*
Goldie Golden Hour came early. It was steamy, but the sky was a dream—wildly blue with fat puffy clouds slowly shadowing the hills. Rosemarie strolled through the town square in the comfy clothes she’d put on after her nap—a pair of cutoffs and the black, threadbare Amnesty International T-shirt she’d had since college with her Birkenstocks—knowing full well Taylor and her girls would be dolled up like bachelorette piñatas. She’d smudged some red lipstick across her mouth and given Basie an extra treat as an apology for leaving again.
Caro and Kasey were standing outside of Duke’s waiting for her.
“Well, how’re you feeling?” Rosemarie asked Caroline. She hugged both of them.
A small pink group of Taylor’s girlfriends whooped and hollered as they made their way inside. One of them was carrying a giant purple inflatable dick and had to try three different times to tuck it down enough so she could get it through the door of the bar.
The girls laughed about it, all of them. There was a riot of intense female energy on the sidewalk in front of Duke’s, and Rosemarie let the power wash over her—heavy, hot, and buzzing.
“I slept for, like, five hours, puked twice, and drank so much water my stomach is sloshy. So, yeah. Better,” Caro said.
“Good,” Rosemarie said.
“Uh-huh. Y’all had some lols teasing me about Silas, but look who’s strutting out of the Burrito Barn,” Kasey said, tilting her head to motion across the street. Rosemarie spied Leo with his hands full, using his foot to hold the door open for someone walking in.
“Ha-ha,” Rosemarie said wryly, lifting her sunglasses and waving at him.
He looked both ways and waited until a car passed, then half jogged to their section of the sidewalk.
“It’s early, ain’t it? Figured y’all weren’t coming out until later. Didn’t know I’d be lucky enough to see you right now,” he said, stepping close to Rosemarie. He said hi to Caro and Kasey and readjusted his bags of food.
“No rules, only lawlessness. It’s the Wild West this week,” Rosemarie said.
“Seems like it,” Leo said, squinting to peek inside of Duke’s. Rosemarie turned to see what she could. One of Taylor’s friends was still wrestling with the inflatable dick, and another was standing on a chair, attempting to keep the balloon from getting whacked by the ceiling fan.
Smiles, some small group talk. Leo told Rosemarie she could let herself in later tonight if she wanted.
“You look good,” he said to her.
“Thank you, Leo. Now, get,” she said.
He leaned down to rub his nose against hers and turned away.
“All right,” Rosemarie said, irrationally shy that Caro and Kasey were witness to what just happened. They knew Leo. They knew their relationship. So what? But still. Irrational.
“Enjoy your evening, ladies! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” he said and turned back around. “Then again, I’ll do anything. You can ask Ro about that if you want to.” He winked at them and almost stepped backward into traffic. He turned at the last second and disappeared around the corner. As quick as he was gone, Ada and Taylor walked around the same corner toward them.
“Well, it looks like you and Leo continue to be completely obsessed with each other, but just in case I’m missing something, I need an update. I’m gonna need to know everything,” Kasey said to her.
“Everything,” Caro chimed in, taking Rosemarie’s hand.
Ada and Taylor were followed by another small group of girls in short dresses and sandals. Two of them were carrying pink balloons. One of the girls was visibly drunk, a light rain of mascara across her cheeks. Taylor doled out quick kisses to RACK and disappeared with her friends inside; Ada stayed out on the sidewalk.
“Did you literally run into Leo Bell?” Kasey asked her, pointing.
“Yeah, almost. Why?” Ada said. She was in her pink dress from earlier. One thing about Ada Plum was that she loved being in a pink dress, period. Rosemarie let it in—how good it was being back together like this, the four of them in Goldie again. She glanced at Kasey one more time to make sure she was real.
“Why? Because Roses and Leo are out here rubbing noses in public, but she’s being shy about it, and maybe she has a lot to tell us—that’s why. So, let’s go sit down so she can do that,” Kasey said.
Rosemarie shook her head at them. Snatched her sunglasses off and hooked them into the collar of her shirt. Caro gently nudged her toward the front door of Duke’s, and time slowed as the music box of the glossy white ice-cream truck lazily made its way up Main like a languid raft on water.
She felt a lift in her heavy, latent sadness. Thought of Leo on his walk home and his ex-wife, what she was doing now. Rosemarie had been so jealous when he told her that he was getting married, but she’d stood next to him in her slim tuxedo anyway and smiled and cried. She thought of Leo walking into his empty rental house alone. She thought of him waiting for her to come over later. How he’d say Ro again like his mouth tasted good when he made the sound. No one else called her Ro.
She thought about Esme too. How humid her Seattle heart would find Goldie, how she’d want to get barbecue because she’d never had Southern barbecue. She imagined Leo and Esme meeting for the first time. How Leo would say something smart and funny to make Esme laugh, how effortlessly Esme would match his energy. Leo and Esme knew about each other, knew Rosemarie considered herself to be in a relationship with both of them, and they accepted that and agreed that it was certainly possible to be in love with more than one person at a time, because they’d experienced it too. Rosemarie had always been open with them about everything, but it was impossible to explain exactly how she could love them both so equally and differently. How life was way too short to worry about the specifics of love since it all felt so warm to her. So warm and so home, no matter what anyone thought or said.
The girls moved through the dark of the bar and out the back door. Onto the patio, into the sun again. Rosemarie sat at the table and put her sunglasses back on, thinking too much. Filled with love and wonder and a whirlpool crush of emotions. Happy and sad at the same time. Hot and dizzy as a june bug.
2004
6
Rosemarie’s mom had made taco filling with fake meat and homemade salsa with cilantro and hothouse tomatoes from their greenhouse. She roasted corn in the green Spring Blossom Pyrex and grated cheddar cheese into a matching bowl before she and Rosemarie’s dad left for a gig in Adora Springs, thirty minutes away and two towns over. Caroline had come home with Rosemarie to snack after school but didn’t stay long, because she had a diner shift. Ada was at a prom committee meeting. That left Rosemarie and Kasey, too full to move, in a patch of sunlight on the trampoline.
“We have to go hunting for a prom dress for you. Tomorrow! Everything good is probably gone already! Why are you the one slowpoking when you actually have a date?” Rosemarie asked.
Ada and Kasey were going with the Castelows, Caro didn’t have a date yet, and what Rosemarie really wanted was to ask Sparrow Kim to prom because Sparrow Kim was her crush. Sparrow had been her crush for months. Sparrow was half-Korean and half-black with skin that held the sun. Her parents owned the one Korean restaurant in town: KG. Korean Gold.