Boomerang

by Noelle August

  Brushing imaginary lint from his sleeve, he says, “In fact, I want you two to fill out bios for one another. Get to know your competition.” His shrewd eyes move back and forth between us, and a knowing smirk makes a fleeting appearance. “All right?”

  Ethan nods and fires up his tablet. “Great.”

  I sit back but hook a toe around my desk leg so I don’t roll away again.

  “Sure,” I say, glancing at Ethan. “That won’t be a problem.”

  Chapter 8

  Ethan

  Q: Tell us a little about yourself.

  Adam walks away, leaving us at our new desks.

  For a few seconds, Mia and I just stare at each other. I wonder if she’s as tired as I am. Whatever we did together last night, sleep didn’t figure into it much. I don’t drink coffee, but I’m tempted to fire up the massive coffee machine on the counter and mainline some espresso.

  “Should we get started?” she asks, her tone a little too bright. She’s not happy about competing for something that was supposed to be a sure thing either.

  I have a wild urge to bow out of the running and let her have the damn internship. Then I remember the box crate in my closet filled with utility bills, student loans, and law school applications. Bowing out would be really fucking dumb. I barely know this girl.

  But apparently that’s about to change.

  Mia taps on the keyboard in front of her. “Do you want to take turns or go at the same time?”

  “Let’s go at the same time. That’s usually more fun.”

  Her eyes snap up to me. Guess I’m not the only one with a dirty mind.

  “I’ll start.” I open the laptop in front of me and find the Boomerang Profile icon, clicking it open. “Last name?”

  “Galliano. Two L’s. One N.”

  “You’re Italian?” All morning I’d been thinking she’s Greek or Brazilian.

  “Half Italian, half Jewish,” she says. “Guilt is my Kryptonite.”

  Her eyes are on the screen, but I can tell she’s fighting a smile.

  “Vance for me. Just how it sounds. Age?”

  “Twenty-one,” she answers. “I’m an early bloomer.”

  I get the feeling her sense of humor cannot be contained. That’s trouble. This would be much easier if she were more like Alison, who’d go on emotional benders for weeks for reasons I never understood. Mia can’t be this easygoing.

  “Twenty-one for me, too.”

  We keep going, plowing through some basics, and I learn she was born in Little Silver, New Jersey, and is an only child. Her favorite childhood book is The Phantom Tollbooth, and her favorite dessert is something called halvah.

  I tell her that I was born in Colorado, actually in my parents’ bowling alley; that my favorite color might be brown—or maybe red or orange—but I’ll tragically never know since they tend to look the same, thanks to my mild color-blindness; and that my favorite foods are anything that’s not Chinese.

  Then we get to the tougher questions.

  “Duration and end of last relationship?” I ask.

  “Ugh.” Mia grimaces and drives her fingers into her curly hair. “People actually have to answer this?”

  “This service is for people on the rebound.”

  “I suppose. But the question’s kind of a downer, right? Anyway, my last relationship lasted a year, and ended about a year ago. You?”

  I stare at the blinking cursor on my screen. A year ago? No one else since then? I don’t know why, but that surprises me.

  “Ethan?”

  “What—oh. Two years for the duration, and it ended two months ago.”

  “Wow. Two years?”

  “Next question.”

  “Touchy subject?”

  I look up and see a teasing smile.

  “You could say that.” For a while there, I’d thought this day couldn’t possibly get any weirder, but talking about Alison to a girl I slept-and-now-work-with is definitely leveling me up.

  “Next. Question,” I say. “Unless you want to watch me destroy an overpriced espresso machine.”

  “Number of sexual partners?” she says.

  “What the fuck?” My eyes drop to the screen. Sure enough, there’s the question.

  “I believe the question pertains to how many. Not what.”

  “Christ. They really want to get to know you, don’t they?” I roll my shoulders, feeling like I’m suddenly boiling. “Fine. Just don’t judge, okay? This is a sensitive subject for me. Eighty-three.”

  Mia rolls her eyes. “In your dreams.”

  “Actually, then that number would much higher. Infinity, probably. If you want a real number, though, it’s an even ten. And let me remind you that I was with one girl for two long-ass years, so you have to factor that into account.”

  I’m kind of expecting her to comment on the ten, but Mia says, “Two long-ass years, huh? Sounds like a good time.”

  “You have no idea.”

  “Actually,” she says, “I think I do.”

  I hear sadness in her voice, and I’m tempted to ask her about her ex, but avoiding baggage wins. “What about you? What’s your number?”

  “Kyle makes four.”

  That puts my brain into lockdown for a little while as I process. Four. Four guys who’ve been with her. Four guys I don’t know, but who I suddenly don’t like.

  Then I replay what she said. “So, with me, that’s five, right?”

  She gives me a keep your voice down glare and whispers, “Four total, because we didn’t.”

  I lean back in my chair and cross my arms. “Oh, yes. We did. More than once, I’d say.”

  She leans forward, steepling her fingers and giving me a scrutinizing look. “And you think that why?”

  “Well, for starters, your thong was in my toaster oven.”

  “Hey, it’s a great place to store them. I might start doing that all the time. It could be the next big thing. Think about it. Thong warming drawers.”

  “Are we really talking about hot thongs right now?”

  “Apparently. But a hot thong does not a sexual encounter make.”

  “Fair enough, but we did wake up naked in my bed.”

  “Still doesn’t mean anything.”

  I put my hand to my chest. “That hurts. Okay, how about this: I’ve never been naked with a beautiful girl, in a bed, and not had it happen.”

  Hold up. Did I just call her beautiful? Yeah, I did.

  Once again, Mia doesn’t react. She’s either used to being called beautiful, could care less that I just called her beautiful, or is hiding that she likes that I called her beautiful.

  I catch my train of thought and want to beat the shit out of myself.

  The job, Vance. Focus.

  “Let me think about this,” Mia says. She taps her fingers to her chin and narrows her eyes like she’s pondering the meaning of life. “So, you’ve been in bed with ten naked girls, and every single time, you’ve had sex with them?”

  “That’s right. I have a perfect record.”

  “And you’re counting me?”

  I spread my hands. “You were naked in my bed.”

  I remember the way she looked, all gorgeous curves, green eyes, and that wild curly hair. It’s a damn good thing this desk is providing some cover, because I’m pitching a tent under it right now. Nice fucking timing.

  Mia smiles and gives a little shrug. “Then I guess your number’s only nine.” She taps a few keys on her keyboard, changing it in my profile. “Sorry to spoil your winning streak.”

  But the sparkle in her eyes tells me she’s not sorry at all.

  Chapter 9

  Mia

  Q: Tell us about your family.

  Immediately upon arriving at Casa Galliano that evening, I am shoved onto a stool under lights bright enough to produce an x-ray, at which point a giant wooden spoon coated in something green is thrust at my face.

  “Joe, you’re in the middle of my shot,” my mom complains, popping out fro
m behind her Linhof Technikardan to adjust the lens, glare at my father, and shoot me a volley of air kisses. Her bottle-red hair is threaded with silver, and she’s in grungy pink sweats and a black tank, so I know she’s on a creative bender.

  “Pearl,” dad replies, “you’re in the middle of my tasting.” He turns back to me and winks. “What d’ya think of the pesto, Mia Moré? Good? Bad? Too salty? Needs more basil?”

  Resistance is most certainly futile, so I take the spoon and taste—“Needs some chili paste, Jo-Jo, a little spezia”—then I wipe my mouth on my father’s apron, finger-comb my hair, and strike a pose for my mom, which she immortalizes with a couple of quick shots.

  “What am I this time?”

  “The face of unchecked capitalism,” she says. “I’m going to silkscreen you onto an eight-foot dollar bill. It’s for an installation at the New York Stock Exchange.”

  It amazes me what they let my mother get away with, but when you’re as famous as she is, you get to call the shots. “Really?” I tease her. “That seems so tame for you.”

  “Well . . .” She disappears behind the camera again, so I barely hear the rest, but I think I catch the word, “impaled.”

  I’ve had worse.

  Looking around at the array of equipment and the wall-wide bulletin board cluttered with images, I think about how sure my mother seems to be, how all of her projects—as bizarre and otherworldly as they can sometimes be—seem so absolutely and perfectly her.

  “Hey, mom,” I say. “How did you . . .”

  I’m not sure what I want to ask, exactly, and it always feels like cheating, somehow, to go to my mother for advice. Like taking a shortcut through private property. “How did you decide, umm—like what your artistic perspective would be? Like how to, I guess, see things the way you see them?”

  “I just let myself play,” she mutters. “I didn’t hold on as tight as you.”

  I swallow, disappointed, and stare past her out to the sage scrub dotting the walls of the canyon beyond our backyard.

  “Where’s Nana?” I ask, changing the subject. “How’s she doing today?”

  “Good day,” my mother says, but my father scratches the gray stubble under his chin and shakes his head. My mom’s special gift—and curse—is seeing what she wants to see. It’s great for art. Not so much for life.

  I sigh, staring past my mother as she snaps a few more pictures.

  Dad drops onto an original Eames that they treat like a yard sale find, completely heedless of the pesto that drips from his spoon onto the spongy yellow linoleum floor of my mom’s studio. Luckily, my mom has the equivalent of Ethan’s color-blindness when it comes to stains.

  Which, of course, makes me think of him, of the things I’d learned during our mutual interview. I learned that he practically grew up in his folks’ bowling alley and once missed a perfect score by one spare. I learned that his eyebrows swoop upward over his nose when he’s deep in thought. And I learned—without him telling me—that he loves kids. His face shined brighter than my mom’s studio lights when he talked about coaching youth soccer.

  It doesn’t matter. I know that. Though I suppose if you have to wake up next to someone after a night you can’t remember and work with that person in your face every single day, it’s better if that person is decent, smart, and sexy.

  “How was your first day, kiddo?” asks my dad in that creepy way both my parents have of reading my mind. “Make any friends?”

  “Great,” I say. “Though it turns out I’m competing with another intern for a job there. And we’re in marketing, which isn’t my thing.”

  My mom clucks her disapproval, but my dad brightens.

  “That’s great,” he says. “Best thing in the world is winning something you really fought for. And it doesn’t matter if it’s your thing. Make it your thing.”

  “I guess.”

  “Trust your old man on this one.” He stands again. Since his accident—when an apprentice electrician turned off the wrong breaker, putting my dad in contact with a live wire, he’s physically incapable of sitting for more than two minutes. He hands me the spoon and threads a precarious maze of light umbrellas, coiled electrical cords, and boxes of props that look like they come from a production of Lysistrata set on the moon.

  Ducking behind my mother, he wraps his arms around her and nuzzles her neck. “This one said no to me about a hundred times before she gave me a yes.”

  “What are you talking about?” I say. “You got pregnant with me on your first date!”

  “Yeah, but it took me a hundred tries to get to that date. No wonder we were so goddamn randy by then.”

  Laughing, my mom tilts her head up and draws him in for a kiss—my cue to gather up the shreds of my psyche and flee.

  I grab my camera from the hall closet, where I’ve stashed it since some party guest of Sky’s used it to shoot a highly meaningful vignette about his balls.

  Heading through the sunny Tuscan kitchen to Nana’s suite, I snag an apple from the basket, peek through the stacks of mail to see if anything’s for me, and put aside my mom’s copy of Aperture to steal later.

  Nana’s TV is set a notch past ear-splitting, so I knock vigorously and then open the door.

  I find my grandmother in underwear and sneakers, trying to wrestle into silk pajama pants, the only thing she’ll wear these days because, she says, everything else makes her legs itch. About a hundred bobby pins stud her wavy hair—also auburn out of a box—which means she’s just had it washed and set.

  “Oh, good, you’re here!” she exclaims. Behind the thick lenses of her eyeglasses, her lively hazel eyes look clear, focused, and I’m thankful for that.

  Sometimes, it feels like Nana’s on a boat, and I’m on the shore, waving goodbye and watching her grow smaller and smaller in the distance. I can’t swim out after her, and I can’t bring her back. I can only capture the parts of her that remain in sight.

  I shake off my gloom.

  “Hey, Nana!” I give her a kiss on her cool papery cheek and then coax her back into a chair. “Let me help.”

  She lets me take off her shoes and then steps into the pajama pants, which I draw up her legs and then, lifting her from her chair, secure around her waist. I tug the drawstring tight, like she likes it, aware of how hollow-boned and small she feels to me these days.

  “Is the top in here?” I ask, going to her closet.

  But she just shrugs and gives me a look that tells me she’s lost the thread. I find a soft cotton top in midnight blue with tiny white hibiscus spilling down the sleeve and help her into it, buttoning the buttons for her.

  “I’m glad you brought that,” she says, gesturing at the video camera I set down on her bureau. “They told me to film my things in case the girl comes back and takes them.”

  “What girl? Who told you?”

  “The girl they have come help me.”

  She must mean one of her aides, though I can’t imagine any of them stealing from her.

  “Can we start?” she asks. “Bring me my purse.”

  I do and turn on my camera, focusing on her crisp bed linens to help me adjust the white balance and then opening the iris to let in a little more light.

  She fishes around and pulls out a long strand of pearls with a diamond pendant in the symbol of a chai—the Hebrew symbol for life.

  “Stan brought this back from Israel,” she says, and I film her as she worries the beads, drawing them over and over again through her fingers. “He spent three hundred dollars on them, a fortune in those days.”

  “I guess he thought you were worth it, Nana.”

  She lets herself smile, though it collapses into a frown, and she shoves the beads at me. “Take them.”

  “Oh, no.” I lay them in her lap, placing her hands back on top of them. “They’re yours. You keep them.”

  She rolls them up and drops them back into her purse, which she snaps shut and hugs against her chest. “I just don’t want that girl to get them
,” she says. “She comes in here and touches everything.”

  “She’s probably just trying to clean or help you put things away.” I make a mental note to ask my mom about this new person.

  For now, though, I turn the camera back to my grandmother, try—but fail—to see her through the lens’s more objective eye. I watch her, the wry half-smile on her lips telling me she’s dreaming some secret dream—maybe about my grandfather or about being a young girl whose ambition brought her to the law and to fight for civil rights in the South.

  I look around at her jewelry, at her books and dresses and mementos. Next to the photo of her standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Martin Luther King is one I love even more. She sits behind the wheel of an old car—a Studebaker, she told me—with one of my grandpa’s cigars clamped, unlit, between her teeth. Her smile is absolutely dazzling, and she gives the camera a wink like the moment will last forever.

  Something snaps to life inside me, and I realize I’ve found my way into my film. These objects—the photographs, the jewelry, the antique perfume bottles lining her ivory-inlaid dresser, all of these things she’s kept through her adulthood, through the loss of my grandfather and her two older sisters, through her journey from an extravagant apartment in Forest Hills to this modest room clear across the country, they can tell her story for her. They can help me tell the world who she is.

  “Tell me more about the necklace, Nana,” I say and lift the camera once again.

  Chapter 10

  Ethan

  Q: On a scale of one to ten, how would you rank your physical fitness?

  How the HR manager from hell wound up leading my team through warm-up drills is a mystery I will never solve.

  One minute I was in Century City bumming a ride from Rhett Orland after work. The next, I’m on the Beverly Hills High soccer field watching him run my squad of under-nine boys through a third set of push-ups.

  I’ve been standing here for ten minutes, and I still can’t believe this.

  “Come on, boys!” Rhett yells. He links his hands behind his back and paces down the line of groaning kids like a drill sergeant. “Put some want to in it! Backs straight, tails down! Feel that, boys? Can you feel the goodness?”