Tuesday, May 10th, Afternoon: Phone Duty: Sophie

“I wish I could have seen you fall out of that window,” Wes says ina low voice.

He laughs and I give him a shove in the side, which only makes him laugh harder.

“I’m sure I flashed those poor girls. At least they didn’t know who I was.”

“Not gonna lie, I’m a little worried about my day tomorrow,” Charlie says.

Yeah, we’re all worried about Charlie’s day tomorrow.

We’re at Nonna’s, hanging out in her kitchen, eating strawberry pie. I’m still “Olivia,” fielding texts from her mom and her friends asking where she is. And because she didn’t sign out of her social media apps, I’m getting messages from every direction.

I’m only answering Aunt Lisa at this point, but the notifications are piling up.

“Should I answer Bailey and Mia?” I ask Wes and Charlie. “They keep texting.”

Wes shrugs and gives me an I have no idea look. “Maybe if you keep it simple?”

I decide to only respond to texts. Olivia can go through the other apps later.

I type Sorry I missed it! It looked so beautiful! Got caught up helping my grandmother at work! just as Charlie adds, “But chill with the exclamation points. You’re way more upbeat than Olivia and it shows.”

And now I’m editing the message. I hate it when he’s right. I send the message then see another new one that just came in.

“This is the second message she’s gotten from this number. Olivia says it’s from some guy named Locke,” I say.

Both of them swing their heads toward me.

“Let me see,” Charlie says.

I hold her phone close. “Maybe she doesn’t want you to see?” I say.

Charlie’s forehead scrunches in confusion. “I’ll see tomorrow when I have her phone ALL DAY LONG.” And then he’s pulling it from me.

Charlie reads the message out loud: “‘I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to be an ass earlier. Hope you didn’t get in trouble.’”

“Whoa, why was he an ass?” Wes says.

“Should we reply?” Charlie asks. “Tell him to go to—”

“No!” I say before he finishes. “He’s apologizing. Maybe he’s just stressed out?”

“Locke is pretty intense. Eats, sleeps, and breathes golf.” Wes reads the text again.

Charlie shrugs. “I don’t really know him.”

“Because he’s always playing golf,” Wes replies.

Charlie is about to say something else but stops when we hear Nonna in the hall. She’s usually at the shop this time of the day, but she took the afternoon off to meet a plumber for a leaky sink in one of the upstairs bathrooms.

“I picked up those little picture frames I was telling you about. We’ll put their senior pictures in them. It will look so cute on the entrance table,” she says loudly.

I pop my head around the corner to see if she’s talking to us, but she’s sorting the mail, her phone on the hall table.

And then I hear Aunt Lisa’s voice come over the speaker. “Oh, perfect, Mom. I’ve got the pictures at my house. Had them printed before I left. Why don’t you go ahead and give the frames to Olivia and tell her to put them on my desk in the office.”

I spin back around and look at Wes and Charlie, matching expressions of panic on all of our faces.

“I’ll give it to her when I see her, but she hasn’t been here today,” Nonna says.

“Huh. That’s weird. It says she’s there,” Aunt Lisa says.

Charlie holds up Olivia’s phone, then sprints like lightning out of the back door.

“What says she’s here?” Nonna asks, her footsteps getting closer. She peeks into the kitchen as if she’s looking for some foreign device.

“Her phone. It’s an app. It says she’s there,” Aunt Lisa says.

Wes and I turn to face Nonna and she’s looking at us.

“Is Olivia here?” she asks us.

I open my mouth to say something, but I go blank and no words come out. Wes is quicker on his feet.

“She was here. Ran in for a sec while you were upstairs. But she just left with Charlie.”

Nonna has that look like she knows we’re lying. It’s the kind of look that makes you squirm. I concentrate really hard on not squirming.

“Uh-huh,” she says, still piercing us with her stare.

“I can take the frames to her house, Nonna,” I say, finally finding my voice.

Her head tilts. “It’s okay. I’ll give them to her later.”

Nonna has gotten a whiff that something is up. This does not bode well for us. With a parting glance, she leaves the room, her conversation with Aunt Lisa resuming.

“Looks like she’s back at our house,” Aunt Lisa says.

Wes and I wash and put up our plates with record speed. We’ve got to get to Olivia’s and make sure Charlie doesn’t say something dumb to Aunt Lisa.

Olivia

I’m sunburned, I’m exhausted, and I’m pretty sure I pulled something. Today was rough. And I have three more days to go.

I’m lying on the floor in our den with the ceiling fan on high when Charlie races inside followed quickly by Sophie and Wes. Charlie pokes me with his foot.

“Is she dead?” he asks.

I raise one hand and flip him off.

“Nope!” he says. “Good as ever!”

Sophie plops onto the floor next to me and I can see her hand hovering over my arm in my peripheral vision.

“That looks like it hurts,” she says. I know she’s dying to poke my skin to see just how burned I am.

“I’m on fire,” I answer.

She jumps up as quickly as she sat down. “Nonna will have something for this! I’ll be right back.” And then she’s gone.

Charlie and Wes sit on the couch right behind me.

“Tough day on the course?” Wes asks.

I raise my hand and flip him off, too. They both laugh.

“Nonna may be onto us,” Charlie says. “She was talking to your mom when ‘you’ were at her house.” He puts you in finger quotes.

This has me sitting up. “What happened?”

Wes waves me off. “We handled it. We were brilliant.”

“Brilliant enough that Nonna may be onto us?”

They both look at each other then back to me. “Well, you know how she just knows everything, right?” Wes says.

“Okay, so maybe y’all steer clear of her house,” I say.

Charlie looks offended. “But that’s where the pie is.”

It doesn’t take long for Sophie to get back with cream to put on my arms and legs. I’m sure we would have all perished years ago if Nonna wasn’t a couple of blocks away.

“You really should shower first and then put this on,” she says, then turns to the guys. “We’re heading up to get dressed. Want to meet us back here for the party?”

“Yeah, that works,” Wes says as he gets up from the couch.

“I’m not sure I can get off the floor,” I say at the exact same time.

“You’re going. At this rate, this may be the last grad party you make,” Charlie says. Then he adds, “Get Sophie to tell you how she fell out of a window today.”

Sophie rolls her eyes. “I tripped.”

“You fell out of a window?” I shriek. “Please tell me it wasn’t at that tea party.”

Sophie helps me up. “I’ll tell you all about it while we’re getting ready.”

An hour later, we’re heading back downstairs and I can tell Sophie is having a hard time not laughing. While I’m totally fried from the elbows down, my tan skin looks pale in comparison from the elbows up, including the one bare shoulder. Except for my neck and face. Those parts are red as well. And the burn seems especially red and the skin especially pale against the stark white of a toga.

It’s…not a good look.

I hold my arms out in front of me. I don’t want to miss tonight’s party, especially since I missed Sarah’s tea today, but this is ridiculous. “I don’t know if I can show up like this.”

“It’s not that bad,” Sophie tries to assure me between giggles. “I promise.”

But when Wes and Charlie get here, I know it definitely is that bad. They can barely keep themselves from crying, they’re laughing so hard.

Charlie holds up the edge of his red polka-dotted sheet. “Maybe we should trade! You could blend in a little better with this one.”

“Let’s go before I change my mind,” I say as I walk past him to his truck.

It’s a twenty-minute drive to the party. I’m riding shotgun while Wes and Sophie are in the backseat.

“There isn’t a party tomorrow night, is there?” Wes asks.

“No, thank God,” I say, and then hate how grumpy I sound. This is supposed to be the best week of high school and I’m miserable.

“No, why?” Charlie asks.

“Judd joined a band,” he says. There’s a pause, and then we all crack up.

Sophie chokes out, “I hope he’s not the singer!” We’ve all had the unfortunate experience of listening to Judd sing karaoke.

“Nah, he’s on the drums,” Wes answers.

Charlie glances back at Wes in the rearview mirror. “Since when has Judd played the drums?”

I turn around in my seat and see Wes just shrug. “No idea. But they have their first gig tomorrow night at Superior. I told him we’d come by and watch them play.”

“Oh yeah, not missing that,” I say, laughing. Then I cringe because all this movement is making the burn on my face hurt.

We finally arrive at our destination. It’s a monstrosity of a house in one of the nicest gated neighborhoods in town. There are six different families throwing the party honoring four guys, so it’s big. Like over-the-top enormous.

Charlie pulls up to the house and there’s a valet there, ready to whisk his truck away.

“I don’t know how I feel about this.” Charlie holds his door closed while he and the valet have a staring contest through the closed window. “No one drives this truck but me.”

We pile out, leaving Charlie alone in the truck. He finally gives in but watches until it’s out of sight.

There’s a pair of guys in white togas—real-looking ones, not the kind made out of sheets—off to the side next to two big white freestanding columns.

“Party’s this way,” one of them says, pointing us down a path lined with more columns, each pair about twenty feet apart.

Charlie steps closer to one of them and asks, “How’d y’all get this gig? And what’s it pay an hour?”

They ignore him.

Just as we’re about to take off down the path, a car pulls up. I glance back and see it’s the golfers from our school who practiced today.

“Oh God,” I say. They spent the same amount of time in the sun as I did, yet none of them looks like a crispy critter.

“What? Who is it?” Sophie says.

“It’s Locke,” Charlie says, but drags his name out in a weird way.

I turn around and look at him. “Why do you say it like that?”

“I didn’t think you could blush with a sunburn, but you can!” Wes and Charlie high-five, thinking they are hilarious. Sophie and I punch them.

“He texted you today. Apologized for being mean,” Sophie whispers since they’re walking this way. “I didn’t respond because I didn’t know if his apology should be accepted.”

She told me I got a lot of texts, but I haven’t gone back through and actually looked at them yet.

“Hey,” Lily says when they get close. And then she winces when she sees the sunburn. “Oh no, you forgot sunblock.”

And I know this will be the one thing everyone will comment on tonight.

“Yep,” I answer. “I’m surprised y’all are here.”

Most of the guys don’t look happy about it.

Em Beth pipes up, “We forced them. All they care about is golf, and it’s no fun to miss every single senior party, so they agreed to make an appearance.”

“One hour,” Locke says.

“You seemed to be okay with being at the Wagon Wheel last night.” I told myself I wasn’t going to talk to Locke anymore, but here I am.

“That was the night before practice. Not the night before a match.”

Lily pulls David, and Em Beth latches on to Cal as she says, “Well, we shouldn’t waste a single second, then.”

Locke is slower to walk away. I can tell he has something else to say, but he eyes Wes, Sophie, and Charlie, clearly not wanting an audience. Finally, he follows his friends.

Sophie claps. “Oh, he was giving you eyes!”

“Eyes. What does that mean?” Charlie is clearly confused.

Sophie’s face scrunches up. “Eyes. Like he couldn’t quit looking at her. Love eyes. Heart eyes.”

“You’re seeing something that isn’t there,” I say.

We give their group a head start, then follow them down the column-lined path, which wraps around the back of the house. There is a pool in the middle of the yard and more white columns, along with small fire pits sprinkled throughout the space. It’s like something you’d see on TV.

There are already of lot of people here and quite a few like Charlie who decided to forgo the traditional white sheet for something more entertaining. There’s a guy wearing a Star Wars sheet and carrying a lightsaber and a group of girls decked out as every color in the rainbow. We stick together and circulate through the crowd, finding people we know.

Ross, one of the honorees, joins us, giving Wes and Charlie fist bumps. “Y’all made it!”

“This is insane!” Wes says.

Sophie and I are both just trying to take everything in.

“My wedding reception won’t be this nice,” Sophie leans near me to say.

“Yeah, mine either.”

There is a tent with food on the other side of the pool and a band toward the back, getting ready to play.

“Food that way,” Ross says, pointing toward the tent. “And there’s a keg hidden behind those bushes,” he adds, pointing in the opposite direction, then he moves on to greet another group of people who just got here.

Charlie spots Bianca and off he goes, while Wes and Sophie head toward Judd, who is already on the dance floor. I make my way to where Bailey and Mia are hanging out.

Their faces are identical when they see my sunburn.

“That looks painful!” Mia says.

“So painful,” I agree.

Yep, main topic of conversation.

The sky is just getting dark and the fire pits everywhere are throwing off a pretty cool glow. People are pouring in now, and it’s obvious most have discovered the keg in the bushes.

“It sucks you had to work today. You missed what happened at Sarah’s party!” Bailey says.

Sophie told me about the excuse she texted them. Now I’m in the awkward place of not being able to tell them what I’m doing this week because then I’ll have to admit Sophie was pretending to be me on the phone and lied to them. There’s already tension now that Sophie is here all the time, and it just feels like I’m too far down this hole right now. My mom used to repeat this dumb saying to my brother all the time (usually when he got busted trying to lie to her): Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. It’s embarrassing that it now applies to me.

“What happened?” I ask. Part of me is scared they’re going to tell the story of Sophie falling out of the front window.

“Mrs. Woods leaned forward to grab a tea sandwich off a tray and the feathers on her hat caught fire from one of the centerpiece candles,” Mia says. “Three people threw their tea on her to put her out!”

They’re laughing reliving it and I’m laughing picturing it. Really hard. I’m sorry I missed that.

Something behind me catches Bailey’s attention. “Who’s the cute guy with Mary Jo and Jo Lynn?”

I spin around and see the Evil Joes strutting in. Their togas are short and fitted and made out of some shiny fabric that practically glows. Of course, Aunt Maggie Mae probably had them specially made.

“Yeah, who’s the hot friend?” Mia asks.

I let out a squeak and push Bailey in front of me. As I peek over her shoulder, there’s Leo following the twins. And he looks really good in a toga.

Like ridiculously good. Who knew all those muscles were hiding under those golf shirts.

“That’s Leo Perez. Do y’all remember him?”

“That’s Leo?” they both repeat in unison.

It’s like speaking his name somehow caught his attention even though he’s nowhere near us. His eyes land on the three of us and he excuses himself from the Evil Joes and heads this way.

“He’s coming over here,” Mia says, a little breathless.

But he’s not the only one. When the Evil Joes catch on to where he’s headed, they pivot and follow him.

Great.

Leo and I barely get along when the Evil Joes aren’t around. I can’t imagine it will be any better when they are. And what if he mentions seeing me today? Maybe he didn’t take me seriously when I asked him to keep it a secret.

So I panic. “Where’s the bathroom?” I ask Bailey.

She looks from me to Leo and back again, then points toward the house. “Inside.”

And I’m all but running away. I can’t get stuck talking to Leo in front of them, especially with the Evil Joes hot on his trail.

Instead of going inside, though, I spot a staircase tucked away on the edge of the porch that leads to a balcony. It’s dark; I’m sure whoever owns this house doesn’t want this space discovered so the party doesn’t move up here. I take the steps two at a time, nearly tripping twice on my toga.

There are a few chairs up here and a perfect view of the party below. I find Leo immediately—he’s talking to Mia and Bailey. The Joes are moving toward the keg in the bushes. Scanning the crowd, I see the golf group, which reminds me of the text Sophie said Locke sent. Pulling my phone out of the waistband of the shorts I’m wearing under this sheet, I open up his message and save his contact under Locke. As I read both of the messages, I try to figure out how it makes me feel. Should I text back? Will it be weird that I’m responding after I just saw him? Maybe this is why he was trying to talk to me earlier.

I decide to go for it.

ME:Thank you for apologizing and thank you for the heads up. You saved me from getting in trouble.

I look down to where he’s standing, waiting for him to pull his phone out and read my message. He doesn’t move. It’s loud down there and anyway his phone is probably on silent.

Leo finally moves on from Bailey and Mia and I feel like it’s safe to head back down. I’m determined to enjoy myself even though it feels like I’m navigating a minefield.

“You missed him!” Bailey says when I join them again.

“He asked where you ran off to,” Mia teases, as if she knows I’m actively avoiding him.

I shake it off. “He’s been at Nonna’s a few times since he came to town and we’ve butted heads over the…uh…Mary Jo and Jo Lynn.”

“C’mon, let’s move closer to the band. The guy playing guitar is hot.” Bailey pulls Mia and me to the dance floor.

Bailey picks a spot that’s close to where Wes and Sophie are, and it’s fun to dance with all of them at the same time. It’s not long before Judd is down on the ground and the crowd has formed a circle around him. He’s trying to do some sort of back spin move but he gets all tangled up in his toga. It only takes a rotation or two before his sheet splits open and tears away. When he pops back up, he’s in a pair of boxers with orange and red flames all over them and the gold braided belt that once secured the toga.

He could care less and climbs onto the stage to play air guitar with the band. Someone should find a way to bottle that level of confidence.

The band is good, and we dance for a few songs. I track Leo on the other side of the yard, where he’s hanging with the Evil Joes and some of the guys he was friends with when he lived here. Mary Jo says something, and then they’re all laughing. I mean really laughing. Like about to fall out of their chairs howling, and it bothers me that he could be so entertained by her.

“I need a little air,” I tell Mia, and sidestep my way through the crowd.

I sink into a chair on the patio. The day’s exhaustion settles over me and I can’t shake it. I’m ready to go home.

I search the crowd and find Charlie sitting next to Bianca, and from the body language, neither of them is ready to walk away. Wes and Sophie are hanging with a group near the band that includes Mia and Bailey. Sophie may not know many people here, and I hate to pull her away when she’s having so much fun—especially when everyone seems to be getting along. There’s no reason for any of them to leave just because I’m ready.

Opening the Uber app, I order a ride, then text Charlie, Olivia, and Wes.

ME:This sunburn is killing me and I’m exhausted from today. Uber is on the way.

CHARLIE:No wait I’ll take you

WES:We can all go

SOPHIE:I barely know anyone here anyway

ME:No y’all stay. I’m just going to crash when I get home and that’s no fun

ME:Seriously, I’m good

ME:Uber is almost here

They all double- and triple-check with me, but I hold strong. My ride is only a few minutes away, so I pick up my drooping toga and head toward the front of the house.

“Olivia!”

I freeze. That’s Leo’s voice.

He catches up with me and I say, “Hey,” then look around to see if the Evil Joes are about to jump out of the shrubbery.

He gives me a big smile like he didn’t just call us the Fake Four a few hours ago. Then his gaze zeroes in on my sunburn, just like everyone else, but I stop him before he can say anything.

“I know, I’m burned. It looks horrible, but it’s fine.” I start walking again.

“Are you leaving?” His voice should be farther away, but it’s not.

Glancing back over my shoulder, I notice he’s following me. “Yeah, I have to be back out there early and I’m exhausted.”

“Yeah, me too. Mae wanted me to come with the girls even though I told her I was wiped. It’s hard to say no to her.”

Oh, I know.

It’s so weird to hear him refer to Aunt Maggie Mae as Mae and the Evil Joes as the girls. “She lets you call her Mae?” I ask before I can stop myself. “She’s always made a big deal to the family that her name is Maggie Mae and shouldn’t be shortened.”

His long legs close the gap between us and now we’re walking side by side back through the row of columns.

“I had a speech impediment when I was little. A stutter. I tried to call her Mrs. Messina but got tripped up on the m’s and s’s, so she told me to call her Mae. It just stuck.”

God, he makes them almost sound normal.

Time to change the subject. “Are you nervous about tomorrow?”

“Yeah. I’ve got a lot riding on this.” He turns toward me, his face solemn. “Just like everybody else out there.”

We stop near the valet stand but wave them off when they ask us for our ticket.

“How are you getting to the Ev…” I stop myself before I say Evil Joes. “To Aunt Maggie Mae’s?”

“Oh,” he says, pulling his phone out of some hidden place under his sheet. “I was going to get an Uber. But I got distracted.” He gives me a quick smile before looking back at his phone.

And now I’m probably blushing again. At least Charlie and Wes aren’t here to point it out. “You can ride with me. And then I can drive you to Aunt Maggie Mae’s. I mean, we’re both basically going to the same place. It’s dumb to get two Ubers.”

He agrees quickly. “Yeah, that’d be great. But I can walk from your place. It’s not far.”

I check the app to see how close the car is because now it’s a little bit awkward with just us and the two valet guys out here.

“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t driving me nuts that I’m keeping your secret but I don’t know why.” His voice is a near whisper.

My eyes stay glued to my phone. “I’m okay with you lying.” I have a smirk. I can feel it. I cannot make it go away.

I’m relieved when the car pulls into the driveway, though it’s a tiny little four-door and we are squished in the backseat together.

The driver is not talking and neither are we, and this awkwardness is worse than the one we had going on a few minutes ago.

“Is working the golf tournament a secret from your whole family or just the girls?” he asks.

I take a deep breath. “Everyone.” I hate saying it out loud. “But especially them.”

“Why do you think y’all don’t get along with Jo Lynn and Mary Jo?” he finally asks.

Our track record isn’t good when it comes to talking about them, but apparently we’re going there.

“Because they’re mean?”

He lifts his shoulders and nods his head as if he’s really weighing my answer. “I think they think y’all are the mean ones,” he finally says. “You don’t know them like I do.”

I try to spin around to face him, but it’s so tight in the backseat I end up knocking my knees against his.

“They were mean long before we were. Like when we were little. We only take up for ourselves.”

“I was around back then, so it’s not like I don’t know how it was.”

This has me gasping for words. “What? Are you serious? I know you’re close to them, but you’re blind where they are concerned. If you only knew what they did to Sophie this past Christmas!”

His face scrunches up. “Are we talking about the movie date again?”

“It was drive-in porn!”

We pitch forward when the driver taps the brakes. We both look at him and he’s staring at us in his rearview mirror. “There’s a drive-in that shows porn here?”

My face scrunches up. “Ew.”

Leo shakes his head. “There’s no way they knew that’s where he was taking her.”

And now my eyes are bugging out. “You are so gullible!”

“I’m just saying, there are two sides and I don’t think you ever consider theirs.”

I’m muttering no, no no before he even finishes his sentence. “You were just as bad when you lived here. Bad as them. You tried to beat Charlie up.”

He barks out something between a laugh and growl. Too loud for this tiny car. “Are you talking about when we were at the park for that school party?”

I won’t look at him. “You know exactly when I’m talking about.”

“Charlie had run into both of them like three times before he finally knocked Jo Lynn over,” Leo argues. “Is that why he’s been looking at me like he wants to go another round?”

“They were playing football. And Jo Lynn was practically in the middle of their game hoping one of those boys would notice her. And no, Charlie is completely over it,” I lie.

He starts to say something—I’m sure something in their defense—but I stop him. “We’re not talking about this.”

“So that’s two subjects off the table,” he mumbles. He leans forward just an inch. “What can we talk about?”

I open my mouth to say something but nothing comes out. We are far too close together in the backseat of this car. Is it hot in here?

Turning to stare out of the side window, I hear him chuckle at his small victory that I had to look away first. Neither of us says anything else until we get to my house.

We unfold ourselves out of the car and watch the Uber drive off. “How much for the ride?” Leo asks.

“I got it,” I say, waving him off.

“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, then.” We’re on the curb in front of my house.

“I can drive you.”

He doesn’t really look at me. “I can walk. It’s not far.” He takes a few steps, then stops. Turning back, he says, “I hate that I wasted the ride fighting with you.”

Before I can even think of how to respond to that, he starts back down the sidewalk in the direction of the Evil Joes’ house. I don’t know what it means that I stay in the same spot until he’s no longer in sight.

He never looked back once.

I drag myself inside and take another shower, hoping it will get me out of this funk. When I’m about to climb into my bed, I notice my phone has a screen full of notifications. I open the one from Mom first.

MOM:Aw, it looks like you left the party early? Was it not fun? Loved the pic you sent of the four of y’all in your togas! But why are you so sunburnt like that? I thought your dress you wore today was sleeveless.

ME:I changed into a t-shirt and shorts after the luncheon and sat outside with Sophie. Didn’t realize how long we were out there

Next, I open up the group message I have with Sophie, Wes, and Charlie.

SOPHIE:Just making sure you made it home!

ME:Yes! Showered and about to get in bed. Y’all have fun

And then I see Locke finally texted me back.

LOCKE:Let’s start over. No talk about MJ or JL or Charlie. No questions asked about why you’re at the course. Deal?

Oh crap. My stomach flips. This isn’t Locke. And if he’s mentioning MJ and JL, there’s really only one other person this can be.

Leo.

No wonder he was all smiles when he saw me at the party. I had just texted him that I accepted his apology for calling us the Fake Four!

But how did he get my number? And why wouldn’t he identify himself?

Weird.

My hands are shaking when I go to change his contact name from Locke to Leo, rereading our last conversation and realizing he was the one who warned me Coach was looking for me. But before I hit SAVE, I stop. Charlie will have my phone tomorrow. He thinks Locke is the one who texted me earlier because that’s who I thought it was. And the last thing I want to deal with is hearing how I shouldn’t be fraternizing with the enemy, which will definitely happen if Charlie snoops through my phone or if Leo texts me while he has it. So I change the contact name to a capital L.

And now I think about how to respond in a way where I get my questions answered but don’t look like an idiot.

ME:It’s a deal. And also curious, how’d you get my number?

Okay, so not very subtle.

L:I’ve had it for years. Back from when Nonna did that big group text freshman year with those pics of us from when we were kids.

L:I’m just now realizing you didn’t save my number back then like I saved yours

L:Feeling super cool right about now

There’s a smile bursting across my face. Bursting.

ME:I probably did but I lost my phone last year and all my contacts

L:Don’t try to make me feel better!

ME:Okay then you’re right I totally didn’t save your number

L:Okay never mind I take it back you can lie to me

I laugh out loud and then want to pull the sheet over my face because I’m embarrassed for myself.

ME:We’re starting over. But these are the off limit topics: MJ, JL, Evil Joes, Maggie Mae, Charlie, Sophie, Wes, Fab Four, Fake Four and why I’m at the golf course. These terms are non negotiable

Mainly, I’m trying to stop future Leo from saying something about Charlie to Charlie tomorrow.

L:Those words have been stricken from my vocabulary

As much as I hate it, I delete the messages that mention any of the now-taboo names or give any hint that this is Leo instead of Locke. I’ve just gotten our conversation all cleaned up when a few more messages come in from him.

L:Don’t forget sunblock this time

L:Hydrate too it’s gonna be hot

ME:Thanks for all the tips. Good luck tomorrow!

Honestly, good luck to us both, because we’re both going to need it.