One Month, One Lifetime

24: Fool Me Twice and You Owe Me a Milkshake

The first thing Britton said as he walked in the apartment after his first day of work was, "The puzzle isn't finished yet." There was no question in his voice. He knew me and JJ too well apparently. We had worked on it for maybe fifteen minutes after our lunch date, but then we wanted to see what was on TV and it was a rerun of JJ's favorite season of the Bachelor so we had to watch it and the rest of the season of Netflix so she could explain everything to me.
Which was how Britton found us; sprawled on the bed with an empty bag of Creamies between us. It was a good thing his building had a lot of stairs and a sketchy elevator that I still didn't trust, because I had eaten twice my weight in ice cream since the heat wave hit.
"But look at how much progress we made," I whined and pointed to the abysmal amount of progress like it was hours of work and not a few minutes. "I wanted to finish it, but JJ thought that you would want to be here when we did. I thought it was a good idea since you've put so much sweat and blood into that beautifully dumb lighthouse puzzle-"
"Way to throw me under the bus," JJ interrupted. "If I remember correctly, you were the one who wanted to wait for Britton because you two had really bonded over it and, oh, how much it meant to you!" She kept going on and on in a mocking impression of me that was pretty decent considering I had said exactly zero of the things she was claiming I had. Okay, so maybe I mentioned that I wanted to finish the puzzle with Britton because we had done everything else together this month. Big deal.
Finally I had to usher her out of the apartment because she wouldn't stop and my cheeks were already red from the heat. I didn't need any extra embarrassment or they would burst into flames. Especially with the way Britton was looking at me like he believed every word JJ was saying.
Without a word or glance at him, I crossed the room to turn off the little TV tucked in the corner by the door to the bathroom. If there was one thing I was excited about with the end of the month approaching, it was moving out of Britton's studio. I didn't really want to move back to my apartment at college--I had dropped all my class and sold my lease before I came to Utah anyway, so I had no place to go back to. Staying at my parents' place was out of the question. I still hadn't exactly told Mother how much money I was getting and the idea of telling her was less than appealing. That left going back to Aunt Minnie's mansion, which had always been the plan.
I finally looked at Britton.
I wasn't sure I liked that plan anymore.
"How was work?"
A grin spread across his face. "How did you know I got the job?"
"Because I believe in you so much and know you can do anything you put your mind to." I paused when his grin widened, apparently not hearing the sarcasm in my words. "And you've been gone since ten, which would have been a stupidly long interview if you hadn't gotten the job."
He glanced at the clock on the wall, which read just past ten. "I see your point." With one hand he loosened his tie and the other ran through his hair, which had grown out over the course of the month so it no longer looked like a 2007 Britney Spears inspired hairdo. I know I had sworn off kissing him for the time being, but between the loose tie and messed up hair, I couldn't help but think that Britton looked extremely attractive standing in the middle of his tiny apartment.
Had you told me I would be thinking that when I bumped into him almost a month ago, I would have laughed. It was still a weird thought to have cross my mind. Not that I pushed it away.
"Work was good. I have a job, which is good. I get twenty percent off show tickets, which is good. The puzzle is almost done, which is good. And we're going to see my family tomorrow, which is good." He stopped to take a deep, calming breath. "Life is good."
"Which is good," I finished with a laugh. "Speaking of your family..."
"I told them you were coming as my plus one and begged them to not ask too many questions, so you can count of being interrogated by at least my mom and probably Jessycah too."
"I'm a pro at being interrogated after lunch with JJ."
"She looked you up on the internet?" I nodded. "That means you're friends now."
"Best friends, actually. You're out of the picture now, sorry." I didn't sound sorry, but Britton didn't seem to mind. "And Rhodes agreed that me attending your sister's wedding counted as crashing it?"
"You know he did." Because that was the whole reason I had agreed to drive five hours to see Britton's family in the first place. Aunt Minnie told me to crash a wedding, Britton's little sister was getting married. It's like the fates were conspiring to help us.
From my place on the couch, I could see the little worry wrinkle between Britton's eyebrows while he hung up his suit jacket and finished taking off his tie. "I already promised to not actually crash the wedding." That didn't do anything to erase the wrinkle. "I was joking about pretending to be the groom's angry ex." His face didn't change except for a raised eyebrow at me. "Okay, I wasn't joking when I said it, but I'm not going to act on it now. Pinky swear."
I stuck my little finger out as a show of goodwill. He tentatively crossed the room to meet me, looking like a man picking his way through a heavy concentration of landmines. Before he took my pinky in his he said, "Making deals like this with you never ends well for me."
I thought back to our original agreement when I had strong armed him into letting me stay on his couch. "C'mon, that was weeks ago." I wiggled my pinky. "I won't pretend to be your sister's fiance's angry ex. Deal?"
With the same look of apprehension as before his finger wrapped around mine. "Deal."
"And you have to buy me a milkshake!" I pulled my hand away before he could amend the deal further.
He tried to look offended, but could suppress his smile. "Once a cheater, always a cheater."
"You should have known better."
"I'm not buying you a shake."
"That was a pinky promise. You're bound by boy scout law to buy me one now."

We got to St. George late the next night. And by late I mean close to midnight late. Britton had insisted that he work the matinee shift at the theater, so I actually worked on the puzzle without the distraction of JJ and the Bachelor. Then we had to pack. I threatened to wear my sundress that showed off Minnie's face on my shoulder spectacularly. Britton strongly disagreed and looked worried, like introducing me to his family was the worst idea he had ever had. Then he insisted on showing me every place to buy a shake in downtown Salt Lake without ever buying me a shake, even though he legally had to. Then we drove three hours on a winding two lane highway, only for the car's AC to go out for the rest of the two hour drive.
Needless to say, when we pulled up at his parent's house where we were staying, I was not mentally or physically prepared to meet the rest of the Schuster clan.
And I really could have gone for a shake.
My blue hair had faded dramatically since its cut and color, not to mention it was pulled up in a greasy bun after the air conditioning gave out and we descended into St. George which was even hotter than Salt Lake. I was rocking some major armpit sweat. Whatever little makeup I had applied this morning had disappeared by the time we left Salt Lake. All I wanted to do was sleep.
At least, that was all I wanted to do until we pulled up to Britton's house in a new neighborhood on the outskirts of St. George. Then I wanted a grand tour of the house.
Nothing about Britton indicated that he came from money. In fact, I had assumed the opposite given his living situation and current lack of a savings account. His family house contradicted that idea.
It wasn't exactly big, definitely not on an Aunt Minnie's estate scale, but it looked new. The landscaping was beautiful, even if it did consist of mostly cacti. The angular stucco exterior matched the red rock mountain behind it. And the cars lined up on the street and in front of the three car garage--I assumed they were Britton's brothers and sisters--looked new and shiny, especially next to Brittons less than new and definitely not shiny Jimmy.
As I grabbed my duffle bag from the hatchback I couldn't help but stare. "Do you have a pool?"
Britton was grabbing his bag too and took my hand to lead me to the front door. "Ya, why?"
"I didn't even bring a swimming suit. Why didn't you tell me this important information?"
The front door was almost twice as tall as Britton, but swung open like it weighed next to nothing. Inside all of the lights were off except for the bulb above the kitchen stove, which we could see through the living room. "Sh," he warned. "Everyone's asleep."
"Why would they be asleep when they could be swimming?" He shushed me again before tugging me along the hallway to the left.
At the first door he peeked his head in. A woman with equally pale blonde hair and pink skin that I could only assume was his mom was laying in the middle of a queen bed with reading glasses and a book. Except her glasses where askew on her nose and the book was face down on her lap, like she had fallen asleep reading it.
"Mom," he whispered, which did nothing to wake her up. He tried again louder, which stirred her awake. "Is Indi staying in the guest bedroom?"
She folded her glasses and put them on the nightstand. "Grandma's in the guest room. Your friend can stay in Payslee's room, she's at a hotel tonight. Your rooms all set up for you."
"Thanks, Mom." He started pulling the door shut. "Night."
"Wait, is that her hiding behind you?" I hadn't meant to hide, but it was true. I was cowering behind Britton, hoping that my first meeting with his mom would happen when I was a little less sweaty. But I braved it and stuck my head out, still holding onto Britton's hand like he was my childhood teddy bear. "Nice to meet you, dear," she told me, but didn't get out of bed, which was fine with me. "Feel free to use the shower in Payslee's room in the morning. There's plenty of towels if you need them. And I'm sure Britton knows where everything is if you can't find something."
"Thank you, ma'am," I said because I didn't know what else to say.
She smiled. "I don't think I've been called ma'am since I was your age. Call me Nora."
I gave her back a strained smile and nodded. I didn't know what had gotten into me, but I suddenly felt shy around Mrs. Schuster. If there was one thing I was not, it was shy.
"Now you two young people get to bed, we need to leave by ten tomorrow."
Sensing that I was uncomfortable, and hopefully chalking it up to me being tired, Britton told his mom goodnight once more and shut the door. He gave me a look that I didn't return.
"Nothing's wrong."
"Whatever you say."

Thank you thank you thank you for your patience with me and this story!
Y'all are the best readers I could have asked for!
-m burton