like a good compromise. She’s probably nervous about meeting you too.”
Lily knew Teddy was probably right. “She broke up my parents’ marriage. I don’t really care if she’s nervous.”
“True. But it takes two. If it wasn’t her, maybe it would have been someone else. Seems like it’s on your dad just as much, if not more.”
“I’m sure you’re right. How did you get so smart about these things? Did your parents ever have issues?”
He laughed. “No, I live in a Hallmark-happy house. But I’ve watched my share of TV dramas, so I’ve learned a thing or two.”
They both laughed at that. Lily felt a bit lighter about meeting her father’s girlfriend now. Even though she was still mad at him, it would be good to see him. She missed him.
“Maybe come over Monday after school? I’ll be curious to hear how the weekend with your dad went.” He didn’t mention the date with Luke.
“Definitely,” Lily said.
Lily texted Luke her address, and he arrived at six thirty sharp. He knocked on the front door and seemed a bit nervous as she welcomed him in to meet her mother and grandmother. She made introductions and was grateful that no one asked Luke a ton of questions.
“Have fun, honey,” Claire said as they turned to leave.
Marsha waved goodbye and had a look in her eye that made Lily think that as soon as they were out the door, they’d be asking each other a million questions—and they didn’t know the answers.
Lily had actually said very little about Luke other than that he was one of the guys she ate lunch with, was kind of cute, and wanted to go see a movie.
Lily wasn’t sure how she felt about it all either.
Especially as she hadn’t been crushing on Luke, so the invite had taken her by surprise both at the dance and then a few days later.
“Nice Jeep,” Lily said as she climbed into the passenger side of the blue-gray Jeep. The vehicles were very popular on Nantucket. “Is it yours?”
Luke laughed. “I wish. It’s my dad’s. But he has two cars. The other one is a BMW, which is the one he mostly drives. So I get to use this one pretty much whenever I want.”
“That’s cool. What does your dad do?”
“He’s an attorney. Has an office downtown. My mom works there part-time as his bookkeeper.”
“Do you have any brothers or sisters?” Lily was curious to know more about him.
He shook his head. “Nope, it’s just me. My mother wanted more kids, but it didn’t work out for them. I have two cousins close to my age though, so they are almost like brothers. What about you?”
“It’s just me too. For a while, my mother didn’t think they could have any more either, and then she suddenly got pregnant—and my dad cheated, and his girlfriend is also pregnant, so I have two siblings on the way. I don’t expect we’ll hang out much though—unless I’m babysitting.”
“That must be kind of weird. Especially with your dad having a girlfriend.”
“Especially when she’s so much younger than he is.” She told him how Rebecca was the receptionist at his firm.
Luke just shook his head. “That’s rough. I’m sorry.”
“Thanks. It’s okay. It’s hard on my mom, but she actually seems happier now than I’ve seen her in a long time. She’s excited about her new store. I think my dad was just having an early midlife crisis or something. Well, actually that’s what I overheard my grandmother tell her friend Carol.”
They parked on Water Street and walked the short distance to the Dreamland.
Lily loved the old theater, which was originally built in the early 1800s as a Quaker meetinghouse.
It was rebuilt and moved several times, once even across the harbor from its current location, and reopened in the early 1900s as Smith and Blanchard’s Moving Picture Show.
It was renamed the Dreamland Theatre in 1911 and, back in those days, showed both films and burlesque entertainment.
Then in the early 1920s, it was renovated again and focused on movies ever since.
Luke bought two tickets to an action-suspense movie that Lily had been eager to see.
She insisted on paying for the popcorn, and they settled in to watch the movie.
It was entertaining, as expected, and fast-paced.
Luke laughed when Lily jumped in her seat more than once at a particularly suspenseful moment.
When it was over, they both agreed it was better than expected.
“Do you feel like getting some ice cream? We could walk down to the Juice Bar?” Luke suggested.
The Juice Bar served smoothies and ice cream and was down by the wharf, just a few minutes away. That sounded good to Lily. “Sure, I’d love that.”
It was almost nine, but there were still plenty of people out and about.
They walked down Water Street, took a left on Main Street, and made their way to the wharf.
The Juice Bar was a small place on Broad Street.
Even at this hour, there was a line, but it moved quickly.
They both got waffle cones, Luke’s with vanilla ice cream, and Lily ordered cookies and cream. Luke insisted on paying.
“Thank you,” Lily said.
They ate their ice cream on a wooden bench that faced the ocean, though it was dark, and there wasn’t much to see other than the light from an occasional boat heading home for the night. It was a perfect night, clear and calm, no wind at all. Lily’s light sweater was plenty warm enough.
They talked as they ate, and Lily learned that Luke’s favorite class was math and he hoped to go to a good technical school like Wentworth in Boston or MIT in Cambridge, though he knew as one of the top schools that it was a long shot.
“I think I want to be a software engineer and build cool apps. What do you want to do?”
“I’m not entirely sure. I’d love to do something with writing or music, but I know both of those careers aren’t known for paying well, unless you hit it big, which you can’t count on.
I need a good backup plan, something that will pay the bills well while I do the writing as a hobby.
I’m not really sure what that will look like though. ”
“It would be really cool if you could write as a career. Maybe look into something that uses those skills. Marketing or advertising? Or anything else that interests you.”
“Yeah, my mother says I have time to figure that out. She said a lot of her friends ended up doing something entirely different from what they majored in.”
Luke nodded. “Do you have any idea where you want to go to college?”
“Not really. I’m kind of all over the place. Part of me thinks it would be great to go to a small school in the Boston area or a big school like NYU or Columbia in New York. I also thought it could be fun to go somewhere far away that I’ve never been, like California.”
“I don’t know that I’d want to go that far. I’d at least visit first, and I’d have to really love it to do that. If I’m in Boston, I can always zip home for a long weekend.”
“True. That would be hard from California. Plus, what if I got there and hated it?”
“Kenzie said she wants to stay local, maybe Emerson or BC if she can get in.”
Lily and Kenzie hadn’t discussed college plans yet. “She mentioned that you guys have known each other forever.”
He nodded. “Yeah, since second grade when her family moved here.”
“I told her I was surprised you never dated,” Lily said.