Oh my gosh, it’s like everything you learned you learned from Avery Crown!” Lei-Ling exclaimed.
Iliana put a hand on Merritt’s shoulder.
It was the last day of summer, and they were standing on the newly cleared dance floor that surrounded the Helen of Troy fountain. Tate Grafton, from the Pride House board, had joined them. Some interns had too.
“Wow,” Tate said as she surveyed the interior of Hellenic Hardware with a look of apprehension.
“Don’t worry. It’s all properly wired,” Merritt said. “I’ve shut off the power to the back of the shop so we don’t blow a fuse.”
“It’s not that. Everyone will love it.” Tate eyed the artificial cherry trees Merritt had fashioned out of scrap metal and pink Christmas lights. “It looks great. It’s just not what I expected from you.”
“I know.”
Merritt hadn’t meant to buy a small welding station and weld together twelve cherry-tree frames in honor of Portland springtime. She hadn’t meant to circle the fountain with fake grass. Or powder coat the concrete sculpture of Helen of Troy in opalescent silver. Or replicate the Portland White Stag sign in neon tubing. She should probably have canceled the Nostalgia-rom and just donated the decorating budget to the Pride House. It looked like hipsters had made love in her fountain. It looked like…King & Crown had been there.
“It’s a feminine aesthetic,” Lei-Ling told Tate knowledgeably. “Merritt just did a whole season with King and Crown, and she and Avery totally hit it off…again, because they were friends before. And this is totally Avery Crown.”
Merritt had even used a can of King & Crown paint. She hadn’t meant to. She had sent one of the interns to the store for paint, and when she pulled it out of the paper bag, Avery and Alistair’s cartoon faces had grinned out at her, their eyes sparkling with drawn-on stars. She had almost dropped it on her foot.
“You okay?” Tate asked, half joking, half serious.
“No. Yeah. Of course. Decorating is great stress relief,” Merritt said.
Stress relief. Stress was finding out the interns had been polishing bronze pieces with vinegar instead of mineral oil. Stress was arguing with contractors over the tile work in the entryway of the Elysium. She could handle stress without cracking a beer. This was like waiting for spring and then realizing it was going to rain forever. The only spring she was going to get were the scrap-metal trees.
“Well, it looks great,” Tate said. “We’ve got the bartender setting up at six. Catering at seven. Doors open at eight.” She ran through logistics.
When Tate left, Iliana said, “Now you can relax, right?”
Lei-Ling stepped onto the dance floor and spun around, arms flying. Above her, nets of white lights covered the dark skylights.
“I think you guys should totally be friends again,” Lei-Ling said. “I think Avery has a girl crush on you. She was like, ‘Where’s Merritt? What does Merritt think? Doesn’t Merritt look amazing?’”
Merritt glanced at Iliana. She had not told Lei-Ling. Lei-Ling had loved King & Crown since she was in elementary school. And Merritt had seduced Avery, slept with her, almost dated her, and lost her through her own stupidity, and faithful Iliana had never said a word.
“They’re getting married today. Avery and Alistair.” Lei-Ling stopped twirling suddenly. “Oh! I bet it’s on Twitter.” She pulled out her phone in its pink Hello Kitty case. “Oh, she looks so beautiful!”
The picture showed Avery in a wedding gown the size of an iceberg. Merritt felt like she had been hit by an iceberg.
“Gaudy,” she said, and passed the phone back to Lei-Ling.
“She looks sad,” Iliana said.
“Why would she be sad?” Lei-Ling cooed. “She’s marrying Alistair King.”
Merritt glanced at Iliana, who looked pained. It wasn’t fair. Iliana told Lei-Ling everything.
“Lei-Ling,” Merritt said. “Can I talk to you about something?”
Lei-Ling was flicking through pictures. “Look at these presents. They say Avery and Alistair have been getting presents every day since they announced their engagement, and they’re all here. That’s, like, a thousand presents!”
“Lei-Ling.” Merritt put her hand over Lei-Ling’s phone.
Lei-Ling’s expression changed suddenly. Her mouth formed a perfect, adorable O of surprise.
“You mean really talk? Of course we can really talk, Merritt. I always want to really talk to you. What is it?”
Merritt sat down on the bench beneath the gazebo. “Can I tell you something and you’ll promise not to tell anyone?”
“Of course.”
“It’s important. If you did tell someone, anyone who might spread it around, someone I…care about could get really hurt.”
Merritt wondered if getting outed would hurt Avery as much as she had hurt her. She thought of Avery’s clumsy, spontaneous kisses. How many times had Merritt turned her down while Avery was in Portland? And yet Avery had launched herself at Merritt again and again, at the possibility of happiness. No wonder Lei-Ling liked her. They had a lot in common.
“I’ll never say anything to anyone,” Lei-Ling said earnestly. “Iliana can tell you. I keep secrets.”
“Avery and Alistair aren’t really a couple,” Merritt said slowly. “I mean, they are getting married, but it’s just for the show.”
Lei-Ling’s eyes shone with the delight of newly acquired celebrity gossip, and Merritt almost stopped. But Lei-Ling scooted in beside her and set her phone down.
“What is it?” Lei-Ling asked.
“You know how Vita was convinced I had a crush?”
“Yeah.”
“It was Avery.” There. That wasn’t so hard. It was just a passing crush. “I asked Iliana not to tell you because if people find out about Avery, her career is over. But you and Iliana are beautiful together, and I’m happy for you, and I don’t want her to keep secrets from you.”
Lei-Ling cocked her head to one side, her eyes surprisingly discerning behind fronds of pink mascara. “You didn’t just have a crush on her.”
“I didn’t just have a crush on her,” Merritt said.
“And that’s why you’re so sad.”
“It’s over,” Merritt said. “It was just a summer thing.”
Merritt wanted Iliana and Lei-Ling to stop looking at her. She had done her part. She had told Lei-Ling. Now Lei-Ling and Iliana could go forward into a happy, secret-free marriage. If they would stop looking at her.
“Really, I’m back in the game,” Merritt said. If the game was waiting for her heart to wither like the last leaves on the winter trees, she was in the game. “I’ll probably meet a girl tonight.”
“You’ll win Avery back.” Lei-Ling brightened. “She still loves you, and you’ll tell her how you feel, and she’ll come back.”
Lei-Ling: the unwounded Inner Child, her face like a little moon lit with love and happiness and optimism. Merritt wanted to tell Iliana to wrap Lei-Ling up in Bubble Wrap and protect her for as long as she possibly could.
“No,” Merritt said. “That’s not our story.”