“No, he doesn’t,” she said. “But it’ll be a while before you can buy one for your home. SpotBot’s job is too important to let him run and play fetch.”
“What a good boy.” The reporter scratched SpotBot behind the ear. “Back to you, Carly.”
I flipped the TV off and ran to the other room for my laptop, my lethargy forgotten. I still had Leah on Facebook, which I never logged into, and I doubted she did either. Social media had been the brand-new craze when we were starting college, and even then, she hadn’t been into it.
Still, I clicked her profile to see what I might find. It was mostly blank, stating just her name and the fact that she worked at PupTech. A phone number was listed, though – the same number I’d once known by heart.
I stared at it, conscious of my heart pumping faster in my chest. Ten or eleven years had passed since we’d spoken. What would she say if I called her now? What would I even say?
Before I could plan anything out, I was picking up the phone.
Two – Leah
I shook Francis’s hand as soon as the cameras turned off. “Thanks so much for having me on your show. I think that interview went really well.”
“Thank you for giving your time to our small local channel,” he said modestly.
“Well, this was my hometown. I wonder if my high school science teachers would’ve seen this. I should’ve given them a shout-out on-air.” I’d been a pain in the neck for Mr. Hansom and Ms. Briar, always asking questions that would’ve been intelligent if they hadn’t been answered in the assigned readings I hadn’t done.
“I’m sure they’ll be impressed if they did see it. Seriously, SpotBot is incredible.” He nodded to his camera operator, who’d just finished stowing away his equipment. “It was a pleasure to meet you. Are you in town for much longer?”
“Just for the night. I really only came back for the interview, and to reminisce a little. I hadn’t been back in twelve years.”
“Well, enjoy your stay.” He headed into the news truck, leaving me alone.
I disassembled SpotBot and packed him into his carrying case with practiced movements. I always made sure he was broken into components before taking him anywhere, especially the airport. Security didn’t necessarily get suspicious when they saw a life-sized robotic dog, but they sure did get curious.
As I packed the case into my rental car, I felt my phone vibrate in my blazer pocket. I shifted the case’s bulk so that I could check who it was – a number I didn’t recognize. My finger hovered over the “dismiss” button. I wanted to find somewhere to eat, then cruise around the city for a while. I had no time to waste on a telemarketer.
I started to jam my phone back into my pocket, then took it out again to be sure. There was something familiar about that number, and it was in the local area code. It couldn’t be someone I knew, could it? Frowning, I accepted the call. “Hello?”
“Leah! Wow, I was sure you weren’t going to answer. I was about a second away from hanging up.”
The voice was familiar, too, but I couldn’t quite place it. Unless… “Poppy?”
“Yeah! Sorry, I’m a space case! Just calling you up and expecting you to know it’s me after, what, twelve years?” She sounded exactly like she always had, upbeat and slightly frazzled. “I just saw you on TV!”
“Oh my gosh, you did?” I’d known the interview was live, but… wow. “What’d you think?”
“It was amazing, Leah, so amazing. SpotBot is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, and I freaking love his name.” She paused. “Do you have any free time while you’re in town? I’m sure you’re busy, but if you wanted to catch up…”
I hesitated. I’d thought about Poppy many times over the years. Missed her. Now here was the chance to see her live and in the flesh. I should’ve been thrilled by the invitation, and part of me was, but I just wasn’t mentally prepared for it.
“You’re busy,” she quickly said. “No problem. I knew you probably would be, I just thought I’d offer. Maybe next time you’re in – ”
“No, let’s meet up.” I gripped my phone tightly, still half-in, half-out of the car. “Have you eaten?”
“Actually, no!”
“Where would you want to go? Fiorello’s?” My mouth watered at the thought of the cheese-laden deep-dish pizzas we’d indulged in every weekend during high school. It was a wonder our arteries hadn’t clogged permanently by the time we’d graduated.
“They closed,” Poppy said sadly. “A couple years ago – they couldn’t handle the competition from Little Caesar’s and places like that. But if you feel like pizza, there’s a new place at Highland and Madison. Extra-large with unlimited toppings for $19.99.”
“Mmm… pineapple with ham and bacon and extra cheese?”
“Sounds good to me. See you in half an hour? I’ll text you the address.”
Half an hour? I needed more time to prepare to see Poppy again after twelve years. Time to get a haircut, maybe an entire new wardrobe… “Sure,” I said instead.
*
I spotted Poppy the minute I walked into the pizza joint. She was at a booth facing the window, dressed in a hoodie, her hair in a messy bun. She looked like she hadn’t put much effort into her appearance for our last-minute meeting, which made me feel strange about the way I’d just run to Sephora for a new lipstick.
As I came closer, I examined her more, noticing the changes to her face since I’d last seen her. She hadn’t developed wrinkles, and yet she did look older. Her big brown eyes drooped ever-so-slightly at the edges, and there was an almost imperceptible downturn to her full lips.
“Hi,” I said.
“Leah!” She jumped out of her seat and enfolded me in a massive hug. “It’s so good to see you. I can’t believe you’re really here!”
I held her close for longer than I probably should’ve, noting the waft of feminine fragrance that came to my nose. “I can’t believe you called me,” I said, holding her at arm’s-length to look at her again. “You look amazing.”
I was telling the truth, even with the strand or two of gray hair that I spotted on her head. Where she’d been fresh-faced and innocent-looking before, she was a full-fledged beauty now. The years had definitely been good to her.
“You look great,” she said. “I love the new curves. And didn’t I always tell you to leave your hair brown?”
My face heated. She’d always made comments about my body, innocuous considering they were coming from a straight girl, but the fact that she was looking at my body made me self-conscious nonetheless.
“I save a good ten or twenty bucks a year by not dying it black,” I said. “And living in San Fran, that money comes in handy.”
“I was just going to ask where you were living. PupTech is based in San Francisco?”
“Exactly. But you know all about my job already. Tell me what you’ve been up to! Do you still live here?”
We paused our conversation when the waiter approached. Poppy ordered for both of us, like she always had. I sat back, swirling my straw in my glass, and watched her give the waiter a dazzling smile. Some things didn’t change.
It turned out she did still live in Grass Cove, and she was now a fourth-grade teacher at the exact school we’d both gone to. It was the exact kind of job I always thought she’d end up in. Even as a kid herself, she’d had a maternal streak, and it was just like her to care for other people’s kids. I wondered if she had her own.
“Mrs. Jalana is still the principal,” she said.
“No way. She must be eighty by now.”
“Seventy, not that you’d know it by the gossip that goes around about her.”
I quirked up an eyebrow. “What does she do that’s so scandalous?”
“What doesn’t she do, is a better question.”
We both broke into laughter, stopping only because the waiter came back to set the pizza on the table. “Careful, the pan is hot,” he said.
Poppy touched it and yelped.
“Why’d you do that? He said it was hot!”
“I wanted to see for myself.” She pouted.
I shook my head at her. Now that we’d gotten caught up a little, this felt just like old times. If I let my imagination stretch a little, I could almost convince myself we were skipping third period and that we had to hurry up and get back for strict Mr. Rayson’s calculus class.
My eyes were drawn to her left hand as she picked up a too-hot slice of pizza. No ring there, which surprised me, although she still could’ve been in a relationship. She’d always said she wanted to marry and have kids early. What’d happened?
“This is delicious,” she moaned, wiping a drop of tomato sauce off her cheek. “I haven’t come here in way too long.”
“Really? I would’ve thought you’d be here all the time.”
“I come whenever I can drag someone along with me, but these pizzas are, like, two thousand calories a slice.”
I blew on my piece and took a bite. “Worth it.” After I swallowed, I met her eyes. “I’m glad you dragged me along with you. It’s really great to see you.”
“You, too. We never should’ve lost touch. I don’t know how we did.”
“Hey, don’t get like that. I’m the one who moved.” And who’d taken longer and longer to answer her calls, I remembered with a flash of guilt.
“I’ve missed you, though. No one else quite gets me like you.”
“None of your zillions of friends?”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s not as easy to make friends as an adult, first of all. But also, even back then, I would’ve said the same.”
Warmth spread through my heart. I’d always valued her friendship above just about anything else. It felt good to know she felt the same.
“Is this your way of buttering me up before you try to enforce the contract?” I asked.
Her face was blank. “Contract?”
I looked down at my plate. “Never mind. I was trying to make a joke.”
“No, that rings a bell. What was it again about a contract? Something about…?”
I grimaced. I’d thought about it so many times over the years, and she didn’t even remember. All my half-baked fantasies about pulling up to her house and showing her the copy of it I still had, and her falling into my arms…
“Wait,” she said. “Are you talking about that thing we did in senior year? When we said if we weren’t married by some age, we’d marry each other?” My face must’ve answered for me, because she laughed long and loud. “How old were we supposed to be, again?”
“I think it was forty.”
She took another big bite of pizza, her eyes flashing with amusement. “No, it was thirty. I remember you saying it wasn’t that old, not old enough to give up on finding a husband. Imagine!” She shook her head. “Thirteen years went by in a flash.”
“Mm-hmm.” I took a sip of Coke, hoping the cool liquid would take away from the heat in my cheeks. Was this the right time to mention I never planned to get a husband, but wouldn’t mind finding a wife instead?
“You know, I’m turning thirty next month.”
“I remember when your birthday is.”
She blinked, and then her eyes widened. “You didn’t think that was really why I was getting in touch, did you? Oh my God, can you imagine? ‘Hey, Leah, haven’t talked in twelve years, but I have a contract here that says we need to get married.’”
“No, not at all.” Although it had crossed my mind.
“You are still single, though?” She looked at me curiously.
“Yeah. I… yeah.” I was generally too busy to date. Women sometimes came in and out of my bed, but there were no real feelings involved – at least not on my end. “My most serious relationship right now is with SpotBot.”
“Me, too. My last girlfriend walked out on me a month ago.”
The pain in her eyes made my heart ache, and I leaned forward to set my hand on top of hers before what she’d said even clicked in my brain. “Your girlfriend?”
“Oh, you didn’t know. I didn’t even realize…” She shook her head as if clearing her thoughts. “Turns out I’m bisexual. I figured that out toward the end of college.”
Speechless, I stared at her. My lifelong crush, the unobtainable straight girl… she liked women? I could’ve had a chance with her? I could still have a chance with her?
“I guess that makes the whole contract thing that much weirder, huh?” She laughed awkwardly. “Trust me, I only meant it platonically. I wasn’t being a creep or anything.”
“Oh no, I just, um…” I coughed. “I’m gay. I guess you didn’t know that, either.”
That’d been half the reason I’d purposely drifted away from her. More than half, if I was to be honest. I’d known my feelings for her would never go away, and I’d been certain they’d never be returned, so I’d decided it was healthier to keep my distance.
I’d held back on coming out until our conversations were few and far between. That way, she’d never find out my sexuality and never figure out that I was head-over-heels in love with her.
And now, in the space of two words, I’d just destroyed that plan.
“Oh,” she said, staring at me with huge eyes, her pizza forgotten. “Oh.”
I chuckled softly. “I guess us getting married wasn’t such a crazy idea, after all.”
“Of course it was. You’re like a sister to me, Leah. Even if I haven’t seen you in a while, you’re still that girl that I grew up with.”
I swallowed, hoping to dislodge the lump in my throat. “You’re like a sister to me, too.”
Three – Poppy
“And if six out of eight is the same as two out of three, what is ten out of twenty the same as? Can anyone tell me?” The classroom was a sea of confused faces. “This one is even easier than the example, boys and girls. I know you know the answer.”
Judging from their silence, they didn’t. I scanned the room for one set of confident eyes, just one. Surely one student had followed my lesson.
In the back row, Derek Peters avoided my gaze. I hated to do this, but the bell was about to ring. “Derek, what’s ten out of twenty?”
He barely lifted his head. “One out of two,” he mumbled.
“Thank you.” I returned to the whiteboard. “To find the simpler fraction, in this case, all you have to do is cross off the zero. Ten out of twenty – one out of two. Half. Fifty percent.”
A few kids gasped, and Adele raised her hand. “You said we weren’t learning percents until next year, Ms. Barnes!”
“And you’re not.” The threat of a headache shot through my skull behind my temples. “I just mentioned that so you’d have an idea about percentages, but no, you don’t need to learn them yet.”
The bell rang, setting the kids free for the night. They hurried out, clogging the door in what would’ve been a major fire hazard. “One at a time, boys and girls, one at a time!” I called.
Popping a Tylenol, I sat down to look over my math notes. The kids had picked up fractions easily last year, so why were they not getting it this time? I hated having to rely on a star student to answer questions, especially when he was so clearly self-conscious about his smarts. Derek reminded me of Leah at that age.
She’d been a whiz kid too, which had taken the teacher a long time to figure out because she never, ever raised her hand. She was always in the back, her hood up, scribbling some weird art in her notebook because she only needed to half-pay attention to understand everything. Meanwhile I’d been passing notes with my other friends and then begging my parents to help me study.
I wondered how she was doing now. I hadn’t heard from her since that dinner almost two weeks ago, which I guessed was normal. She was an old friend, not a current friend, and just because we’d reconnected once didn’t mean it was going to be an ongoing thing. She lived a million miles away, anyway – practically halfway across the country. How much would we even be able to keep in touch?
If we wanted to keep talki
ng, it would’ve been a long-distance friendship. Texting, maybe Skype calls… I doubted I could’ve even persuaded her to come visit again, seeing as she hadn’t been here in so long. As for me visiting her, I’d been to San Fran once and had no urge to do it again. It was beautiful, sure, but the sights didn’t make up for the ridiculous cost of living.
I did have friends I mainly kept in touch with online and only saw in person once or twice a year. Somehow I’d thought Leah would become one of them, if not more than that. We’d been so close back in school, like two halves of the same person. I’d known her as well as I’d known myself – or at least I’d thought so. How well had we really known each other if we hadn’t been aware of each other’s sexuality?
Mine had been a mystery to even me, until the day my college roommate had kissed me at a party and everything had fallen into place. So that was why I’d always thought girls were just as attractive as guys. So that was why I’d been drawn to women as strongly as men.
Leah’s sexuality should’ve been obvious, in retrospect. She’d never dated the boys in our class, refused to admit to even crushing on one. I’d always wondered if there was something she wasn’t sharing with me, but in our small-town life, the idea of someone being LGBT was only something to joke about.
The third-grade teacher walked into my class, and I set the math book aside – I’d been daydreaming anyway. “Plans for tonight?” Mary asked, erasing what was left on the whiteboard – she had a debate club meeting in here in a few minutes.
“Not much. I’ll probably go over to my parents’ for dinner.”
She smiled sympathetically. She knew about my break-up, and how much trouble I’d had with being alone. “I’d offer to join if it weren’t for these guys. ‘Social media should be allowed in the classroom, agree or disagree.’”
“That one seems obvious. Definitely disagree.”
The Marriage Contract Page 2
