“You said it was a tough work week—do you want to talk about it? You seemed kind of stressed in the library earlier.”
Izzy took a sip of wine and thought about that. Surfing and being outside had definitely calmed her down from how upset she’d been earlier. But she was still angry.
“It’s just…There’s this guy, Gavin, who I work with,” she said. “He’s always been supportive of me, at least, I thought so. But yesterday after work, my friend Priya told me she’d overheard him talking to Marta. He said he was concerned about me being here, that I wasn’t up for working with you, that she should have me come back.”
“He WHAT?”
She turned to look at Beau, who had that rage in his face she remembered so clearly from her first week here.
“Yeah, that’s what I said.” She reached for a spring roll. “He told me that first week he thought someone with more experience should be here, and that Marta agreed, but I didn’t realize he was still lobbying to get me sent back. I’m just so mad about it.”
“Of course you’re mad,” Beau said. “I’m mad, too.”
She was unreasonably pleased at how angry he was on her behalf. It actually made her less mad, seeing how mad Beau was.
“Like, I’ve had enough problems with Marta, I don’t know why Gavin is undermining me like this. Especially when it feels like you and I are…”
“Making some progress?” he finished. “Yeah, we are. Don’t let that asshole get to you. It sounds like he’s trying to sabotage you with your boss.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m sure that’s not it. Gavin has always been…”
She thought about that. She didn’t think Gavin was trying to sabotage her, exactly. But it did feel shitty that he would try to take this away from her and go behind her back to do it. Why would he do something like that?
“I’ll email Marta,” Beau said. “I’m not ready to send her anything I’ve written yet—just the thought of sending Marta anything terrifies me—but I’ll tell her things are going well. Will that help?”
Oh no, she shouldn’t have complained to Beau about this. Now he would think she’d done it to get him to advocate for her.
“You don’t have to do that,” she said. “I’m sorry, I sort of forgot that…Anyway, I didn’t tell you that because I wanted your help.”
Beau poured her more wine. “I know you didn’t. I’m the one who asked, remember? I won’t email Marta if you don’t want me to. I just don’t want that jerk to win.” He sat up. “How’s this—I’ll only say something to Marta about you if she asks. Or if she tries to make you go back early. Does that work?”
It felt really nice that he had her back.
“Yeah. It does. Thanks.”
It wasn’t until they’d moved on to the ice cream that she said what she’d been waiting hours to say.
“So. About your name.”
Beau put his bowl of ice cream down and glared at her. “I thought you forgot about that.”
She let her grin spread across her face. “I was just biding my time. You promised to tell me.”
He picked his bowl up with a huff, but she could tell he was smiling. “I guess I did.” He took a scoop of ice cream. “Okay. My name is actually James Thomas, after my dad and my grandfather. My mom’s father, Thomas Russell. This used to be his house, his and my grandmother’s.” Izzy had known his grandfather’s name, but only because it was written in some of the books that she’d borrowed from the library and brought up to her room. But Beau had only ever talked about his family that one time. And this was definitely the first time he had ever even mentioned his mom. She was learning more about him today than she had in the entire time she’d been here.
“Anyway,” he said. “My dad gave me the nickname Beau when I was a baby. He read it in a book, I guess, and it just sort of…stuck.”
There was clearly a lot more behind what he’d said: about his dad, his mom, why he was here in his grandparents’ house. Maybe even about why he’d struggled so much with his book. But Izzy didn’t think now was the time to ask about any of those things.
“Well, I like Beau,” she said. “It makes you sound like a soap opera hero, or a fairy-tale prince, or something.”
He laughed and…was he blushing?
“Oh yeah, obviously two things I aspire to be, thanks for that.”