can feel Paisley stiffen again beside me.
He stretches out his hand, and I take it. “Enjoying your encounter?” he asks. I’m not much into people’s vibes or auras, but everything about Max is signaling friendly and warm. Two dimples crease his cheeks, and I wonder if he’s even younger than I originally thought. After this weekend’s epic failure with Caden, I need a distraction. I throw Paisley a worried glance as she steps half behind me.
“We are,” I say. Molly is calling for the next set of volunteers to meet the chick, and I usher Paisley over.
“Seems like a pretty great gig,” I say when she’s joined Molly at the Penguin Preschool gate. “How’d you get into the penguin game?”
“Just graduated from Brown, ecology and evolutionary bio. I’m taking some time before applying to grad programs.” Max goes on to explain how the job isn’t just tours and animal care, how he’s also heading up a research project at the aquarium and collecting data for some schmancy-sounding scholar. But all I hear is Brown. Biology. Suddenly the way he caught my eye earlier starts to make a familiar kind of sense, how he singled me out to talk just now.
“So you knew Zoe Spanos?” I ask point-blank.
Max stops midsentence, suddenly out of words.
“I look like her, I know,” I go on. “You’re a friend of Zoe’s? That’s why Paisley recognized you?”
“Oh,” Max says, finding his voice again. “I knew Zoe a bit from school. I’d see her around the labs. She was two years behind me, though, so we weren’t in classes together or anything.” He pauses for a moment. “Who’s Paisley?”
“My friend.” I gesture toward Penguin Preschool. “She seemed to know you.”
“Huh.” Max looks genuinely perplexed. “I don’t think so. Zoe’s from Herron Mills, right? I live out on Montauk. Kind of close, but Zoe and I didn’t really hang out off campus.”
I don’t know why he’d lie about that, so I just shrug. The fact that he knew Zoe from Brown is a bit of an odd coincidence, but given everything the past week has thrown at me, it barely registers on the weirdness scale. Maybe Paisley mistook him for someone else.
“Dunno.” Max shrugs. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think you two look that much alike. Zoe was so serious; she always seemed like she was in a hurry.” I wonder if he knows he’s talking about her in the past tense. If it’s because he thinks she’s dead, or simply because she wasn’t on campus last semester, has become a part of his past. “Being friendly with the visitors is just part of the job,” he continues, and I push Zoe out of my mind. “Swear it’s nothing more than that.”
“Then you should probably mingle,” I say. “I have a penguin chick to meet.”
At the end of our “encounter,” Paisley and I pose for photos with the birds, and Max holds out a business card with an address and phone number scrawled on the back. “This Saturday, if you’re free, a few friends and I are having a little get-together on the beach for the Fourth. Beer, fireworks, nothing fancy. I’d love to see you there, um … ?”
“Anna,” I supply.
“I’d love to see you there, Anna.”
“Do you invite all Penguin Pavilion visitors?” I ask, and Max blushes.
“No, this is a personal invitation.” Heat pricks my chest, and for the first time in days, I feel genuinely good about myself. Part of me would love a day at the beach, cold beer, no responsibilities.
“I’d love to, but I can’t. I’m taking a break from partying this summer, and besides”—I nod toward Paisley, who is saying her goodbyes to her new penguin friends—“I’m working.”
“Okay.” Max shrugs. “In case your schedule changes.” He presses the card into my hand, and even though I know I won’t use it, I slip it into my back pocket. After a week filled with nothing but strange reactions from everyone I’ve met, I have to admit that a little friendliness and flirting is refreshing.
* * *
I spend Monday night on the phone, giving my mom the Herron Mills highlights reel, minus any mention of Zoe Spanos. She finally seems to have settled into the reality of my absence; no need to let her know the real reason I got this job. When Mom lets me go, I bite the bullet and try to patch things up with a very incensed Kaylee, then reward my moderately successful efforts with the online shopping spree