Page 98 of Wayfarers

“Do you really have the money for that? I feel like you don’t.”

“It’s worth it,” I tell him, hand over the phone. “Found a Holiday Inn that’s only half an hour away.”

“I don’t want you to have to drive in this—”

Someone’s picked up the phone at the hotel. “Hello?” I say. “Hi! I know it’s late, but we’re camping in this storm, and I was hoping you had a—”

“We’re booked up all week,” the clerk says shortly. “Beach vacationers.”

“Oh. Okay. You’re sure you don’t have anything?”

“Our guests booked these rooms months ago. You’re not going to have any luck around here tonight.”

“Sorry,” I tell him, though I’m not sure why I’m apologizing, and he hangs up the phone without saying goodbye.

“No room at the inn?”

“Beachgoers.”

“Huh,” he says.

We listen to the rain drumming on the roof of the van.

Be brave, Sylvie. I square my shoulders. I open my mouth. I say, “Listen, if you climb up in here with me, we can share and I can keep a pillow between us or something Holy Spirit style. Not like I believe in the Holy Spirit? But they used to say that to us at dances. Catholic school, right? The chaperones had little squirt guns and if we danced too close during a slow song they would squirt us like we were animals.” Dear God. “We’re not animals. But ha! Speaking of animals! Winslow can sleep where you just were. See? There’s enough room. Go ahead and trade places.”

“Okay,” Knox says, slowly, in a no sudden moves kind of way. Then he unfolds himself off the floor, shoos Winslow gently off the mattress, and climbs in next to me, warm and damp-haired and—all at once—right there.

Sylvie Negotiations

I was a kid with serious eyebrows

and a deadbeat dad, so it’s probably

not a surprise that I didn’t kiss anyone

for the first time for a long time.

It was complicated. My house was always

such chaos—some weird bearded bartender

that my mom was dating on the couch, or

the leaking take-out containers

crowding each other in the fridge—I didn’t

want people to look at me at school and see

that. I didn’t want to bring anyone home.

Also it wasn’t like there was a line

forming to kiss me, let’s be clear (I can’t stress

the big serious eyebrows enough)

and so I resolutely ignored any hints