Kids These Days

Chapter 36: Andy

We meet at Sorrento's to discuss treasure hunting.

The message Talia left on my landline made it clear that this is purely a business meeting; no feelings involved, no strings attached. We're sticking to the deal we made by the Salton Sea. (It only took me three days of listening to "Silver Springs" on repeat to get over it...)

I find her sitting in a booth by the window, halfway through a plate of garlic bread. "Sorry," Talia says, wiping her hands clean on a napkin, "I just got off my shift."

"Will your brother be making a surprise appearance?" I ask, sliding into the seat across from her. I don't know if Talia and Kiran are twins or close in age or what, but it's pretty obvious there's  bad blood between them.

"He better not," she says darkly. "I told him to stay out of my way."

"Is he looking for the gold too? Because we don't need more competition --"

Talia holds up a stick of garlic bread to cut me off. "Don't worry about Kiran. He's been my problem for eighteen years; I can handle him now. He probably got bored of his rich Connecticut friends and decided to fly all the way across the country to make my life difficult. It's not a big deal."

"It sounds like a big deal. He knows about the map, right? And the key?"

She scowls at me. "I said I'd handle him, Andy."

Well, this meeting is off to a great start. I can tell Talia isn't annoyed about the party in the slightest. "You know," I say tentatively, because she's starting to tear her garlic bread into tiny, vicious shreds, "Lila and I aren't together. We're not dating. I didn't even know she was going to be at Chris's house --"

"How the hell is this related to the gold?"

"Uh, it's not, unless you consider the real gold to be the wonderful relationships we make and treasure along the way?"

"I don't care about Lila. You can do whatever you want with Lila."

"But that's my point -- we're not doing anything together! We might've, er, kissed at the party, but it didn't mean anything! She hasn't even come out to our friends yet, it's not like she wants something serious --"

Talia's expression is starting to look pained, the way it does when a table of ten asks to split the check. "Andy, why are you telling me this?"

"Because I don't want you to think I've moved on," I blurt out, since apparently my brain has decided I'm going to win this girl back by being the most desperate, pining loser to ever exist. "Even if we're only partners now."

For a fleeting second, Talia's face softens, and the corners of her brown eyes lift upwards. She tucks a strand of dark hair behind her ear. "I know, Andy, I --" Then, just as quickly, the mask slams down again and the scowl returns full-force. "We need to focus, okay? We're at a significant disadvantage without the key. If we want to beat Rachel to the gold, we need to stay two steps ahead of her --"

She halts mid-sentence as Ronan slides into the seat next to her. I have no idea where he came from -- I didn't even see him walk into the restaurant. 

"Thanks," he says, swiping a garlic bread stick off her plate. "I was feeling snacky."

"That was my shift meal!" Talia balls up her napkin and throws it at him. "What are you doing here, Lockwood? I thought you hated our pizza."

"It's a free country, isn't it?" He pushes up his sunglasses with his middle finger and grins at me like we're in on the joke. "Okay, I'll admit that I'm not here for the food. I mean, can you imagine -- that would be a new low for me! No, I want to talk about the gold. That's why you two are here, right?"