35. Chapter 35

Chapter thirty-five

Caleb

Sneaking around as an adult was ten times harder than sneaking around as a teenager.

" Let's go food shopping," became code for "let's go find an abandoned parking lot, stumble into the backseat, and pray no cops knock on the window."

"Are you going to forget the fruit loops this time?" Kelsey eyed us from across the room.

"That was one time!" I said, rolling my eyes.

"I don't see how two grown adults can forget the single item that I, a lowly teenager, requested."

Juliette and I shared a guilty glance. It had been almost a month of stolen kisses goodnight and a newfound zeal for mid-day sex. The newest addition to our routine was as such: I'd drop off Kelsey, come back to Juliette's, set up my remote meetings with my camera off, and chase her into the other room. We kept saying we'd stop tomorrow. Then tomorrow. Then tomorrow.

Every time was the last time.

Then the sun would rise again.

Shhh , became the language of impulse and Juliette was the notebook in which I wrote down all my insatiable passion. More and more and more we took and gave and hid behind rueful smiles and sitting at comical distances. We were insatiable. She made me insatiable. I brought out a gluttony in her as she rode my lap in the back of my cramped sports car.

And I loved it.

I reveled in it .

I was lying every time I agreed that we should stop.

"We can't forget the fruit loops," she panted as she pulled up her panties, knocking her head on the roof.

"We will not forget the sugary cereal." I grunted as her knee jabbed into my stomach. She was climbing back to the front seat, but I wasn't done with her yet. I pulled her ass onto my lap by her hips, grabbed her jaw, and turned her face to mine.

Juliette let out a surprised squeak that turned to a moan as she kissed me, turning in my lap for easier access. She wrapped her arms around my neck and threaded her hands in my hair. Kissing Juliette was my favorite pastime.

I nipped her neck and added, "Rice, too." I loved Juliette's cooking, but there was more to life than jarred pasta sauce and quinoa salad.

The Bluetooth rang out, startling us both into smacking her chin on my forehead.

"It's Kelsey." Juliette scrambled to the steering wheel. "Hello?"

"I got in."

"In what?" I asked, rubbing my forehead.

"In!"

Juliette screamed, "In?"

"In!" Kelsey squealed on the other line.

It hit me. "Oh my God!"

The laughter and screams surrounded me, Juliette bounced in the front seat clapping a hand to her mouth. "What level?"

"Upper level! I'm going to be in the showcase!" Kelsey squealed and my chest tightened. I searched for memories, flipped through the files in my mind, to realize this was the first time I'd heard this level of happiness bursting from her. I stopped my climb to the front seat and pressed my back against the leather, soaked it in, tried to slow the passing of time so I could remember the sound and texture of this moment.

"That's my girl! Let's go out to dinner to celebrate!" Juliette's blonde hair, messy and spilling down her shoulders. Her freckles painted pink underneath from joy and sex and the fear that we were caught. Relief that we weren't.

"Congratulations, Kelsey."

"Thanks Ca—" a millisecond pause, "Dad," she added quietly, hesitating on the first consonant. Testing the feel of the word.

Juliette's blue eyes snapped to mine. "We'll be home in a little bit."

I pulled out my phone and realized with her name across the screen that she'd called me. Of course she had, it rang out over Bluetooth, but it didn't register until I saw it.

"I'm so happy I'm going to throw up," Kelsey said before hanging up abruptly.

Silence.

"She called you Dad ," Juliette said, voice just above a whisper.

I crawled into the driver's seat, looked over at her, and nodded. The late spring sun was dipping low on the horizon, casting an orange glow across the dashboard. We arrived at the grocery store a few minutes later.

"Mission accomplished," Juliette said, reaching for my hand on the stick shift.

"We'd be nowhere if it weren't for you."

Juliette kissed me quick, and we hopped out to shop like we were running a relay race. We'd gone to the grocery store a town over (because it was closer to our abandoned parking lot) and as we walked back to the car Juliette reached for my hand. I entwined our fingers.

At home, Juliette burst out of the car before I parked it in her driveway and raced into the house. I followed, gathering most of the groceries first to give them a moment to celebrate this accomplishment alone. I walked in on their giddy embrace.

I passed them to the kitchen and set everything down on the island. "We did not forget the fruit loops," I said, presenting the colorful box dramatically. "We even got you a box for your room," I said pulling out another, "for your upcoming finals. So that you won't have to trek the insurmountable distance to the kitchen to get them. "

"The twenty steps is a killer," Kelsey deadpanned. She approached the island and rounded to where I stood. "I paid the tuition online with my debit card. I hope that's okay. I couldn't wait."

"That's what the money is for, to pay for things you want and need." I reached into my back pocket to grab my phone. "Send me the receipt."

I wanted to transfer the funds back into her account. But then I felt a strangely frail squeeze wrap around my neck and dropped my phone to the counter. It was a nanosecond of a hug, nothing extraordinarily sentimental or even able to capture on film it happened so quickly. My heart leapt to my throat in that blip of time as I squeezed my daughter with one arm because the other was too slow to catch on.

She jumped away from me and reached for the box of cereal. Stuffing a handful in her mouth, Kelsey asked, "Can I sleep over Ana's next Friday?"

"Sure," Juliette and I answered in unison.

"We're going to celebrate. A couple of other people are going to be there."

"That's fine," Juliette replied.

I stole an apple and walked to the door. "I'm going to go change. You two wear something nice."

Kelsey

The waiter dropped our food in front of us and smiled. I was craving diner food, but asked Juliette before I took a bite, "Whatever happened with FedEx man?"

Her burger stopped halfway up to her face and maybe she didn't think I'd catch it, but she and Caleb made eye contact. Juliette and I sat on one side of the booth, my dad on the other. He knew something I didn't. I could tell by the way he broke eye contact and focused on his food.

"I broke it off," Juliette said nonchalantly.

"So, Summer Intensive," Caleb's chimed between french fries.

"Why? I thought you guys had a nice date that time we all got sick."

"Well, yeah. He was really nice, but I knew it wasn't going to work out. The rest is none of your business."

I huffed dramatically.

"What about you? Any boyfriends you'll be missing this summer?" Juliette teased.

"No!"

"No crushes?" she kept going, knowing full well I've had the same crush on a boy my age since fifth grade.

"Stop!" I felt my neck burning.

"Ah, not so fun when people pry into your love life, huh?" Juliette quirked a brow, smiling devilishly.

"Juliette ghosted him," Caleb said, smiling into his burger. Juliette shot daggers at him with her eyes.

"Did you really?"

"No, we had a very healthy, adult, conversation about our goals in life and they didn't align. So, it was a mutually amicable break."

Caleb leaned over the table and whispered behind his hand, "She ghosted him."

I used the same tone she had used on us student for a decade, "Miss Juliette! I'm very disappointed in you."

"Your father doesn't know what he's talking about and should mind his business."

"Yeah, your father doesn't know anything about the fact that Miss Juliette came to the realization that Mr FedEx Man's head was full of hot air and"

I felt Juliette kick him under the table.

Something really weird twisted in my stomach. A light sort of panic coiled within me, compressing my organs. I ignored the feeling and sipped my soda.

Juliette guided us to less murky waters. "I wonder if I make a phone call, if I can get you a dorm with a classmate. Unless you'd rather room with someone new."

"I didn't think about that yet," I lied.

"I'd rather you room with someone I know, so that you don't go out getting into trouble."

"I never get into trouble."

Juliette had a pretty smile, I thought. "I know," she said, "But I also remember what these intensives can be like."

"Don't worry. I won't do anything."

"I know. I'm just teasing. I know none of my students would ever embarrass their school like that."

I couldn't tell if she was joking. She knew about the parties. She'd talked to us all about getting drunk or high and cautioned us against doing anything like that. There was a policy in the contract we signed to be in the performing group that if a student were to misrepresent the school, she had the power to kick them out. My friends that partied knew how to hide it and sober up before Saturday morning class. Everyone was really careful to change out of studio gear before partying, and keep all the evidence on private accounts .

If I did, what would you do? The question tickled the back of my throat.

"They separate the boys and girls right?" Caleb asked.

"They're on different floors," Juliette replied.

"Miss Kelsey!" I snapped my attention to the hand on my shoulder. It was one of the kids from the kindergarten-age class I assisted. She launched herself in my arms and I patted her messy blonde curls. A thick awkwardness emerged when the girl's parents saw that I was with Juliette and a man they'd never seen before.

"Hi! So nice to see you out in the wild!" Juliette accepted the little girl onto her lap for a hug. "This is Caleb, Kelsey's father, we're here to celebrate because Miss Kelsey," she turned to the little girl strategically, "got into a very prestigious summer intensive at the highest level of anyone else in the school. We're all very proud of her, aren't we?"

"Ooh, maybe one day you'll get in and we will get to have dinner with Miss Juliette." The mom smiled down at me, "Congratulations, Kelsey. Our daughter looks up to you so much. She talks about you all the time."

The dad, a man I'd never seen before, motioned for his daughter to come to him and smiled so warmly at me my cheeks went hot. "One day, we're all going to be buying tickets to see you and bragging to the people next to us that we know the principle dancer."

"Oh, I don't know about that," I mumbled. The little girl climbed back over me and into her father's arms.

"I didn't know I was dining with a local celebrity," Caleb teased me.

Juliette

Just about the entire town was out that night. We had multiple students and their families come over to us during dinner, and snuck out with our desserts to-go. Caleb was in awe of how many people I knew in this part of town. "I grew up in this town," I reminded him .

"Is it always like that when you go out?" Kelsey asked.

"Sometimes," I admitted.

Caleb held the car door open for the two of us. "Well, it doesn't matter how famous you are, I'm finally going to wipe the floor with you for a change."

"Please," I scoffed, dropping into the passenger seat.

I caught Caleb and Kelsey grinning at one another through the rearview mirror. It took me way too long to realize they were in cahoots.

All the way up to me moment that, at home, Caleb pulled out a Nintendo and MarioKart and Kelsey didn't act surprised.

"Oh, I see," I nodded, sucking my teeth dramatically. "You think that because I led a sheltered life as a kid I can't play."

"We're betting on it," Caleb said, one step this way from giddy.

Sadly, he was very right.