The Code for Love and Heartbreak - Jillian Cantor Page 0,40
of the Villages. She casts me a sideways glance so even though she says the word cool, I hear the word surprising.
I shrug. “I need volunteer hours for NHS.” But even if I didn’t, I’d probably still want to keep coming here on Tuesdays because I honestly do enjoy playing for the residents and talking to Mrs. Bates.
We sign in at the desk, and the woman behind it tells us most of the residents are eating lunch in the dining room. We walk by the room where I usually play piano, and it’s empty now, but we quickly find Mrs. Bates in the dining room, just next to it. She’s eating with Mr. Bates, and a table full of other women I don’t recognize. No one’s visiting children are anywhere to be found, which makes me feel a little sad.
“Emma, you came to visit us and you brought friends?” Mrs. Bates stands up when she notices me, her voice a full octave higher with excitement, and she quickly orders one of the staff to pull over chairs for us. I introduce her to Sam and Hannah, and she shoots them both warm smiles.
“Are the kids here, honey?” Mr. Bates asks her, looking toward us eagerly, like he wants very badly to recognize us.
“No, honey, not the kids. It’s Emma, the gal who plays that beautiful piano for us on Tuesdays.” His face is blank, not even a glimmer of recognition. Not that I’d expect him to remember me or my piano playing when he can’t even remember about his own kids. “Finish your lunch.” She leans over and kisses him gently on the temple. Then she turns back to us. “I’m so happy you came to visit us. This is just delightful!” She claps her hands together again and her bracelets jingle.
“We actually came because we need your help with a school project,” I tell her. Then I simplify the details, not wanting to get into coding or technology with a table full of octogenarians who may or may not even know what an app is. I tell her only that we brought three hundred copies of a survey that we need people who’ve been in love for a long time to take. And that we want to tabulate the results for a project we’re all working on together.
“Oooh.” She claps her hands together. “I love a good project. Why don’t you leave those with me, and I’ll make sure they’re all filled out by the next time you come back to play piano for us. Now.” She turns toward Sam. “Tell me, honey, are you the boyfriend?”
By the boyfriend, I’m pretty sure she means my boyfriend, and I feel my face turning red and hot at her assumption. Sam catches my eyes, and shoots me that smile he has, that feels like it’s just for me. His green eyes sparkle a little in the fluorescent light and he looks more amused than embarrassed by her question. But this is the second time I’ve felt embarrassed in front of Sam lately, and I hate the red-hot feeling.
I clear my throat. “Sam’s just a friend,” I clarify emphatically for Mrs. Bates.
“Okay,” she says, smiling. She winks at me, like she doesn’t believe me, or she thinks we share some secret.
And it makes me wonder...when we get the surveys back from her, when we reconfigure our algorithm, what if things are different? Maybe Sam and Laura won’t match any longer. And if they don’t—is there any way Sam might match me?
I remember again what Izzy said to me, right before she left, about how maybe I needed a boyfriend this year. And how ridiculous that was and is. Socially awkward, academically minded girls like me don’t have boyfriends. Do they? But Izzy also said to be more social. Is that what I’m doing here this afternoon in a weird way?
I think about that as I walk out of the Villages in between Sam and Hannah. Hannah makes a joke about how I’ve led them to the one remaining place on earth where people actually stay in love forever. All three of us are laughing as we get to my car. And I realize everything feels so much different now than it did just a few months ago, the morning Izzy left me.
Chapter 15
The following Tuesday at school, I’m feeling pretty good about everything. I’ll pick up my surveys later when I go play at the Villages, and then I can finally