“Then why did you keep bugging me to hang out with you?”
“Because your father cornered me that night of the party! He said if I went out with you this summer, then he’d make it worth my while.”
I laughed. “Yeah, right. That’s ridiculous.”
Parker shook his head. “It might be, but that’s what we were talking about.”
“What was he going to do? Give you money? It’s not like you need money.”
“You’re right; I don’t need money. And if that’s all he was offering, then I would’ve said no.”
“What was he offering, then?”
“He was offering me a job.”
“A job?”
“Right. Job. J-O-B. Say it with me now. Jaaayyyy—ohhhhh—beeeeee—”
“So my father offered you a job if you would go out with me,” I repeated.
“Ding ding ding! We have a winner!” Parker clapped, sloshing beer over his hands.
“And how long were we supposed to go out for?”
“The end of the summer.”
“Then what? What happened at the end of the summer?”
“We’d just ... I don’t know. Go our separate ways. It wasn’t like this was going to be something that would last.”
I nodded. “I see.” I tried not to think about what would happen if I had really ended up falling for Parker. I’d spend the whole summer, thinking that things were great, only to have us “go our separate ways,” as he so put it, once summer was over. “Well. Thanks for being honest with me, I guess.”
“It’s no problem. I’m glad you know.” He held his beer bottle up and looked at it, as though he were surprised to find he was still holding it. “I just thought you should know.”
And then he stumbled off. I watched him go, wanting desperately to not believe a single word he just said. He was drunk! He was just talking nonsense! I kept telling myself that even though I knew it wasn’t true—my father had offered Parker a job at his hedge fund if he would go out with me.
I didn’t know how long I stood there for, my feet buried in the cool, soft sand. Eventually, Graham came over.
“Hey,” he said. “Here you are. Everything okay?”
I didn’t say anything right away. I felt if I were to actually speak those words out loud it would make them true, so if I just pretended that the whole conversation hadn’t taken place to begin with, then it could be like it had never happened.
But it had. I could picture my father, the night of the party, talking to Parker, me and Tara standing across the room, giggling about whatever it was they were conversing about. That was probably exactly when it was happening.
“No,” I said. “Everything is not okay.”
“What?” Graham asked, a look of concern on his face. “What’s wrong?”
“I just need to go home.”
“Chloe.” He placed his hand on my shoulder, his eyes locked onto mine, searching my face. “What’s going on?”
“I’m okay,” I said. “I just ... I just found out something really shitty. I don’t want to get into it right now. I just need to go back to my house. Would you drive me back to my car?”
“Yeah, of course. And you don’t have to tell me what’s happening, but ... you’re all right?”
I knew it wasn’t fair of me to be so vague, but I didn’t want to say anything to him, or to Tara, or to anyone, about it just yet.