“What?”
Brett started to say something, then ran the back of his hand across his forehead, his forearm coming away slick with sweat. He smiled wide, then stared at the ground, a move that felt strangely Dave-like. “You’re really freaking good at this.”
THE FOURTH ROSE
“Dave? How’s it going over there?”
“The second string is in place, and Gretchen’s about to finish her ice cream.”
“Damn.” Julia was watching a YouTube clip of how to draw a rose petal made out of frosting for the fiftieth time. She’d messed up eleven times already and only one cupcake remained, which was to be the sixth rose. Where the hell was Chef Mike when she needed him? Gretchen would follow the new string to the library, where it would lead her to a rose tucked in between her two favorite books. Julia didn’t have much more time. “You didn’t tell me she was a fast ice-cream eater.”
“I had no idea.”
“David Moneybags Gutierrez, how are you dating someone without knowing how fast they eat their ice cream?”
“Ha! You used my actual last name.”
“This frosting thing is impossible,” Julia said. “Pastry chefs are severely underpaid.”
“She’s done. I gotta go.”
THE FIFTH ROSE
It’d been a hard rose to leave behind, and Julia kind of hated that it had been up to her to do it. Dave had chosen the first place he and Gretchen had kissed as a spot, and since that had happened at Julia’s house, it only made sense for her to be the one to do it. After she had finally succeeded in drawing a rose made out of freaking sugar on a cupcake, she went downstairs and set up the string. She tied it to her mailbox and then took it around the side of her house toward the backyard. Dave had walked around a few days before, looking at the lawn, trying to remember exactly where it had happened, and Julia had felt like screaming that she didn’t want to know, begging to be spared the details. Now she tied the string to the stem of the rose and stuck it in the grass. Inside the mailbox, she left Dave’s note. Hopefully it would take Gretchen long enough to find so Julia could get the cupcake to the next location.
THE SIXTH ROSE
Julia made it back to school, where Gretchen’s car was one of the only ones still in the lot. Marroney’s car was still there, and for a crazy moment she considered leaving him a note, just for fun, just to let him know she wasn’t completely over him. Instead, she left the cupcake on the hood of Gretchen’s car, with the next clue tucked into the windshield wiper. It’d be so easy to leave it a little too close to the edge of the rubber, where the wind would blow it away and put a stop to the whole thing. Then her phone chimed. In position. Again. Have I mentioned this is ridiculous? You are a mastermind.
Julia smiled. We*, she wrote back.
THE SEVENTH ROSE
The rose hanging from the top post of the goal felt too cheesy even for the promposal, but Julia made sure it was centered and that the knot was nice and tight. Attached to it was a treasure map that would lead Gretchen on a very specific route to the next rose. It was a gorgeous day, the breeze just as Julia liked it, the sun just as she liked it, the sky so blue it was as if someone had gathered a week’s worth of skies and jammed them all together. Love was people creating memories for each other, and Julia knew that today would be memorable not just for Dave and Gretchen.
THE EIGHTH ROSE