Saugatuck Summer (Saugatuck, #1)(34)
“I’ll do that.” She grunted, laying one hand over her huge abdomen and taking a moment to compose herself before smiling again. “Take care, Topher. We’ll be in touch.”
On the way back through town, I walked again past the tattoo parlor where Mo had gotten inked. I was so not going to inquire about Jace like she had pushed me to do. However, seized by a momentary flash of inspiration, I went inside.
Geoffrey was there, just as incongruously clean-cut as ever. “Good afternoon. Topher, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, hi.” I shook his hand again, smiling nervously.
“Thinking of having something done?”
I chuckled, feeling my face heat up for the second time that day. “No, not at the moment. I, um, I’m here in town for the rest of the summer, and I don’t know any local people. I’ve been looking for work but it seems like all the summer positions are filled already. And I know sometimes in a small town like this, if you know people who know people, you can find stuff that never gets listed in the classifieds. So I thought, if you didn’t mind, I’d just give you my name and number. Then, if you heard of anyone needing help, you might let me know, or give them my information?”
“Didn’t I see you playing piano at the coffeehouse last week?”
“Oh, that’s just an informal thing for tips. I need something that actually pays a wage. If you’d like, I could bring by a résumé, too, or email one. I still have your card.”
“Ah, okay. The networking approach is a pretty clever idea, actually. Good thinking.” He pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Have you been to the art gallery down the street? Ling is—”
“Yeah, I just came from there, actually. She promised to have the owner call me, but I don’t really know anything about art, so in case that falls through, I thought I’d put out feelers in a couple other directions.”
“That’s good. I’ll put in a word for you with Robin.” He winked at me. “I have just a little pull there.”
“You— Oh!” For the first time, I noticed the band on his left ring finger, and remembered Ling mentioning that this Robin guy was gay and off the market. And her sort-of brother-in-law. I grinned, ridiculously pleased by the symmetry of the whole thing. “Right. Ling Gilchrest. She’s your sister. Cool! She seemed really nice.” Wow. I would never have guessed it, seeing as how she was Asian and Geoff was about the WASPiest WASP ever to WASP. Of course, considering that I’d had more Asian classmates than black because of the number of families in the area who adopted Asian children, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised.
So, Ling was (probably) adopted, and Geoff was with Robin. Got it.
“Nice doesn’t begin to cover it. She’s amazing.” He cleared his throat and shook himself. “Anyway. The position at the gallery will only be part-time, but I can use some help here if you need more hours. Mostly cleaning, sanitizing, and janitorial stuff. All extremely important for obvious reasons. I might also need you to help with the appointment schedule, answer the phone, greet clients, take care of them while they wait or decide on designs. Having someone else to do the grunt work frees me up to take a few more appointments or get home a little earlier. Tourist season gets pretty busy, which means I have to spend a lot more hours at work to keep everything up to standard, but in another month or so I’m going to want all the free time I can get.”
I nodded eagerly. “You’ll have to teach me how, but I learn really quickly. Which I know probably everyone says, but it’s true.”
He gave me a kind smile. “I believe you. I’ll talk it over with Robin tonight when he calls and we’ll decide on a wage and see if we can figure out a schedule for you.”
“Thank you.” I bobbed another nod. I don’t know why his kindness made me feel a little emotional, but it did. Maybe because of all the turmoil of the last couple weeks, and the uncertainty of the weeks to come. I might very well lose the last stable thing in my life soon, which made every smile and friendly gesture more precious to me.
Of course, the emotion could have been coming from the fact that I finally had a solid offer of steady, paying work, assuming I didn’t manage to screw it up somehow. If the wage they decided on was sufficient, then one of my two major worries for the summer would be a thing of the past. And regarding the other worry, the distinct lack of karmic kick-in-the-teeth inherent in finding a job at last almost felt like a pardon.
Now if only the situation with Brendan could come to such a clean resolution.
Geoff held out his hand. “You’re welcome. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
I shook his hand and left, heading for the coffeehouse to play for a couple hours. I felt lighter than I had in days, relieved of at least one burden. The other—namely Brendan—was going to be a whole lot harder to sort out.
I wished I could say that the affair with Brendan made me happy, but it really didn’t. Being his friend had made me happy. This just made me confused. But there were moments of tenderness and kindness that verged really close on joy, and sometimes even laughter, as we rediscovered how much we liked each other’s company, even in this new context. But mostly it was just angst. Hot, sweaty, frequently sexy angst, but still angst. And fear. And dread of the day when we’d have to account for what we’d done.
When I got home, Brendan wasn’t at work on his laptop for once. He was sprawled out idly on the sofa, and there was a freshly delivered pizza box on the breakfast bar.