Chapter Twenty-Six
“The only time I worry about not knowing how to swim is when I think about how my options of escape would be limited during an alien invasion or something like that,” Tati said, “Otherwise, I don’t think about it that much.”
Noelle laughed, while Tati smiled, lifting her shoulders in a shrug. They were sitting side by side on the back of Jeremiah’s boat. Their feet dangled in the water. Unlike last weekend when Noelle and Jeremiah got caught in the storm, this weekend they’d been blessed with beautiful weather.
Amara was sitting on Noelle’s other side, and she leaned forward to grin at Tati. “Do you believe in aliens?”
“I definitely believe that we aren’t the only ones in the galaxy,” Tati answered. “I mean, how can that be true? The galaxy is so big.”
“She makes good points,” André said. He was lounging on one of the seats of the interior of the boat deck. He sipped his beer and nodded his head at Tati. “Babe, tell them about what you saw behind the Shop Mart on Route 21.”
Tati glanced back at André and narrowed her eyes, but she was fighting a smirk, aware that he was poking fun at her. “I thought I saw a small spaceship, but it was actually an abandoned ice cream truck.”
“Wait, I remember this story,” Noelle said. “Didn’t you take an edible a few hours before that happened?”
“Yeah, but that’s not the point,” Tati said. “Anyone could have been confused like me.”
“I’ve seen some crazy shit after taking an edible,” Danny said over his shoulder. “Happens to the best of us.”
Danny was hovering over the left side of the boat with his fishing rod poised in his hands.
Beside him, Jeremiah did the same, but instead of participating in their conversation like Danny, Jeremiah kept his eyes trained on the water.
Noelle wouldn’t have guessed that he’d take fishing so seriously.
He said that his grandfather used to take him fishing often.
André had originally planned to fish too.
He’d even bought new fishing gear for the occasion.
But after two hours without any catches among the three of them, André had since given up.
“I can doggy paddle,” Tati said. “So, I guess if aliens invaded, I’d be able to move through bodies of water to get to safety.” She smiled cheekily. “Or I could steal Jeremiah’s boat.”
Jeremiah snorted and finally turned to face the rest of the group. “If aliens are invading, you’re gonna need a lot more than this boat to get you to safety.”
“Don’t worry, babe,” André said to Tati. “I’ll get my pilot’s license.”
Tati batted her eyelashes dreamily and clasped her hands to her chest. “My hero.”
Everyone laughed, and Noelle felt a deep contentment in her bones as she watched her world collide with Jeremiah’s.
A few days ago, she’d mentioned to him that she felt bad that she hadn’t spent much time with Tati this summer, so he’d told her to invite Tati and André down to Heart Beach.
Tati and André had jumped at the chance and had arrived earlier that morning.
Jeremiah had offered them one of the guest rooms to stay overnight, but they were staying only for the day since they’d promised to take André’s mom out for brunch tomorrow morning.
Either way, Noelle was glad that Jeremiah had the chance to spend time with her friends.
She wanted Tati and André to see the wonderful things about Jeremiah that she saw.
After she spent the night at his apartment last Sunday, Noelle had stayed with him most of Monday too.
While he’d worked, she’d applied to jobs.
She found a few administrative assistant positions that didn’t require a bachelor’s degree.
Already this upcoming week, she had an interview at a real estate company in Hoboken that was looking for someone to work the front desk.
She’d also visited Riley University’s bursar’s office and paid her tuition for the upcoming year.
The office assistant had smiled warmly and handed Noelle a welcome packet.
Noelle had held the packet close to her chest as she’d walked to her car.
She was this much closer to achieving her dream.
Her last pre-semester task was to schedule a meeting with her academic advisor, Professor Mathis, who’d requested that her final-year advisees choose a time to meet with her during the first week of classes.
Her reasoning was that advisees who met with her and discussed goals at the beginning of the school year tended to have more successful semesters.
The tricky part was that Professor Mathis had limited time slots during the first week of classes, so meetings were available only on a first-come, first-served basis, and anyone who missed out on the first week would have to wait until Professor Mathis became available for advisee meetings midway through the semester.
The other tricky part was that Professor Mathis said she’d email out the scheduling link on Saturday at six p.m. Noelle needed all the help for success that she could get.
She had to make sure she secured a meeting.
Throughout the week, she and Jeremiah saw each other as much as they could.
She spent every night at his apartment, and every night was date night.
On Monday, they went indoor go-kart racing.
On Tuesday, they took some of the teens whom Jeremiah volunteered with to the movies to see the newest blockbuster superhero film.
Later they went for pizza, and as it turned out, the three rising seniors, Jay, Amir, and Lamont, were avid readers, and they spent most of dinner talking with Noelle about their favorite graphic novels.
Jeremiah couldn’t seem to get a word in edgewise, but he was smiling through the whole meal, so Noelle didn’t think he minded very much.
On Wednesday night, she and Jeremiah tried out a new soul food restaurant in Bayonne.
On Thursday night, they went to a ’90s R & B–themed party in Brooklyn.
Each night ended with them wrapped in each other’s arms.
She was fully aware that they were conducting a desperate attempt to spend as much time together as they could before he moved.
She felt a sharp tug in her stomach every time she thought about it, although she’d gone into this with her eyes wide open.
They hadn’t really talked about what would happen between them once they were on opposite sides of the country.
Would they keep in touch? Would he visit her whenever he flew back?
Did she want him to? Would he start seeing other people and fall in love with a West Coast girl?
It didn’t seem fair to ask him that question when they’d be separated by thousands of miles, and she’d be so focused on school.
But the thought of Jeremiah making someone else laugh or them being on the receiving end of his smiles set fire to her veins.
She glanced at him now, and he caught eyes with her and winked.
He seemed so much more relaxed now than when they’d first come to Heart Beach weeks ago.
Lately whenever one of his family members brought up a story about his grandfather, he didn’t tense up like he had before.
Instead, he joined in on the conversations, sharing more memories about his grandfather with Noelle.
And there was considerably less tension between him and Percy.
This morning, she’d even seen them on the back porch drinking coffee together.
They hadn’t been talking, but they hadn’t been arguing either, and that seemed like progress.
“Oh shit,” Danny said, suddenly jumping to attention. Something had caught on his line.
Everyone gathered around him. Whatever he’d caught was putting up a fight as he tried to reel it in. Jeremiah leaned over the edge of the boat and peered at the water.
“Damn, it looks big as hell,” he said. “It might be a black sea bass.”
With keen concentration, Danny continued to reel in the fish. But when he lifted the line from the water, there was no black sea bass, or a fish of any kind, attached to the hook. Instead, they stared at the tangled mass of an old black fishing net. Danny’s shoulders drooped on a deep sigh.
“So,” Jeremiah said. “I was wrong.”
Danny laughed and shook his head. Amara came closer and helped Danny detangle the net from his hook.
“Maybe you’ll catch one next time,” she said.
Danny’s disappointed expression gave way to a soft smile. “Yeah, maybe.”
A flush spread across Amara’s cheeks, and Noelle glanced quickly at Jeremiah to see if he’d noticed this small interaction, but he was busy putting away his fishing gear. Then he turned around and clapped his hands together.
“Well, we obviously won’t be eating any fish today,” he said. “Who wants pizza?”
They ate pizza on the boardwalk, and afterward, they took their time walking back to the house.
Jeremiah, Danny, and André walked ahead, while Noelle walked with Tati.
Amara stayed behind on the boardwalk to hunt down some saltwater taffy, but Noelle suspected she’d used that as an excuse to avoid Danny.
“Okay, so what’s up?” Tati asked, lowering her voice. She looked at Noelle expectantly.
“What do you mean?”
“You know.” Tati nodded her head toward Jeremiah. “What are you going to do when he moves?”
Noelle blinked and looked away. “I’m going to focus on school and hopefully I’ll have a new job to focus on too.”
“You’ll obviously find a new job, girl,” Tati said. “You always do. And I have no doubt that you’ll be the best student to ever grace Riley University’s campus. But what about your heart? This is the first time that I’ve seen you genuinely like someone in years.”
“I…” Noelle looked at Jeremiah, watching as he smiled and nodded, listening to something that André was saying. She emitted a shaky sigh. “I think I’ve set myself up for heartbreak.”
Tati hummed sympathetically. “That doesn’t have to be the case if you don’t want it to be.”