The Accidentals(10)

It sounded logical enough until I met Hannah’s gaze. It was the only time I’d seen her look anything but self-composed. For the barest moment, Hannah’s hazel eyes got wet.

That’s when I’d looked out of Hannah’s car window for my first view of the Parson’s Home for Children.

Hannah had taken a deep breath through her nose. “Rachel, this happens a lot. Your mother didn’t expect the end to come so fast. Nobody ever does. She didn’t think she’d die before you turned eighteen. And your aunt is in shock right now. I’m going to give her a week, and then I’ll call her again to see if you can join her in Georgia when you’re done with school.”

But then Hannah tracked down Frederick instead, who surprised us both by showing up a few days later. And I still don’t know what it means for me.

While Mary blow dries my hair, the next client arrives. Her handbag is an elaborate, quilted monstrosity. “Just one minute,” Mary cries. “Listen, you call me any time,” she whispers to me. “I’m always home by seven. Seriously, I want to hear from you.”

“Thank you.”

Mary waves off Frederick’s payment.

“How about I leave a tip?” As I watch, he puts five twenties into a tiny salon envelope and leaves it at Mary’s station. “Didn’t you need shampoo?” he asks, jutting a thumb toward the wall of products.

“Well…” The things in Mary’s shop are twenty-five bucks a bottle. My mom and I bought our shampoo at the drugstore, like normal people.

Mary snatches a bottle off a shelf and presses it into my hand. Then she gives Frederick a firm stare. “She needs to eat more often,” she says. Then, to me: “Call me, sweetie. Any time.”





An hour later, I sit on a chaise lounge under an umbrella beside the Ritz-Carlton hotel pool. With my math book in my lap and a pencil in my hand, I could almost be studying.

Except that Frederick is seated a couple of umbrellas away from me, growling into his phone.

Whoever Henry is, Frederick is unhappy with him. “Look, I get that the promoter has your balls in a vice. Otherwise you wouldn’t be whining at me like a fucking girl. But this is only going to get worse before it gets better.”

There’s a lull, and I think maybe they’re done arguing. But not yet. “Dude,” Frederick says, his voice tight, “I need the calendar cleared, and you need to deal with the fallout. Rip the Band-Aid off, Henry. Do it now, or I’ll hire someone who will.”

Yikes.

And if Frederick needs his calendar cleared, is that because of me?

A waitress approaches, flashing a set of perfectly pearly teeth. “How are you doing today?”

“Fine, thanks,” I say automatically. Her name tag reads Heidi. What would Heidi even do if I admitted that I was not at all fine?

“Can I bring you anything? A glass of lemonade? Iced tea?”

“No, thank you.” This is a nicer hotel than the ones where Haze and I sneak in to use the swimming pool. A glass of tea is probably six bucks.

“Just wave me down if you change your mind.” She gives me another brilliant smile and moves on.

As it happens, I end up ordering that tea an hour later, anyway.

“We’re in a bit of a hurry,” Frederick tells another smiling waitress as we sit down at a cafe table. “What can we order that comes out quick?”

“Steer clear of the pizza,” she advises. “Salads and burgers don’t take as long.”

“Gotcha. Pizza at a hotel is a pretty dicey proposition, anyway. Okay, I’ll have a burger, medium rare. And fries.”

I order the Cobb salad. And when she walks away, a silence falls over us. Frederick fidgets with his roll of silverware. I watch a young father in the swimming pool. He stands in the shallow end, encouraging his little girl. “You can do it! Kick!”

The child is wearing pink swim fins and a Mickey Mouse bathing suit. Frederick notices them too. The swimming dad plucks the little girl out of the water and whirls her around. “Whee!” he says. “Whee!” And then he says it ten more times.

I feel like throwing my overpriced iced tea at them.

That’s when Carlos approaches our table with a little black shopping bag. He deposits it in front of Frederick.

“Would you bring the car around in fifteen?” Frederick asks. “We’re going to have to dine and dash.”

“Sure thing.” Carlos gives me a face-cracking smile as he turns away.

Frederick reaches into the bag and pulls out a phone, which he hands to me. “This is for you. So I can get in touch with you.”

I look down at the sleek thing in my hands. It’s a brand new iPhone, in a jaunty orange case.

“If you want to keep your old number, my assistant can look into that,” he says.

I swipe the screen and it flashes to life, the apps popping into view like little jewels. It’s the phone that Mom and I never would have splurged on, not in a million years.

A surge of irrational disgust washes over me. I find myself wondering what Frederick would do if I said it wasn’t the right color. Or if I turned and threw it into the pool.

Would he yell at me and make a scene? His reaction might tell me something about him that I can’t learn from watching carefully edited YouTube videos.