even as she kept wiping her eyes. “No, you’re fine, it just got me,” she said. “That’s all. I’m fine, really.”
Rafe seemed dubious, but he let it go and just handed her a fresh napkin instead. “Feel better?”
Grace nodded. “It’s just that I basically had one job as her mom, you know? I had to pick her parents, and I thought I did a really good job, but—what if I didn’t? What if fifteen years later, Daniel and Catalina split up and it ruins her life?”
“Why does it have to ruin her life, though?” Rafe said. “My parents split up—it didn’t ruin my life.”
“I don’t want anything to be hard for her,” Grace admitted. “I just want to say that I did the right thing for her, that’s all.”
“You did,” Rafe said. “You know you did. And nobody has an easy life, Grace. Not me, definitely not you. I mean, you had a baby at sixteen, right? But your life’s not ruined.”
“I don’t have any friends,” Grace said, and now she was crying again. “Nobody texts me or calls me or stops by to say hi. I don’t run cross-country anymore with Janie—”
“You ran cross-country?”
Grace nodded. “Varsity. But now I spend all day with my parents and they act like I’ll break if they say the wrong thing to me—”
“I mean, to be fair, you are sort of breaking because I said the wrong thing to you.”
“—and I had to find parents for my baby and I did it all wrong and Max was fucking homecoming king!”
People were starting to look over their shoulders at her. “She’s fine,” Grace heard Rafe say. “Contact lenses. The worst, am I right?” Then he leaned so that he was blocking people’s view of her. “Look,” he said. “You know what nobody cares about the day after homecoming? Who was homecoming king. Like, anyone who introduces themselves as ‘homecoming king’ after the actual homecoming dance is a complete asshole, so don’t worry about that.” Then he paused. “Max was the dad, right?”
Grace nodded, reaching for another napkin.
“Okay, so that’s one problem solved. As for this baby—”
“You can say Peach—it’s okay.”
Rafe looked dubious. “As far as her, her life’s not going to be easy. As long as she’s living it correctly, there’s going to be hard times for her. And anybody who cares this much about the kind of parents she has probably picked a pretty good set for her.
“Now, as far as friends, you’ve got me, right? I mean, we’re eating lunch together. Pretty sure that’s what friends do. And the only reason I don’t text or call you is because I don’t have your phone number.” Rafe raised an eyebrow. “You do have a phone, right? Your parents aren’t forcing you to communicate via carrier pigeon, are they? Because that might be why no one’s calling you.”
Grace smiled, looking down at her half-eaten sandwich on the table. “Cell phones are fine,” she said. “We’re not pioneers.”
“Well, great then. Just give me your phone and I’ll text you and you’ll text me back. Wham bam, thank you, ma’am. Metaphorically, I mean. I’m not going to wham bam you.”
Grace looked at him. “Do you talk a lot when you get nervous?”
“I talk so fucking much when I’m nervous.” Rafe grinned at her. “What gave it away?”
“Call it a hunch. And it’s just . . . I don’t know if I want to date anyone right now, that’s all.”
Rafe pretended to draw back in horror. “Okay, honestly, Grace? Why do you keep insisting that I’m trying to date you? This is sexual harassment, that’s what this is. In my place of employment, even.”
Grace was giggling now. She couldn’t remember the last time she had actually giggled. “Platonic texting?” she said. “That’s all?”
Rafe held up one hand. “Scout’s honor,” he said. “Even though I was never a Boy Scout. But you can still trust me. You have to stop harassing me at work, though, or I’m going to file a complaint with HR and then you’re going to be up to your eyeballs in paperwork.”
Grace just held out her hand for his phone, then input her number. “Do they even have HR at Whisked Away?” she wondered.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Rafe said, taking his phone back. “Are you done crying? Did I fix you?”
“At ease, soldier,” Grace said, and Rafe ruffled her hair before sliding back into his own side of the booth.
She got home an hour later, the other half of her sandwich wrapped up