“No one sits on tombstones,” Jordi tells her. “You’ll have to walk by some, though.”
“I’ll protect you from ghosts,” Trevor promises her.
“Don’t even say that,” she says.
“Where’s your other friend?” Jax asks, looking between Maliah, Zoe, and me. “Aren’t there four?”
“She’s on family vacation,” I tell him as I notice that Henry and Evelyn are murmuring with Jordi, as well as paying a tremendous amount of attention to her bag. Jordi’s smiling in a way I can see is confidential to them, and I try to comprehend that this is about me. When Jordi and I are together, it sorts out in my head. This other part, though, is still unfamiliar.
And I like it so much.
The gates finally open, and we hurry to find a spot on the lawn. We’ve done a good job at assembling a balanced course of snacks and beverages. We have beers and sodas, Mom’s fruit salads, Red Vines, a cheese plate (apparently Jax can be fancy), three kinds of chips, more cookies—though of the non-pastel variety—and Maliah actually brought a sandwich platter from Mendocino Farms.
“How much would that make your mom cry?” Jordi asks, nodding at the sandwich selection.
“Probably a lot. Basically everything here but the fruit would make her cry.”
“What does your mom think about your little burgers project?” Maliah asks.
“I think she’s still holding out hope that, over burgers, I’ll fall in love with Jax,” I say. “So she can overlook some buns.”
“Some buns?” Jax asks.
“Hamburger buns,” I say, which makes everyone laugh. The art kids and the lacrosse dudes and my friends. We don’t actually feel like three separate teams here.
“I’d be so sad if you fell in love with Jax,” Maliah says.
“Probably not as sad as me,” Jordi says, and Maliah grins at her. If the two of them become friends, I feel as though my whole life would get easier. I’d at least be less tense when they’re in the same proximity.
The movie starts at about the same time we’ve all had our fill of snacks, and it’s an old classic in black and white that I worry everyone else will get bored of. But the team holds together, even though once we hit the second hour of sitting on the ground it’s not the most comfortable film ever watched. Jordi and I trade off leaning against each other, and she even takes off her jacket and covers our bare legs with it once the sun is down and the night air is cool.
After the movie’s over, we stretch and gather up our things, and people start making plans for what’s after this. I love this group, but honestly all I want to do is be somewhere warm and comfortable and alone with Jordi.
That said, there’s a good chance we’ll go see some bands play at Pehrspace, and that’s okay, too.
“Man.” Jax nods his head at the group clearing out behind us. “Those women all look like my mom and they killed some wine.”
“Moms can drink,” Trevor says, which makes all of us laugh, except that my eyes catch on something familiar, and I drop Jordi’s hand.
“What?” she asks, but then she sees too and steps away from me.
And then we’re clearly making eye contact with Maggie.
“Shit,” Jordi says.
“Let’s go,” I say.
“What happened?” Maliah asks, and her eyes aren’t suspicious but kind. I don’t have time to rejoice over how much better things are, though, because I feel careless and unprofessional. Up until this moment, I thought the worst outcome at Lemonberry would be that Jordi gets the job instead of me, or even that I do and it makes us awkward.
But obviously the actual worst scenario is that neither of us do.
We sit on my tiny front porch once Jax drops us off, sipping leftover sodas.
“Is it bad?” I ask. “Really? We didn’t get an employee manual or something that said no dating.”
“I don’t know,” Jordi says with a sigh. “I’ve just been trying to follow every possible rule I can this summer. My dad told me that lots of businesses have policies about employee ‘fraternizing’—” she uses airquotes— “and to be careful.”
“Ugh, I thought your dad was cool. That sounds like something my dad would say.”
She grins. “Sorry to burst your bubble. Miguel Perez is not cool. Anyway, we can tell Maggie we’re just friends, but she probably saw me smelling your hair.”
“You were smelling my hair?” I pretend to squirm away from her. “You’re so weird.”
“If we get fired,” Jordi says, and her voice is shaky, “I don’t regret you.”
“I don’t regret you either,” I say very quickly.
I try to continue being serious but instead we kiss until one of my parents flicks the porchlight on and off and we have to say goodnight.
CHAPTER 20
On Monday, Jordi and I walk to work as separately as two people who live within blocks of each other can manage. Laine lets us inside, and we stay very quiet as we begin getting settled for the morning. It’s always easy to find work to do on Mondays, and hopefully if I’m in the midst of steaming a bunch of dresses, Maggie won’t find me particularly suspicious or unprofessional.
“Hi, Abby.”
I spin around to see Maggie behind me and hear a bunch of water splosh on the floor near but thankfully not on my feet. “Hi. Sorry. About the water. Hi.”
Jordi’s standing just a bit behind her, and she looks too nervous to be amused by any of this.
“Come on back to my office, girls,” she says with a wave. It doesn’t feel serious, except that I know it is. I know there probably was some mention of an employee manual or set of rules that I daydreamed my way through or forgot about as they wouldn’t have applied to me. At the beginning of the summer, I never would have imagined
