back to the hotel with you so I can shower first.”
“What about the store?” He’s talking to Anna, but he’s staring at me, red-faced and expressionless. I can practically see his blood boiling. He finally looks away and I take a deep breath. “I only need you for an hour,” he says to her. “I can’t close in the middle of the day.”
Then she and her dad exchange a meaningful look, and I have a feeling I’ve been a subject of a number of tense discussions in the Greene house over the last few weeks. After a few more uncomfortable seconds, he looks back at me, his arms still crossed, his forehead still tight. “She needs to be at the bookstore by three o’clock.”
“She will be,” I say.
He returns his attention to Anna, pointing at the flowers in her hand. “Do you want me to bring those back with me and get them in water?” His face relaxes and she gives him a grateful smile as she hands them to him.
When they head off to the tent for her interview, Brooke punches me hard in the arm.
“Ow.” I grimace. “What was that for?”
“Nothing. Just proving that I’m in good health.”
I laugh and rub my arm where she hit me. “Yeah, I’d probably better fill you in on that.”
Brooke and I wait out in the car in front of the hotel, and we finally see Anna walk through the double doors. She climbs into the open passenger seat. Her hair is still damp and she smells likes soap.
“All the places we could go in the world, and you want to drive three hours from Peoria to Evanston.”
“It’ll be fun.”
“Fun?”
“Yes, fun. In fact, Brooke and I have designed a trip that will have all three of us in completely new territory for the next three hours. We’re taking the scenic route.”
“There’s nothing scenic between here and Lake Michigan. Trust me.”
“Now, that’s not true. We’re going to pass eighteen lakes in the next hour.”
“Really?”
I nod proudly. “I bet you’ve never even been to Oglesby.” Anna raises her eyebrows at me. “No, right? How about Starved Rock State Park?” She’s trying not to smile. “Did you even know that rocks could be starved?” I shake my head like it’s an impossible idea.
“How do you even know about these places?”
I can’t tell her that I’ve spent the last week researching this trip online, so I joke instead. “
She just stares at me. “Maybe you should start driving,” she says, and I take off for Route 29.
Anna folds her leg underneath her and twists around to face Brooke in the backseat. “So…tell me everything about you,” she says. For the next hour, they talk nonstop, and I don’t even try to get a word in edgewise.
I spot a diner that overlooks Fox Lake, and the three of us get out and stretch our legs. Inside, the hostess seats us in a booth with a view of the water, and Anna and I take one side while Brooke settles in across from us.
“Coffee?” our waitress asks as she hands each of us our menus. After a round of “Yes, pleases” she returns with three steaming coffee mugs. Brooke and Anna reach for the milk at the same time and I laugh to myself.
We consult our menus and the waitress returns to take our orders.
“I’ll have the special, please,” Anna says. I quickly find it on the menu: eggs, hash browns, bacon, toast. “Eggs scrambled, please.”
“I’ll have the same,” I say.
Brooke lets out a heavy sigh when the waitress asks her what she’d like. “I’ll have the veggie omelet, but can you make it with egg whites only, please. And no bacon or sausage on the side. Just whole wheat toast. No butter, please.”
The waitress stares at her. “Egg whites only?” she asks tentatively, and Brooke nods. “No yolks?” She squints and cocks her head to one side.
“That’s right.”
The waitress shakes her head and writes it down. “I’ll see what the cook can do.” As she walks away, Brooke looks at me and throws her hands up. “It’s like she’s never heard of an egg white omelet.”
“You’re in nineteen ninety-five,” I remind her.
“You’re in the middle of Illinois,” Anna adds.
I put my arm around Anna’s shoulders and she kisses me on the cheek. Our eyes lock on each other’s for a moment, and I try to read her expression. “You okay?” I ask.
She thinks about it for a second. Then she nods. “Definitely.”
“Good.” I give her a small kiss.
“You guys are going to stop that when the food gets here, right?” Brooke says. I reach across the table for a packet of sugar and chuck it at her.
Brooke grabs it in midair and returns it to the container. “So juvenile,” she says, shaking her head. But then she lets out a laugh and presses her palms into the tabletop. “Okay, I can’t stand it anymore. I have news.”
Anna and I look at each other, and then at her.
“I met someone. His name is Logan and he’s from Australia. He has the most adorable accent.” She looks especially proud of that last part.
Anna looks at me sideways and leans forward on the table. “Where did you meet him?” she asks, and Brooke’s whole face brightens again. She bounces in her seat and leans forward, mirroring Anna’s pose. “We met at the Train concert.”
I clear my throat. “Watch yourself…” I say, and Brooke throws her hands in the air and says, “What? They’ve been around forever!”
My eyebrows shoot up. “Not as long as you might think.”
She sighs. “Got it.” She starts again, choosing her words more carefully. “We met at this concert at Red Rocks.” Brooke looks at me for confirmation and I give her an affirmative nod. “He’s there with a bunch of guys and I’m with my roommates, Shona and Caroline. Shona recognizes one of his friends from a class, and so the two of them start talking, and pretty soon we’re all hanging out together, waiting for the show to start. Then one of them asks if we want to sit with them.” She stops to take a breath and a sip of coffee.
“Logan sits next to me and we start chatting.” She beams. “He loves music too.” She leans over toward me. “I was dying to tell him that I’d been to Sydney to see a Maroon 5 concert in two thousand eight.”
“Again,” I remind her.
“Oh, right.” She leans closer to Anna and winks. “The lead singer is
I kick her under the table and she laughs.
“So we talk off and on throughout the show, and in the middle of the second set, he leans into me and asks—in this totally cute, kind of shy way—if I have a boyfriend. To which I, of course, say that I do not. And I can tell he wants to kiss me, right? But he doesn’t. We keep dancing and brushing up against each other and stuff, but he doesn’t make a move.”
The waitress arrives and slides our plates across the table. Brooke looks down at her omelet, which looks like a totally normal three-egg omelet, and then looks up at the waitress. “Thank you,” she says. She grabs her fork and starts picking all the vegetables out.
“At the end of the night we exchange numbers and say good-bye, and everyone starts walking their separate ways across the parking lot, but then I hear him call my name behind me.” She beams. “So I turn around and he’s standing there, and he asks if he can kiss me good night. Isn’t that sweet?”
She leans on the table and Anna does the same. “He’s an unbelievable kisser.” I steal a glimpse at Anna. She’s wearing a shy smile and the flush is already creeping up her chest again. She reaches for a strip of bacon and takes a bite.
“We went out the next night and get this…he lives a block away from me. Can you believe that? We’ve been inseparable ever since. We ride our bikes to campus together and meet for lunch and we’re ridiculously cute.” Brooke stops for a breath and takes a bite of her toast. Then she lets out a sigh. “I miss him already.”
