“Because I imitated a chicken? No, because you were desperate. That was what you told me.”
“No, just because I liked you,” I said. “I did, and I would have even if I weren’t desperate, pathetic, abnormal, and sad.”
“Do you still feel that way?” He stopped, waving a crew of men to cross with their boat in front of us, and looked at me.
I thought. “No. I feel pretty good.”
He put out his hand, palm up to show the calluses he’d earned on his oar. I put mine on top of it.
Due to Ava’s incredibly slow driving, we reached the restaurant first. “Everly is writing that they’re on the way, but that Mommy is taking her time and doesn’t believe in speeding like she’s in the Detroit Grand Prix,” Levi said, reading from his phone.
“It’s because of her shoulder,” I said. “It hurts when she drives.”
“Damn, is that still bothering her? I thought the surgery was supposed to fix it.” He frowned. “She didn’t tell me and she was carrying all those chairs for you guys?”
“Everly and I carried them. I think she’s going to be very strong, like her mom. And you,” I added as I thought of him racing down the river.
“You know, I’m pretty bad at it. Most of the guys in my boat have rowed for years, some of them at big college programs.”
“You looked very good to me,” I answered, and at that point, Ava finally showed up. She and her brother got into a minor argument about why she hadn’t said anything about her shoulder still hurting, and it came out that he’d been the one that provided most of her care after the surgery.
“Not that she would let me do much, but at least I was on-site, in her basement,” he explained to me.
“Speaking of your living arrangements,” his sister began, and something in her tone made me look up from the picture that Everly and I were drawing together. She’d asked for a vampire fox, which strained my artistic abilities and was made more difficult by the lack of sharpness of our crayons.
Levi also picked up on something in those words. “Aves, what did you do?” he asked her.
“A little while ago, I put in an application for an apartment for you,” she said. “I knew you were looking and this place is reasonable, although…it’s ugly.” She looked apologetically at me but I didn’t understand why.
He did. “You’re talking about Emerson’s building?”
Now she looked slightly smug. “Yes, and you were approved! So if you want it, it’s yours.”
“Hernán’s old place? Is that what she means? Across the hall from me?” I asked in rapid succession, but the two of them were arguing vociferously. It went on for a while and Everly and I looked back and forth, watching.
“Ava, I’m not one of your children!” Levi finally told his sister. “We have parents and they did their job. Why do you have to be a…” He turned to look at Everly and stopped.
“You should tell her your feelings, but in a nice way,” she encouraged, and he started to laugh.
“We’ll talk about it later,” he said, but I wanted to talk about it now. This was a great idea! I had never considered that he should move into my building, mostly because it wasn’t very nicebut also because I’d never have guessed that he would want to live so close to me. But now? If Ava thought it was a good idea, then I was all about it.
“I would leave you alone,” I said. “I wouldn’t be like Hernán, spying on you.”
“Who’s Hernán?” Everly asked, very interested. “Oh, is he your neighbor that speaks Spanish? I know about him and we’re learning Spanish in school.Tenedor,agua,menú, rojo!” she announced, pointing around the table, and Levi said she had sounded great and they’d learn more words together later. She had rolled her R very nicely, something that I struggled with.
“But I wouldn’t spy,” I reiterated, bringing us back to the other topic. Second-language learning was very important, but—
“Emerson?”
“Emerson?”
“What are you looking at? Aunt Emerson? Can I call you that?”
“Here’s your orange juice. Have you had a chance to look at the menu?”
Vaguely, somewhere in the background, I heard their voices. My attention was focused on the door of this restaurant, though, where two people had just entered. “That’s Grant,” I told them all, and I didn’t know what to do about it.
“What?” Levi asked. “Damn. I forgot that we were near his parents’ house.”
