Tandem

going to be so annoyed if I was late, and the last thing I wanted after this strange but happy afternoon was to be lectured on the merits of punctuality.

“Okay,” he said, handing me my bag. He started toward me as if he meant to hug me or something, then backed off just as quickly. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” I said. “See you.”

I turned and walked toward the house, pausing at the top of the porch steps to look back at him. He was still standing there, hands in his pockets, the wind ruffling his hair. He waved at me, and I waved back before disappearing over the threshold into the dark foyer beyond. 

TWO

When it came to prom, one week was not an ideal amount of notice. First, there was the immediate obstacle of securing my grandfather’s permission. I’d never attended a school dance before, or even been on a date, so it was hard to predict how he’d react.

Granddad was at the kitchen table when I came down the next morning, hard at work on the daily crossword, a pair of rimless bifocals perched on the tip of his nose. Instead of greeting me like a normal person, he called out, “Eleven-letter word for ‘button seller.’ ”

“Hmmm. Try ‘haberdasher,’ ” I suggested, pouring myself a bowl of sugary cereal. I wasn’t a crossword whiz or anything, but I’d encountered the word recently in a book and had to look it up. This was a thing of Granddad’s. He liked to challenge me.

“Excellent,” he said, pleased.

“That’s a bit easy, don’t you think?” I teased, taking the seat across from him at the table.

“Well, it is only Tuesday,” Granddad muttered. He looked up, finally, and regarded me with mild suspicion. “It’s seven o’clock and you’re awake. Why do you look so cheerful?”

“Can’t I just be in a good mood?” The rosy haze of yesterday afternoon hadn’t yet completely faded. For once, I’d had a peaceful night’s sleep and woken up feeling happy and well rested. Of course I was in a good mood.

“I suppose.” Granddad penciled “haberdasher” into the crossword, then opened the paper, shook it, and turned to the front page. “Have you started your college applications?”

I groaned. “Granddad, please. It’s May. Applications aren’t due until the fall.”

“You still haven’t told me where you’re applying,” he pressed.

“That’s because I haven’t decided.” I hadn’t told Granddad— it would’ve freaked him out—but I was really struggling with the idea of picking a school, and consequently a future. I had no idea what I wanted to study, and even though I knew Granddad had his heart set on me attending an Ivy League school—or, even better, the University of Chicago, where I could get a reduced tuition and live at home—I couldn’t quite imagine myself at any of those places. There was only one thing I knew for certain: I had to get out of Hyde Park. I loved Chicago, and the little neighborhood where I’d grown up, but I was starting to feel restless. Granddad was content with his compact, uneventful life, but I ached for adventure, and I wasn’t going to find it if I was just following Granddad’s plan for me. It was going to be hard to break that to him, which was why I hadn’t done it yet.

There was something else I needed to talk to him about. Something I hadn’t brought up at dinner the night before, because I’d been too busy trying to decide whether it had actually happened. “Hey, Granddad?”

“Hm?” he mumbled without looking up from his paper.

“Grant Davis asked me to prom,” I said. Not that I thought he’d know who Grant was—Granddad wasn’t great with names or faces, and my best friend, Gina, was probably the only one of my classmates he actually knew.

Nevertheless, the mention of a potential date got his attention. “Who?”

“Grant Davis,” I repeated. “He’s … this guy. From my school.”

“And he asked you to prom?”

“Try not to sound so shocked,” I grumbled. Sometimes I wondered if Granddad assumed I was just as much of a loner as he preferred to be. “It’s not completely absurd that someone might ask me to prom.”

“I didn’t say it was absurd.” Granddad set to work quartering a hard-boiled egg, sprinkling it with salt.

I smacked his hand lightly. “You know Dr. Reingold said to cut it out with the sodium.”

“Don’t lecture me, Alexandra, that’s my job.” Granddad always called me by my given name when I annoyed him, which meant I heard it a lot. I’d gone by Sasha for so long, I would’ve been surprised to find out that anyone except Granddad knew my full name. “And don’t change the subject. This boy. What’s his story? Are his parents professors?”

“His mom teaches at the law school,” I said. Granddad shrugged; he wasn’t interested in anyone who wasn’t a scientist. “His dad lives out in California.”

“And is he a nice boy?” He couldn’t quite meet my eyes. The conversation clearly embarrassed him. Granddad had a history of discomfort when it came to the girl stuff in my life, and I couldn’t blame him, but these moments always reminded me just how keenly I missed and needed my mother.

I had to wonder how my father would’ve reacted to me dating. Like a dad, probably. Cautious and overprotective, like Gina’s dad had behaved when she got together with her boyfriend, Jeff. But I couldn’t really know. My parents had been dead for almost a decade; I’d been seven at the time, so while I had memories of them, they were blurry and fragmented. It was hard to recall what they were like. Granddad was no help, because he almost never wanted to talk about them. Before the accident, his relationship with my parents had been distant; when I came to him, we were practically strangers. I’d never found the courage to ask him why that was, but over the years I’d pieced together what was probably obvious all along—he didn’t like my father. I kind of didn’t want to know why. I loved Granddad and my parents, and if there was something dark in their shared past that would change my opinion of any of them, I was happier not knowing the particulars. But still, the question lurked in the back of my brain. What about my dad had caused them to be estranged for so long? I couldn’t even venture a guess.

“Yes, Granddad,” I assured him. “He’s nice.”

“How well do you know him?”

“We’ve gone to school together for, like, ever.” It was best not to tell him that I didn’t actually know Grant that well; it would only feed Granddad’s suspicions, and lower my chances of being allowed to go to prom.

“Don’t say ‘like,’ ” he grumbled. “It makes you sound silly.” I rolled my eyes. “Well, all right. But I want to meet him before you go out. Do you need money for a dress?”

I braced myself. Prom dresses were expensive, and there wasn’t enough time to buy one online, so I’d have to troll the department stores for something off the rack—and on sale. At least I had Gina to help me in the search. She was aces at sniffing out good deals, and her taste was excellent, certainly better than mine. “Yeah, kind of.”

“How much?”

“A hundred, maybe?” I winced. I hated asking Granddad for money, but I didn’t have a lot of savings, and I’d had no reason to budget for a prom dress.

He plucked five twenty-dollar bills from his wallet, handing them over solemnly. “This is a reward for being so good and working so hard. You’re not entitled to this. You earned it.”

I took the cash and gave him my brightest smile. “Thanks, Granddad. You’re the best.” 

THREE

The days leading up to prom passed in the blink of an eye. Gina and I gave ourselves blisters walking up and down Michigan Avenue before finding the perfect thing for me to wear, a short, strapless navy dress with a sweetheart neckline and a sparkly tulle overlay that was on clearance for $99.99. The dress wasn’t exactly my style—I was definitely more of a T-shirt and jeans kind of girl—but when I looked in the mirror, I had to admit, I