All Adults Here(57)

“And what if they take it?” Elliot looked out the window, where a pair of squirrels were chasing each other up a tree. “Then we have to do it?”

“You don’t have to do it until you’ve signed a contract,” Wendy said.

Elliot put his hands on his jaw and rubbed. “I think I’ve been grinding my teeth.” He paced. “On the one hand, I want it,” he said. “It would change the whole town, and I would be the one who did it. But on the other hand, it would change the whole town, and I would be the one who did it.”

“There will be other offers,” Wendy said. “We could do more research, take some polls, you know, find out what people want. Do they want beauty products? Sure. But maybe there’s something they want more. I’m telling you, El, this not-great offer is the sign that they will eventually make you a really, really good offer. I can feel it.” Wendy opened her laptop and started typing. “I’m just taking everything out and starting over. I love this. I feel like an assassin.”

Elliot raised his eyebrows. “Oh yeah?”

Wendy didn’t look up.

“That’s kind of hot, Wen.”

Now she looked up. Elliot walked slowly back over to his desk. His office manager sat outside, down the hall. Out of eyeshot and earshot, especially when the door was closed.

“I’ll tell you when something’s hot,” Wendy said. A twitch in her lower lip gave her away. “Sit down.”

Elliot wheeled his chair so that it was next to hers, both of them facing away from the door. Wendy unbuttoned her own pants, and then his.

“Ask me if you can touch me,” she said.

“Can I touch you?” Elliot asked.

“Yes.”

Wendy took Elliot’s hand and snaked it past her waistband.

“I’m not going to ask you,” she said. “I’m just going to do whatever I want to you, and you’re going to like it.”

“Yes,” Elliot said, his eyes fluttering closed in concentration. It was just like when they were in the library in college, so hungry for each other’s bodies that they’d have sex in the unisex bathrooms. It wasn’t that the children had taken away Elliot’s desire for his wife, or his appreciation of her body and all the things it could do—it was just that they were always so fucking tired all the time. In the land before children, Elliot had loved Wendy like crazy—how smart she was, how beautiful she was, how confident she was. She had always been out of his league, but somehow, she’d loved him back. They had both wanted children, but it felt so good to remember, before that, how much they had both wanted each other. How did anyone with kids under six do anything at all? This was how, maybe. They did things during the day—legal things, pleasurable things, any thing. He wanted to do what she said forever.





Chapter 26





Join the Parade



The Parade Crew met in seventh period, when the school day was officially over but when all the sports teams had their practices, and the halls filled with the sounds of student musicians wheeling their cello cases across the floor. Cecelia waited in the hall until just before the bell rang, then walked into her homeroom. She was in no hurry.

Ms. Skolnick was sitting on her desk with her knees wide apart, a folding table in front of her. There were half a dozen kids scattered around the room, no one that Cecelia recognized. One boy in the back of the class seemed to have a five o’clock shadow, which would have made him look like an adult if he hadn’t also been wearing a tie-dyed Pokémon T-shirt and CJHS gym shorts. A girl with long black hair sat in the front row, hands clasped in front of her like she was on her knees in church. A boy and a girl sat in the second row, holding hands across the space between their desks. The boy had a crown made out of duct tape. August, already rolling his eyes, clapped.

“Cecelia!” Ms. Skolnick said, with genuine enthusiasm. “Yes! Come on in!”

Cecelia made her way to the seat next to August and tucked her bag by her feet.

“Now, hello! As most of you know, this club will move to the woodshop next week in order to get down to business, but we’ll spend the first session planning in here. It’s a remarkably quick process, and superfun! Let’s start by brainstorming! For those of you who weren’t here”— Ms. Skolnick winked at Cecelia—“last year’s theme for the float was Lord of the Rings. Anyone care to start? Anyone want to take the chalk?”

The boy with the duct-tape crown sprang to his feet, held his palm open for the chalk, and then spun back around.

“My lady,” he said, and dropped to a knee. He held the thin white piece of chalk over his head like the world’s tiniest sword.

His girlfriend, a redhead with a Fortnite T-shirt, bowed and then slid out of her desk, took the chalk, and walked to the blackboard, swinging her hips like she were a Victoria’s Secret angel.

“WTF,” Cecelia whispered to August.

August leaned closer. “Oh, yeah, it’s like that. Megan and James have been going out since fifth grade. They’re probably going to get married. She apparently goes down on him in the bathroom every Friday during lunch. Not that I want to spread rumors! But that is what people say. They do theater tech, and that includes floats, I guess.”

The redhead, Megan, got to the blackboard and cleared her throat.