Goodbye Earl(16)

“That’s basically what my mama is already doing, Roses,” Ada reassured her.

“Sweet. Graduation isn’t that long after my birthday, so I’m gonna milk it. Free second party!” Rosemarie said, sitting down again and closing her eyes.

“Hey, Roses, how does Caro feel about Beau?” Ada asked.

“Caroppenheimer is obsessed with Beau and his witchy hazel eyes. What are we even talking about?” Rosemarie said, opening her eyes, looking hilariously confused.

“Witchy hazel eyes? What in the world does that mean?” Caro asked.

“Sounded good to my ears and my mouth…witchy hazel…hazel…same thing. You love everything he’s got,” Rosemarie said.

“You heard it. Perma-Truth Serum over here cannot tell a lie. So, it’s a fact, Jack,” Ada said, satisfied.

Caroline smiled wide and gave them the middle finger. Kasey gave it back and kept laughing with her eyes half-closed as she slow-motion-totally-stoned pushed her brown curls out of her face.



Later, Rosemarie and Kasey braided each other’s hair into fishtails and decided they wanted to jump on the trampoline in the backyard. Ada needed to get home to start dinner, said there was a warm steak salad with blue cheese dressing she was trying to get right.

She and Caro left and walked as far as they could together before they hugged in front of the diner. Caro went inside, started her shift.

*



Caro took the ginger out of the recipe and made another gooseberry pie. Beau and the old men at the counter agreed—they liked it better without. They left her twenty dollars again because she let them tell her about how when they went to South Goldie High, they played football and almost took state. They liked to tell that story about once a month.



She didn’t finish her homework. She smoked with Beau out back and tried her best not to laugh out loud thinking about witchy hazel eyes. She hung out with Rosemarie, Ada, and Kasey some more—they brought the Castelow boys with them too—because the girls always came up late on Thursday nights for ice cream. This time Caroline gave them pieces of gooseberry pie to go with it, demanding they tell her the truth about whether they liked it or not. Ada was the only one who offered up a fix. “More nutmeg,” she said, tapping her short pink fingernail on the plate.

As they left, Rosemarie handed Caro a little purple glass container of pot brownies for later with a wink.



“Psst. Beau, do you want a pot brownie?” Caro whispered once her friends were gone. She stood behind him in the kitchen.

“Sure. You gonna give me one?” he asked, turning to look at her with his bright-as-a-firefly face. Too cute. He had both hands in the soapy water of the deep sink. It wasn’t even his job to do the dishes, but he did them sometimes anyway. Said it was therapeutic.

Caro unsnapped the top of the glass container and broke off an ice-cube-sized chocolate square, held it out for him. When Beau opened his mouth, she put the whole thing in.

“Thank you,” he said, chewing.

“Bye! See you tomorrow!”

“All right now, Muffin Mix,” he mumbled out.

Her heart pressed Record everysingletime he called her that, and she listened to it over and over again on the ride home.

*



In her bedroom, after finishing her homework and after her grandma had gone to sleep, Caro ate a brownie as slowly as she could, savoring every gooey bite. She wrote in her baking journal.

Next pie stuff to try messing around with:

blueberry lime (with a cream wash)

blueberry lavender peach

lemon chess

raspberry honey/cinnamon meringue?



Next cookies to try:

red velvet

hot chocolate



Also:

pick up demerara sugar from the grocery store.



When she turned off the lamp and lay down, she was thinking about her girlfriends, her sisters. She got floaty, wondering if they were in bed already too. Rosemarie and Kasey were night owls, but she and Ada were usually early birds. She imagined the four of them as real birds, kaleidoscopic and fat and soaring. She wondered if Kasey was at home or staying with Ada again. Tomorrow she’d tell her she could sleep over if she wanted.

Like a lone puff of cloud smoothing the blue, her thoughts drifted to Beau—Beau being in that bed with her, Beau in his military uniform, Beau’s hair, Beau’s beard, Beau’s chocolatey mouth, Beau falling in love with her after eating her pies, Beau getting in a time machine so he would be young enough to take her to prom, Beau’s cedar smell. She didn’t try to stop them. She opened the window, took off her clothes, got under her cool sheets. Let those thoughts warm her up.





2019


5





Rosemarie Kingston


Rosemarie was already partied out. She didn’t know how she was going to get through an entire week of wedding festivities. She took a breather alone in the bathroom, texting Esme.

How goes it? Y’re coming down soon?



Soon as I can! How is everything?



It’s fine. Kase actually showed up!



Are you serious?



Totally serious. It’s kind of surreal.



Well good. I’m glad you get to