Problematic Summer Romance (Not in Love, #2)(17)
But Eli was over the moon. I may have been a jealous, possessive, bratty sister, but not one so cruel to take this once-in-a-lifetime happiness away. So I just kept trying. Pushed through the delicate dance of Rue and me puttering around the kitchen, unspeaking. Forced smiles when I returned home after a day at school and she’d stare at me with those wide, serious blue eyes. Challenged myself to get her to at least tolerate me.
Then, early one morning, a few months after she’d walked into our lives and turned them into maelstroms, she showed up at the door.
“I’m sorry,” I said, “Eli’s on a work trip for the rest of the week. He must have forgotten to warn you—”
“I’m here for you.” Her low, husky voice was firm. “Happy birthday, Maya.”
She held out a pot, and I accepted it. A light green, wide-leafed plant sprung out of a ceramic vase.
“It’s a cucamelon,” she explained. “A special type of cucumber. I noticed that you like pickles and thought that you might enjoy this. They are smaller, more or less the size of your fingertip, and tend to be more sour than regular cucumbers.”
“Did you say ‘cucamelon’?”
“Yes. They are not hybrids of cucumbers and watermelons, that’s a common misconception. It’s the same family, though, Cucurbitaceae. As the plant grows, you may have to repot it into a larger container, and—” She stopped, abruptly. Looked down at her feet. And I felt like a total idiot.
Rue wasn’t cold, or mean, or arrogant. Rue didn’t hate me. Rue was awkward.
I blinked at her, unsure what to say. And maybe unknowingly communicated it in Morse code, because she added, in little more than a whisper, “It’s not you, Maya. You have been very welcoming. I am grateful for it. I’m not always able to show it, though.”
“Oh.”
“I’m not the best at this.”
“This?”
She sighed. Nodded. “This.” It should have been an obscure, inscrutable statement, but the relief of it had me feeling as though I were resurfacing after weeks underwater.
It occurred to me that maybe the reason Rue didn’t laugh much was that she struggled to figure out whether people were laughing at her or with her. That she didn’t speak because she didn’t know what to say. And that I could stand to be a little less self-centered. “I don’t mind the quiet. I…” I shrugged. Rue said nothing, just calmly waited for me to finish, and in that rock-solid moment I knew exactly why Eli had fallen so uncontrollably for her. “I don’t mind,” I repeated. “As long as you’re not planning to convince my brother that I’m a loser.”
That gave her pause. “Eli adores you.”
“Yeah? I get scared, sometimes. Because…you know. It wasn’t always good between us.”
She nodded.
“And I don’t really have anyone else.”
“I understand. I have a younger brother. But he…It’s not working out very well.”
We looked at each other. I didn’t say that if she wanted a sibling, she could be my sister. She didn’t say that if I wanted a larger family, I should keep her in mind. In fact, neither of us said much of anything. But everything changed.
I put the cucamelon pot on the back porch, and not only did it not bear the fruits she’d promised me, but it also stopped growing. That’s when I relinquished its care back to Rue, who by then had practically moved in. She nursed it back from the brink of death, and then I had the cutest little grape-sized gherkins to snack on, and a future sister-in-law with whom to sit on the couch for hours, doing schoolwork while she read her dry nonfiction books. Every once in a while, we’d look up, exchange a small smile, and go back to being alone, together.
A few weeks later, when Jade began looking for an apartment, she realized how little she could afford without a roommate. “I could go live with her. Do you need me to move out?” I asked my brother.
“Honestly?”
“Honestly.”
He shook his head. “No. And neither does Rue. We enjoy having you around. She’s worried that you’ll disappear from our lives, and…maybe I am, too?”
“I wouldn’t—”
His eyebrow rose.
“—do it again.”
He laughed. “I know you can’t live with your adult brother for the rest of your life. But I’d love having you close by. Strictly for dog walking reasons.” His face was pure seriousness.
I nodded, just as solemn. “I need you close by, too. Strictly for organ donation reasons.”
“How fortuitous.” And that’s how Jade and I ended up finding an apartment five minutes away.
I never expected that Rue and Eli would ever have a destination wedding, considering her issues around socializing. But no one here will demand from her anything more than she’s willing to give. No one here is an asshole. Except maybe…
My eyes brush against the figure standing under a string of bistro lights. Immediately bounce back to the safety of the table.
“I saved you a spot next to me,” Minami tells me, and I’m grateful and relieved, like I’ve been saved from finding a seat during fifth-grade lunch period.
She holds out her arms, and I duck in for a hug. Her straight, dark hair smells like baby powder and the same zesty fragrance she was using when she first held me, at my father’s funeral. She strokes my hair behind my ears, scanning my face. There is something maternal, parental about it, but unlike being called a girl by Conor, this doesn’t make me bristle. She earned this, by teaching me how to use tampons, reading through all my college applications, talking me out of shaving my eyebrows at least twice. And if the fact that she’s Conor’s ex makes all of this weird, I’d rather not think about it. “You look tired,” she says.