Page 88 of Only After We Met
“Sometimes. You from here?”
“Yeah. I moved here with my family when I was little and grew up here. Then I went to college and came back. I spent a few months in Paris years back, but it wasn’t the same. I’m anchored here, to this stretch of sea,” he said proudly.
“What do you mean?”
“Just that. It’s my anchor. We all need one, don’t we?”
“I don’t know what you mean…” I murmured.
“I mean something to sustain us.”
“Sustain us…” I closed my eyes.
“Cities, circumstances, decisions all change us as we go through life, don’t you think? We’re malleable, like the clay my kids play with. I wanted to keep being the person I was here… I think that’s what it is.”
I blew out a breath of air.
“Not all of us have an anchor,” I said.
“Sometimes it’s not a place. Sometimes it’s a person, a dream… Who knows? There are so many variables. Listen, I won’t keep you any longer.” He gave me a look that was indecipherable. I don’t know if it was curiosity, or if he saw something in me. But it made me uncomfortable. “Good luck with the song.”
I thanked him and repeated that the image was perfect before walking down the steps of the porch so similar to mine and onto the sand of the beach. I took off my shoes and kept going slowly, breathing deeply, savoring the scent of the sea. An anchor. That’swhat mattered. Anchors, roots, nests.
It was so simple and painful at the same time…
44
From: Ginger Davies
To: Rhys Baker
Subject: I hate my life
When I think of college, I see all those memories through a rainbow with little stars twinkling around them. I don’t know how I could have ever complained. My “adult life” is so much worse. (I don’t care if you hate that expression, because that’s what it is.) I get up at six, wolf down breakfast, grab a train packed with people, then walk for a long time, to reach a place where everyone seems to treat me differently because I’m the boss’s daughter. It’s not fair. I mean, Dean got hooked up there too, but people ignore it because he’s not directly related and because he just knows how to win them over. Yesterday he brought everyone donuts. Why didn’t I ever think of that? It’s something people in the movies do all the time.
I’d go on torturing you with all the details of my day, but a) Idon’t want you to stop being my friend, and b) I have asuper-funmeeting about new handle models.
From: Rhys Baker
To: Ginger Davies
Subject: RE: I hate my life
Come on, Ginger Snap, it can’t be that bad. I wish I could do or say something do encourage you. I suppose adapting is always hard. And you’ve hardly had time for yourself since finishing school. Why don’t you ask your father for a few weeks’ vacation? You didn’t take any time off last summer either. Maybe you need to relax a bit, and then you’ll feel more ready to face things.
I don’t know, Ginger. I’m trying to cheer you up, but I’m terrible giving the kind of advice that you see in fortune cookies. I’m not a mood-lifter. You just blow off all the steam you need, okay? You know I’m always here.
From: Ginger Davies
To: Rhys Baker
Subject: RE: RE: I hate my life
Yeah, I guess you’re right, but I didn’t dare ask for time off when I found out Dean was about to come on board. It would have looked bad, right? Lazy. I know I’m not in a competition with him, but I want to show that I can handle it. I’ve been studying and preparing myself for years.
Almost the whole staff left to have coffee together duringtheir twenty-minute break, but no one told me. When I walked out of my office, no one was there, just Dad, who was happy to have the time alone with me to go on talking about the new handles we’re putting on the white cabinets. They used to be bronze; now they’re silver. Imagine that.
From: Rhys Baker