Chapter Four Caroline #5
It was gallant, but Caroline was not being introduced to a potential future relative like that.
She borrowed Van’s keys and drove to the coffee shop in town.
In exchange for their facilities, Caroline bought fancy coffees for everyone in the house, teetering back to Van’s Subaru with two cardboard trays balanced in her hands.
The Subaru was a little harder to drive than Caroline’s own car, and she gripped the steering wheel as though traversing flooded streets or heavy rain.
She made it back to the house fine, but when she went to park along the edge of the driveway, she saw that someone had left the trunk of an SUV open and a kayak was sticking out the back.
She nosed the car carefully behind it, but quickly realized the rear of her car was sticking out too far to let anyone pass.
She reversed into the road and tried again, pulling up next to the SUV and attempting to parallel park.
As she crept carefully backward, she heard Lady barking, running out the front door.
Caroline meant to stomp the brake, but instead hit the gas and launched the car back with a terrible thump and a squeak.
Had she killed Lady? Her heart was in her throat.
But then she saw Lady zipping out into the lawn, barking her head off. Thank God. She had struck a tree.
The whole thing was deeply humiliating. The entire group came out to see what Caroline had done, Van climbing in the driver’s seat to move the car forward off the tree, Eben inspecting the ugly scratch on the car, and Van’s grandmother—having materialized to bring them fresh towels—running her hand along the trunk of the tree, shaking her head with visible distress.
The tree was, apparently, fifty years old, and even though it looked no different or more special than any of the other dozen trees along the driveway, a treasured part of the property.
It wouldn’t die, but it was, as Van’s grandmother kept repeating, “permanently disfigured.”
After an appropriate mourning time, Eben convinced everyone to go on a sail.
The boat couldn’t fit nine, so Caroline and Van volunteered to stay back.
Van wanted to make a chicken-wire compost bin for the garden and Caroline agreed to help.
After the disastrous morning it felt like a kind of penance, like the time her mother had caught her smoking and had her spend an entire morning picking litter in the park.
“I’m so sorry about your car,” Caroline apologized again as they worked.
Van had given Caroline thick gloves to hold the mesh in place while he used his fingers to carefully tie the wire to wooden posts.
It was hot and she wanted to pull her hair into a ponytail but couldn’t with the gloves.
“You take such good care of it and then I go and crash into a tree.”
“It’s a dent. They can hammer it out in an hour.” Van shrugged like it was really no big deal and somehow his kindness made her feel even worse.
“I bet Bailey never dented your car,” she said quietly.
“What does Bailey have to do with this?”
“I don’t know.” Tears sprang unexpectedly to her eyes. “I’m sure it’s in my head, but I just feel like everyone has been comparing us all weekend. Talking about her pregnancy and who the dog likes better.”
“Hey.” Van stopped working and put his arms around her. Caroline flapped her big gloved hands against her sides helplessly. “Nobody cares who Lady likes better. What matters is who I like.”
“I know.” Caroline felt like an idiot. “It’s just that I am bad at paddleboarding. At all sports, really. And your grandmother hates me. And Bailey’s so beautiful. And you have so much shared history. She knows things about you that I don’t. It’s weird.”
“Caroline.” He ducked his head and looked Caroline in the eyes.
“Bailey is great, I’m so glad she’s my friend, but it’s not romantic between us.
Honestly, she’s really funny, but half the time we’re together we’re just bullshitting, having these nonsense conversations about, like, who from high school is getting divorced, or the difference between Delta-8 gummies and Delta-9. It’s not a deep connection.”
“Okay.” Caroline pushed her hair up off her sweaty neck. “Remember, I don’t want to be in the middle.”
“There is no middle. It’s you and me.” Van looked at her seriously and Caroline leaned in to kiss him.
She believed him. On some level Caroline could tell that Van and Bailey were different creatures.
Bailey was a leopard, beautiful and cunning and glamorous, while Van was a Border collie, the smartest, most loyal dog, the kind who was happiest when he got a lot of exercise and was assigned tasks.
“But what is the difference between Delta-8 and Delta-9?” Caroline joked.
“I’m glad you asked.” Van grinned. “So, it’s mainly about where they bind on the carbon atom chain…”
Did you survive the ritual new-girlfriend hazing by his friends? asked Nina
Yeah, it was chill
Did they make you do fraternity stuff like chug a beer and wear a blindfold?
They kept calling me “the pledge” which was weird?
Lol
But seriously, I know it’s such a rough situation, but I really don’t think I have to worry about Bailey. I just don’t see her and Van getting back together.
Three little dots appeared and disappeared as Nina started and stopped typing her reply. Caroline waited, but after a few minutes Nina stopped writing, the dots vanished entirely, and Caroline knew Nina didn’t believe her.