Chip
“Isn’t that for customers only?” he says, finding Paige lying on the hammock, looking up at the sky.
She jolts up and then sees the grin on his face and looks relieved. He puts out his hand. “I’m kidding.” He’s never seen her relax once, and now her shoes are kicked off, her hands behind her head.
He thinks of Vicky, wonders what she’s doing. He is thinking he should cut things off with Nancy tonight. Best to not be messy. Paige sits up and is about to stand. “No, no,” he says, “Please stay. My gramps says the world looks better from a hammock.”
She flashes a small smile. “If only.”
He puts down the scavenger hunt signs he was collecting and the rash on his side hurts like hell today. The aches and pains are getting worse, and even Hawk’s steady supply of dope isn’t making them go away. “What’s wrong?” He rolls up his shirtsleeves. “I mean, if you don’t mind me asking.”
Paige sits on the hammock now like a swing, her feet dangling, and rocks back and forth. “Boy troubles.”
He leans against the big tree. “As a boy myself, I might be able to help.”
She laughs, then puts her face in her hands.
“All of a sudden, he’s being distant. We’ve been together since New Year’s Eve, and I thought this might be real.
We just moved in together, but now he goes to bed before I do, wakes up before I’m up.
He looks at me like he can’t stand me, and the only thing we still do together is go to his parents’ house for dinner.
He never seems to feel like it when I want to go out somewhere, so I end up going with a friend.
” She shakes her head. “I don’t know what happened. ”
Chip looks at her. He has a pretty good idea, but he doesn’t want to hurt her feelings. “I’m sorry, Paige,” he says. “I think you need to ask if he still wants to be in this relationship. But only ask when you’re ready to hear either answer.”
She looks helpless, but then she takes a breath as if steadying herself, like she’s just about to give an important speech. She plops back in the hammock and groans. “That’s smart advice. I guess it’ll be better to know sooner rather than later.” She looks up at him. “Thank you.”
“I’m just happy for the distraction.” He pulls a piece of bark from the tree and thinks about a tree’s rings and how you can count their age. Even this depresses him. “I have some girl troubles.”
Paige pats the hammock spot beside her. “You better take your grandfather’s advice then.”
He sits beside her and keeps his feet on the ground. “Things are complicated.”
“Nancy,” she says.
He nods. “And someone back home.”
She looks at him. “Well, it makes sense, Chip Bishop, that your problem is too many, and not too few.” She smiles at him and looks sad. “I wish someone had warned me that feelings can change so quickly.”
He stares at her face for a second, then up through the branches. He wonders how long these trees will stay in this exact spot. “Trust me,” he says. “Better not to know ahead of time.”