the summer you noticed me ↠ conrad fisher {1}

f o r t y - s e v e n

      One of my favorite memories in Cousins, started not only at the Fishers, but with Conrad Fisher, my future boyfriend, himself.

      "Belly," I groan. "I need a partner."

     Belly looks at Jeremiah who's been staring at me with annoyance. She mocks his expression, "yeah. Right."

      Jeremiah and Steven laugh at her comment, while Conrad just sits and stares at me. He takes his turn in Chess, and then smiles. "Here. I'll show you," he says gently, a small smile formed on his lips.

       Stevens head jerked in his direction, "what about the game?" He whines. 

     Conrad gives him his full attention, and says "give me one second, okay?" He asks.

     And once Steven finally said, okay, Conrad came over and hesitated slightly before meeting my eye.

     He didn't give me time to process what was happening, before he starts to move and says, "copy me."

"C, you're not even on the beat," Belly giggles, and the boys laugh with her.

I ignore them, and stare up at him. He doesn't seem to mind their banter, meaning neither do I. "How did you learn to shag?" I ask.

"My Mom," he says and that's it.

An awkward silence passes between us, until I find my gaze lingering and I look down smiling at the ground. I try to keep up, but I start messing up and Conrad grabs my hand to help and jokes by spinning me around. Like they do in movies, where I'm pressed awkwardly against the side of his body, his arm reached across my chest during the dance move, he keeps going doing more moves before he finally goes to walk behind me and I bump into his chest throwing off the whole thing.

"I'm sorry," I laugh, shaking my head.

"Hey, no. It's okay, it's fine," he says his hands holding onto my arms. "Let's try again, give me your hand."

And that is how I learned to shag.

* * *

I think I want a job this summer. With Jeremiah and Steven working at the club, Belly with debutant practice, and Conrad working teaching Cleveland how to work his boat for his next novel, I'm bored and lonely.

I don't necessarily want to serious job, but maybe a babysitting gig around town. There has to be some parents who are sick of dragging their kids to the beach everyday; worrying about snacks, forgetting boogie boards, shovels, water, etc. It's a lot and sometimes they need a break.

I have experience with babysitting since I was about 9. I'm the oldest cousin of eleven. The closest cousin on my Mom's side, is four year younger then me. My Dad has no siblings, but my Mom has four. Funny how they both come from really different childhoods.

Regardless, being the oldest has given me lots of experience with kids. So much, that I actually had dreamed for awhile about becoming a secondary teacher, specifically third grade. 7-8 year olds are so funny. That age of all her cousins she loved talking to them. They had so much to say, and most of the time it made absolutely no sense that it made perfect sense. She loved hearing about their day, and how they felt about school, what their theory of the world is. You know, normal kids chats.

I hadn't ever babysat outside of my family, but maybe I can download care.com and see if there is anyone in the area looking for some help. I had seen the babysitting/nannying ad on tv and YouTube ads for so long that it was drilled into my memory.

Without a second thought, I download the app. Pay for my background check, and wait. Ready to start my first real job.