“Oh,” Will said, turning around with the fresh T-shirt in his hands. Glancing at Kaye and then back at me, he said, “You can’t anymore, because of the flirting thing.”
“Wait a minute.” I didn’t mean to raise my voice, especially not with Kaye standing there. But I felt baited and switched, so I lashed out. “I can understand why we shouldn’t flirt anymore because of the title, but not why I can’t leave my drum in your car. This is how it ends, after all our time together? What about the mortgage? What about the kids?”
His grim mouth slid to one side, like he was frustrated with me and also trying very hard not to laugh. I could hear shouts and slamming doors in the parking lot now that school was dismissed and people were getting in their cars and driving away. His blue eyes swept the area over my head, alert for anyone who might have overheard me and would tell Angelica oh noes.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. “Hold on,” I told Will, exasperated with absolutely everybody. The shop was on the line, and I figured I’d better answer since I’d ignored their call a few minutes before. “Bob and Roger’s Antiques,” I said sarcastically. “How may I help you? From band practice?”
While Roger complained to me in one ear that Bob couldn’t remember where he’d stored any of the Depression glass, I put my hand over the other ear and tried to shut out Will commenting to Kaye, “The shop calls her a lot.”
“She’s their golden child,” Kaye explained.
“I don’t know,” I told Roger, because if I kept helping him and Bob when they called me, they would keep calling me and appreciating my help, which would surely lead to a promotion and more responsibility.
Kaye was telling Will, “They have so much shit in that shop, they have no idea where it is or what’s even in there. Lucky for them, Tia has a photographic memory.”
Though Roger was still talking, I held the receiver away from my mouth while I told Kaye, “I do not.” She’d said this before. I wasn’t sure whether she was right. I never really put myself in that category or thought about my memory that way. More than being amazed with myself for remembering stuff, I got annoyed with other people for not remembering stuff.
She continued to recount the wonders of my brain to Will. Roger kept lamenting to me that Bob’s memory was going—what was left of it, that is. Will flexed his thick triceps as he pulled his clean shirt over his head.
And Sawyer wandered over from the boys’ locker room, his blond hair soaked from a shower, wearing a crisp yellow polo shirt and madras shorts, a lot like Aidan’s preppie style except that Sawyer also wore flip-flops that looked like he’d walked around the world in them. He stuck his hand out to shake Will’s. This could not be good. Alarm bells went off in my head. I was trying to get off the phone so I could intercede before something terrible happened, but I was too late.
He told Will, “Congratulations on being elected Biggest Flirt with my girl instead of yours.”
8
“SAWYER!” I SNAPPED. I DIDN’T catch what Will growled at him, but it must have been ugly, because Kaye’s eyes widened. I told Roger, “I have got to go. I’ll be there in half an hour anyway!” Hanging up on him, I told Sawyer, “Would you stop? All of this is getting blown completely out of proportion. It’s just a dumb title. The definition of flirting is that it isn’t serious.”
“I’ll tell you how it’s defined.” Sawyer pulled out his phone and typed on it with his thumbs. Kaye gamely looked over his shoulder, as though making things worse between Will and me was the most fun she’d had since her last pedicure. Irked, Will sat on his bumper and felt around in his trunk for his sunglasses without looking at me.
Reading his screen, Sawyer gasped dramatically and slapped his hand over his mouth.
I sighed with relief. The more horrified he acted, the less there was to be horrified about. That’s how Sawyer worked. “What does it say?” I asked drily, to get this over with.
“ ‘Flirt,’ ” Sawyer read in the clipped tone of a fourth-grade know-it-all. “ ‘To flick or jerk.’ Jerk?” He opened his eyes wide at Will in mock outrage.
“That’s not it,” Kaye said. “There’s another definition.”
Sawyer went back to his screen. “ ‘To make love’ . . .” He gaped at Will and then me. “Dirty!”
“What?” It was Will’s turn to sound outraged.
“. . . ‘playfully,’ ” Sawyer finished. “To make love playfully? According to this, you’ve been getting it on out on the football field, but it’s all been in fun! Thank goodness. Not to worry. I can’t imagine why Angelica is so pissed.”
With a nervous glance at me, Will grumbled, “Give me that,” and grabbed the phone from Sawyer. Peering at the screen, he said, “When they say ‘make love,’ they don’t mean sex. They mean, you know, flirting. Playing around. They’re using ‘make love’ that way because this definition was probably written in 1962, when people still wore hats.” He handed the phone back to Sawyer.
“I guess that’s what I get for downloading the free app instead of the one for a dollar ninety-nine,” Sawyer said.
“You still haven’t found the right definition,” I said. “You’re defining ‘flirt’ as a verb, ‘to flirt,’ but in the title Biggest Flirts, it’s a noun.”
“Always thinking, aren’t you, Cruz?” Sawyer tapped his temple with one finger, then looked at his phone again. “ ‘Flirt. Noun. A person who dallies with romantic partners, having no intention to commit.’ ” He pointed at Will. “That’s you!”
Will pointed at me. “That’s you.”
I pointed at Sawyer with one drumstick. “That’s you.”
Sawyer pointed at Kaye, who wagged her finger and said, “I don’t think so.”
“Anyway,” Sawyer said, pocketing his phone, “you’re right, Tia. Angelica shouldn’t be upset at all that her boyfriend is labeled as someone who’s playing her.”
“Could you guys let me talk to Tia alone?” Will’s words were polite but clipped.
“Yes,” Sawyer said, “but don’t dally. Ha!”
Kaye rolled her eyes. Bumping fists with me, she put her arm around Sawyer and pointed him across the parking lot.