Page 78 of On His Schedule
I open the fridge and drink orange juice straight out of the carton because nobody is looking, and then I turn around and Rowan is. He raises one eyebrow over his shoulder.
“What the hell, Reeve. What the hell did we say about that?”
He throws his finished eggs on a plate and then says, “You buy the beer tonight, and I’ll give you this.”
I look down. “Deal.”
Rowan pushes a plate across the island toward me without looking up. “Don’t lick all the caps like Stan.”
“Stanley Ermington. He’s a pain in our ass.”
“So are you, drinking straight from the fucking carton, man.”
I chuckle.
Later that evening, when all the guys are around, Percy comes downstairs with a piece of paper and a pen. He stands at the kitchen island and looks at the four of us.
“There will be two punches tonight.” He puts one hand up and then another. “One with mango. One without.”
I look around and add, “This is non-negotiable.”
Stanley calls out from the couch, “Why are we doing two punches?”
Blue says, “Because the mango one almost killed Lucy.”
“Who’s Lucy?” Stanley asks. He’s just being a dick.
Rowan answers, “The tutor.”
“The tutor — oh my god, are we still doing this with the tutor?”
Percy ignores him. He sets the paper on the island. The paper haspunch bowl onewritten at the top with a column under it of ingredients in his small, precise handwriting, andpunch bowl twowritten next to it with a different list. Blue reads upside-down.
“What are we calling them?”
Percy shrugs. “Punch one can beJus de Fruits Exotiques.”
“Punch two?” I ask.
Blue suggests, “Safe House.”
Rowan says, “Mango-less.”
Stanley shouts, “Call it Lucy’s Juice.”
There is a beat where Blue and Rowan and I look at Percy, and then at each other, and then we lose it. Blue laughs harder than I have heard him laugh in two weeks. Rowan isn’t making any sounds but is bent over silently laughing. Stanley walks over and shakes his head at all of us.
There’s a unanimous vote, so we go with Lucy’s Juice. Percy writes the name on a piece of cardboard in Sharpie and props it up against the side of the island where the punch bowl is going to live tonight. The cardboard sign saysLucy’s Juiceand underneath, in smaller letters,(no mango).
I look at the sign for a beat too long.
Stanley sees me looking at it. He says, “Remember the House Rules, Reeve.”
“How could I forget, Ermington?”
Blue says, “You remind him every fucking day.”
Stanley pats on Blue’s shoulder and says, “With good reason.”
