Chapter Ten

At first, Gray wasn't certain if what she'd just experienced with Carolina counted as a date. Shouldn't that involve more than ten minutes of being talked at about Disney before being summarily dismissed? But after discussing it with Cherry, she decided to check Cancer off her list. Apparently water and fire signs made a poor match, and as both were cardinal signs, Gray was likely to bump heads with any Cancer she met. It wasn't Carolina's fault; she was probably perfectly lovely and destined to find happiness with another sign. If the point of the whole dating project was to discover what signs Gray was and wasn't compatible with, then this was fate saying that Cancers weren't for her. And she was bound to have a bad date at some point, right?

Still, she had to admit she was a bit thrown by the experience. It was hard not to take Carolina's rejection personally. Gray had always thought of herself as fairly desirable. It's what had made the idea of taking on the astrology dating challenge in only six weeks possible. But Gray supposed it wasn't entirely fair that she be the only one doing the rejecting. A pep talk from Cherry, who insisted that the stars had better dates for her ahead, helped put Gray back in good spirits.

For the rest of her day off, Gray helped Robbie organize the garden shed and did a little apartment hunting online. As much as she loved spending so much time at Cherry and Robbie's house, she was starting to feel like a bit of a burden on the small family. Her salary and savings gave her plenty of room to afford a place of her own; she just wasn't sure where or what yet. Her instinct was to find a new place close to Cherry's house so she could still drop by for dinners and spend Thursdays watching River. This whole New Orleans adventure was a departure from Gray's original life plan, and it stung a bit to be looking at apartments for one instead of a family home with kids and pets and a big kitchen table and a mudroom full of dirty sneakers. At least she could stay near to the closest thing she had to a family of her own.

After a five-day weekend, Gray was actually excited to return to work on Thursday morning. She had a fantastic idea for a prospective-parent open house at the middle school that she was dying to pitch. She got so lost in preparing materials to present her plan to Principal Taylor and Superintendent Donovan that 5 p.m. sneaked up on her, and she ended up running late to pick up River from Cherry.

Luckily, Cherry seemed unbothered when Gray showed up ten minutes after she promised. "It's not like we're paying you," she said, handing over River's diaper bag. "And anyway, our movie doesn't start for another hour. I'm just looking forward to sitting down in peace and quiet for a minute without a toddler telling me every ‘fact' he knows about unicorns."

Gray slung the diaper bag over her shoulder and lifted River from his high chair. "Well, I'm looking forward to some quality time with my main little man! Right, River? Ready to go to the park with Aunt Gay?"

"Aunt Gay!" River squealed.

"You know, he's getting better at R sounds," Cherry said, handing over the keys to her sedan, which was already suited up with a car seat and supplies for any toddler-sized emergency. "Can you say ‘Aunt Gray,' River? Aunt Grrrray."

"Aunt Gay!" he said again, poking a chubby finger into Gray's cheek.

"Honestly, I like it better his way," Gray said, bouncing River on her hip. "Anyway, we'll get out of your hair. Have fun at the movies!"

A short drive later, Gray pushed River's stroller through the park, pointing out trees and bugs and lost shoes along the way to help develop the toddler's vocabulary. Gray had some vague, distant memories of her own mom doing the same thing: teaching her that the flowers on the tree Gray would later learn to climb were magnolias, that her mom's signature iced tea was served in a pitcher, that they sipped their tea on the front porch under an awning. The vocabulary lessons were some of the rare memories of their relationship before it soured as Gray grew into a person her mother didn't recognize. Back when things were as simple as learning a new word from someone she trusted.

They found a small playground and Gray unbuckled River, letting him stretch his short legs on the recycled-rubber ground. At River's request, Gray helped him climb onto a seesaw and settled herself on the other end, then did squats to lift River up and down until her thighs grew tired. River waddled over to an oversized spinning tic-tac-toe set and Gray settled down on a nearby bench, adjusting her Mercurious settings to only show the next sign in the zodiac, Leos.

Glancing back and forth between her phone and River, Gray scrolled through profiles. There were a surprising number of Leos on the dating app, and they all knew their best angles. She was about to message someone who caught her eye when she heard a toddler fight breaking out.

"Mine!" squealed River as another kid tried to push him away from the rotating plastic tic-tac-toe set.

Gray was already on her feet, preparing to intervene before tears broke out, when a slightly older child in a firefighter hat and a purple tutu stepped between River and the other kid. "It's okay, park toys are for sharing," the child said, playing the perfect peacemaker. "Tic-tac-toe is for two kids. I'll show you."

Stunned by the kid's emotional intelligence, Gray watched as they began explaining the rules of tic-tac-toe. River and the other toddler, too young to fully understand the rules of play, were attentive to the older kid's lesson, but just as quickly began turning the round pieces without any real sense of order. At least they were doing it together without fighting, Gray noticed.

"I like your unicorn shirt," the kid said kindly to River. Gray could see him puff up with pride at the compliment. "What's your name?"

"River."

The other kid smiled. "I like that name. I'm Karys."

River tilted his head. "Carrots?"

"Almost. It's spelled K-A-R-Y-S, but it sounds like carrots without the T," the kid said, clearly not their first time explaining the name.

A panicked voice sounded through the park. "Karys! Where are you?"

Something about the voice rang a bell, and Gray was still trying to place it when the speaker appeared around the corner of a jungle gym.

"Karys?" The woman had dark hair pulled into a short ponytail and was wearing large sunglasses and a tie-dyed tunic over a long, faded denim skirt. Spotting the child in a firefighter hat near Gray, she trotted over and crouched down. "There you are! What did I tell you about staying within my line of sight?"

"Sorry, Ma," said Karys, turning away from the toddlers. "I didn't mean to."

Seeing the child's contrition, Gray couldn't help but step to Karys's defense.

"Karys was only trying to help!" Gray said, approaching the parent. "River and…uh, this other kid were having a tiff over the tic-tac-toe set and Karys helped them learn to play with it together. It was really sweet, actu—"

The woman stood and pushed her sunglasses on top of her head. "This is between me and my child," she said in a stern voice.

As she turned to Gray, they both realized at once who the other was. The woman in front of her was Principal Taylor, hardly recognizable without the usual skirt suit. Gray froze, stunned by the revelation. "Oh. Uh, hi."

"Gray?" said Principal Taylor, seeming equally surprised. "What are you—"

She was interrupted by River, who chose exactly that moment to appear at Gray's side, grasping his tiny hand around her forefinger and pulling her to the tic-tac-toe set. "Play! I show you. Unicorns are X's, mermaids are O's," said River.

"Thanks, River, but why play with boring old me when you have such cool new friends? I think Karys likes unicorns and mermaids too," Gray said, redirecting River to the other children.

"I love mermaids!" Karys called out.

It took River only a minute to forget his insistence on Gray playing with him once he and Karys started talking about imaginary creatures. Gray turned back to Principal Taylor, tucking her hands into her jacket pockets. "Sorry about earlier. I was just so impressed by Karys's peacemaking skills."

"She mastered the ‘playing well with others' lesson early," said Principal Taylor, adjusting a tote bag on her shoulder. "And she feels the need to spread her knowledge. I guess she gets the teaching instinct from me." She looked over at Karys and gave her a small smile.

Gray realized it was her first time seeing the stern principal really smile in a way that reached her eyes. It seemed to lighten her whole body just a bit, to relax something around her shoulders. In fact, seeing her in casual clothes, her hair tied back, and her makeup faded from a full day of wear made Gray realize that she was younger than she appeared in her conservative school administrator wardrobe. "Well, I'm glad she ran into River, then," Gray said, pulling her attention away from Principal Taylor's outfit to the playground. "He could probably use a lesson in sharing at this age. He won't be two for another month, but I'm realizing all those rumors about the terrible twos actually have some basis in fact."

Something akin to a laugh escaped Principal Taylor's lips and Gray felt like she'd finally cracked some kind of code, seeing her with Karys like this. Maybe encountering her colleague outside of her intimidating office was what it would take to truly win her over. She looked back at Gray, seeming to examine her in a new light as well. "Definitely not just rumors," Principal Taylor said. "I worried I was raising a sociopath in those days, but Karys came through it just fine. River will too, one day."

Hearing his name, River wandered back toward Gray. "River?"

"Yes, River, that's you!" Gray said, ruffling his silky-soft hair. "And this is my friend, Principal Taylor."

River looked over at the other woman, mumbled something a couple neighborhoods over from "Principal Taylor," then wrapped his chubby arms in a hug around her denim-skirted knees. Gray could see her heart melt at the adorable gesture and reminded herself to buy River an ice cream on the way home to thank him for improving her work situation immeasurably.

Karys ran up to Principal Taylor, her firefighter hat askew. "Ma, can River and I play mermaids on the slide?" She pointed to a low slide attached to a jungle gym behind the tic-tac-toe set.

Principal Taylor looked over at Gray, who nodded her approval. "Sure, Karys. But please help River and keep an eye on him. He's smaller than you."

"Okay!" Karys chirped. "Come on, River, let's go!"

The two children wandered off, tiny hand in hand. Gray and Principal Taylor settled down on a bench under the shade of a sprawling old oak tree within view of the slide. Gray crossed an ankle over her knee and leaned back, still struggling to adapt to seeing her co-worker outside of her office. "So did you laissez les bons temps rouler during Mardi Gras break, Principal Taylor?"

"Call me Veronica," she said.

Gray felt as if a window in their relationship had just cracked open, letting in a burst of cool, clean air. "Okay, Veronica." It was a name that suited her, one that seemed only slightly less intimidating than Principal Taylor.

"Karys spent the weekend at her dad's house," Veronica said. "We avoided the French Quarter like the plague for the past few days, but we went to a little family-friendly Mardi Gras celebration. And yesterday we read about some New Orleans history pre-colonization. What about you?"

"Went with River to a G-rated Mardi Gras parade, also far from the French Quarter," Gray replied. "Maybe the same one you and Karys went to? Was it the one in Metairie?"

"Yes! We've been going since she was River's age."

"It was a blast. And I didn't have to explain flashing to a toddler," Gray said. "Then yesterday, I…Well, I went on a really terrible date."

Veronica turned to Gray, her thin eyebrows raised. "Really terrible?"

Gray laughed. "Like, the worst date I've ever been on. And it only lasted ten minutes." She could feel herself toeing the line between professional relationship and something friendlier, which she knew was risky based on how strictly Principal Taylor—Veronica, Gray reminded herself internally—had protected her personal boundaries so far. But on this lovely spring day with the sun peeking through the clouds, the first bits of green beginning to appear on tree branches, Gray couldn't help but feel a little buoyant, a little willing to test the boundaries. Maybe it would even help her project with the middle school succeed, in turn helping her prove her worth in her new job.

She shared the story of her date with Carolina, and Veronica was appropriately horrified, especially once she reached the part about Georgia's interruption. Even better, Veronica shared her own bad date story, one where she'd met a man for drinks and was interrupted by his wife, who furiously threw a full glass of red wine in Veronica's unsuspecting face.

"I hope it was good wine at least," Gray said. "I hear the more expensive the wine, the better for your pores."

Veronica laughed. "I can't speak to what it cost, but some of it landed in my mouth and it tasted all right."

Before they knew it, the sun was setting behind the jungle gym, the air growing chilly. River and Karys walked over while Veronica and Gray were still laughing about dreadful dates gone by. Karys approached Gray and leaned in close. "I think River needs a diaper change." She wrinkled her nose, waving a hand in front of her face.

"Ah. Thanks for telling me," Gray said. Karys responded with a smile and a twirl, her tutu spinning around her. "I guess that's our cue," Gray said to Veronica, lifting River by the armpits and settling him into his stroller. Gray hoped his diaper could hold until they made it to a bathroom a few minutes' walk down the trail. "It was really nice running into you, Princi— Veronica."

Veronica stood, pulling her tote bag onto her shoulder. "Good to see you. We'll talk on Monday?"

Having briefly forgotten about their professional ties, it took Gray a moment to realize Veronica was referring to their weekly meeting. "Right," she said. "Monday. See you then."

"And don't think I'm going to go any easier on you because of your adorable kid," Veronica said, a playful look in her eye.

Gray's mouth hung open as she realized she hadn't clarified her relationship to River. She knew she should correct the mistake, but something in her brain short-circuited before the words could reach her lips. The look on Veronica's face was so warm, night and day from how she'd looked at Gray across the desk in her office. Would she think Gray had been dishonest with her for not explaining sooner? Would she think less of Gray for not being the competent single parent Veronica had assumed she was? If it meant having a more collegial relationship with her co-worker, what could it hurt? She was sure Cherry and Robbie wouldn't mind. And although she wasn't willing to admit it, being mistaken for River's parent was a compliment. Wasn't it a sign of how ready she was for kids of her own?

All of these thoughts ran through her head in one tense second before she managed to smile and reply, "Of course. I'm planning to win you over with my ideas, not River's natural charm." She unlocked the wheels on the stroller, trying to ignore the itchy feeling blossoming across her ribs. I didn't lie, Gray thought. I just…avoided the truth. "Have a good night," she said to Veronica. And with that, she set off at a quick pace to address the horrid smell emanating from River's diaper.