Page 18 of Sleeper: The Palisades Edition

“In perfume.”

“In scent design and creation.”

“So now you’ve learned all the different ways to mix things together to get the smells you want?”

She smiles and blushes. “Pretty much. Anyway, I boarded with the Angier family. Noelle and Leo are the kids. Noelle was six when I first got there, Leo was eight. School-age. I’d look after them when their parents were at work or traveling. My class schedule was similar to theirs, so it worked out quite well. They’re good kids. It was easy.”

“Well, mine are good kids, but they aren’t easy.”

“No?”

“No, they’re a nonstop adorable nightmare. Like an animated Disney movie that follows you around and just won’t end.”

She giggles. “I don’t believe you.”

“You’ll see. They’re really smart, though. Probably a little too smart for my liking.” We’re in the produce section, and I reach for a bunch of organic bananas. “Hey, you don’t happen to know why banana skins get brown spots, do you?”

“Enzymatic browning,” she says without whipping out her phone or even stopping to think. Her face lights up as she explains, “Polyphenol oxidase reacts with phenolic compounds and oxygen to create brown pigments. During the ripening process, amino acids transform to ethylene gas, which is a hormone, to break down the complex sugars. They also go brown frombruising if they’re dropped, because that makes them produce the gas faster. It’s actually best to eat a banana once the brown spots have started to develop. Sugar is easier to digest than starch.”

I am an undereducated moron.

“Right. Chemistry. I’ll just tell Lucky it makes the bananas sweeter.”Moving on.“Do you speak Spanish?”

“I’m pretty fluent in French, but I learned how to say ‘please leave me alone, I’m not interested’ in five other European languages. Why do you ask?”

“Because the kids learn Spanish at school. Our other nannies would speak it with them quite a bit. Don’t worry about it. It sounds like you were very popular in Europe.”

“I could probably pick up Spanish really quickly,” she says, ignoring my last comment. “They’re both Romance languages.”

“Really, don’t worry about it.”

“No, I should learn Spanish if I’m here. You must speak it pretty well by now.”

“Si.” That’s it. That’s the extent of my spoken Spanish.This girl is out of my league.

“Where do you live?”

“Pacific Palisades. Overlooking the ocean. It’s between Malibu and Santa Monica.”

“I’ve been dying to get out to the beach.”

“My house is on the bluffs, with a view. I gotta warn you, though. I mean, has Nico told you anything about my neighborhood? It’s no place for a single twenty-four-year-old. Every restaurant in the village is closed by ten. It’s really family-oriented and quiet.”

“Has Nico not mentioned that I’m a boring dork?”

“I don’t think so.”

“I am.”

“Really? Because you seem like a fairly exciting dork to me.”

“Really? Thank you, but you seem like you have fairly limited experience with dorks.”

“It’s not for lack of trying. Can you cook? You don’t have to.”

“I cooked for the kids in France sometimes, sure. But I learned a lot of tricks from their grandmother, and they all involve butter, so…”

“My personal trainer will hate that.”