Craig, who had been attempting to describe the brickwork on Prince’s Summer Sports, folded his arms. “I’ll wait, while you finish your obviously very important conversation.”
Danny’s heart sped up a bit as he told Elda his story and tried to block out Craig’s angry glare. “I remember back when we were kids, you and your grandma built this replica of the North Pole Town Hall, and it was, I think, my favorite gingerbread showstopper of all time. You captured the essence of the place, but with licorice columns and lollipop trees and steps made of marzipan. I remember looking at it and being like, I want to live there.” He grinned down at her. “Whenever I see the town hall, I think about that showstopper. And…well…you.” Now he knew he was blushing. It was the most real he’d gotten with Elda in person. If Craig hadn’t been standing right next to them, this probably would’ve been the time for them to kiss.
Danny waited for Elda’s reaction. She had to give him something—a smile, a nod, a squeeze of the hand, some acknowledgement that this was a big moment for the two of them.
But she stayed lost in her own world. Her face wasn’t relieved or happy or excited or any of the emotions Danny had been banking on. She looked sad, actually. She looked like the admission about her town hall showstopper was the worst possible thing he could’ve said. That probably had something to do with Danny making the rookie mistake of bringing up a girl’s recently deceased grandmother on a date.
Danny, attempting to move on, asked Craig, “What about the brickwork?” And their tour continued, though Danny blocked out every single word. He couldn’t get Elda’s frown out of his head.
Outside the bakery, Craig talked about how the building used to be a haberdashery back in the day. Elda’s arms were folded, and she kept looking off to the side, like she wasn’t listening to any of it. This date was a failure. Danny was a failure. He’d opened up to Elda, and it had been exactly the wrong thing to do. He had shown her a bit of who he was, and she’d rejected him.
When he was with Star, he was always altering his opinions or hiding his true feelings because of her. After they broke up, he vowed not to get into another relationship like that, but maybe that was just how relationships worked and making concessions was all part of the deal. Maybe if Elda wasn’t going to come to him, he’d have to meet her where she was. At least that’d give him a fighting chance.
“That’s very cool, Craig.” Danny had no actual idea what he’d been talking about, but that was pretty much standard when it came to his interactions with Craig. Danny peered into the front window of the bakery. Tinka was inside decorating a tray of cookies. “All the architecture info is great, but what I really want to know is: what’s the grossest stuff that’s ever happened in this town? Where are the literal bodies buried?”
Elda was looking at him now, a faint and curious smile on her face. She reached over and squeezed his hand, which was clutching the handle of his crutch. His body warmed slightly, though he felt like he’d only won the battle, not the war. Things were still kind of odd. She’d frowned at him when he confessed that he’d been thinking about her for years, but she was ready with a hand squeeze at the first mention of dead bodies.
They walked next to each other down Main Street, listening to Craig tell stories about the skeleton that was found under the roof above the Mexican restaurant, and the teenage girl who was hit by a car back in the 1930s and still haunted the gun shop, and the alleged half man-half goat who used to live in the apartment above the dry cleaners. Elda grinned and cheered and squealed as Craig revealed every scandalous detail.
Danny could barely muster a smile. This girl in person was so different from the girl whose words had been all over his phone screen for the past week or so. He’d built their budding romance into something perfect—a neat, precise structure that had met every one of his specifications. But life wasn’t perfect, and neither were people. He wasn’t being fair to Elda, expecting her to conform to this specific little image he’d created in his head.
When the tour finally ended, Danny, whose left leg was about to fall off from overuse, took off toward home with Elda.
“This was fun.” Elda did a little twirl on the sidewalk. “Thanks.” She beamed as the two of them walked down the street. “Those stories Craig told.” Her eyes sparkled. “I love that stuff, don’t you?”
He didn’t, but he liked that she liked it. The fact that Elda was into some creepy stuff made her interesting. “Yeah, sure. I totally love it.”
Elda stopped walking and narrowed her eyes at him. “Liar.” Her hands were on her hips, and she was staring at him hard.
He stopped, too, and leaned on his crutches. He needed a long nap or something. He was physically and emotionally drained from this afternoon. “No, I really like this stuff,” he said, plastering on a big smile. “If it doesn’t seem like it, I’m just beat.”
She nodded slowly, and Danny got the sense that she still didn’t believe him. “If you say so.” She was testing him.
“I do say so.” He started walking again, and so did she.
“Well, since you’re all in on this creepy supernatural North Pole stuff, then I bet you’ve gone looking for some things, like the goat man.”
“You actually believe there’s a goat man?” he asked.
“Don’t you?”
Danny was a total cynic. He’d lived here his entire life, and he’d heard all the stories before. He’d never once seen a ghost or a goat man or even a ghost of a goat. He’d assumed Elda was just like him. The girl he’d been texting with had come off as pragmatic as he was. She would’ve been able to see through all of Craig’s bologna. She probably would’ve been right next to him making jokes about it. Or maybe Danny had misread her earnest words as sarcasm. It was hard to interpret tone in a text message.
Again Danny met Elda where she was instead of dragging her over to his pessimistic side. It’s the same way he would’ve acted with Star, saying what she wanted to hear instead of voicing his own opinion. Evidently he was going to have to keep doing this for his entire dating life. “Remember how you fooled me by saying you didn’t remember my favorite movie? I was just trying to fool you by pretending the goat man wasn’t real,” he said. “He totally is. The goat man graduated from high school with my mom, actually.”
Elda folded her arms, watching him again. “I know you’re kidding,” she said. “But I’m going to pretend you’re not because it’s more fun that way.”
Danny followed Elda down the street. He was never, ever going to find someone who totally got him. He’d keep working his ass off to understand others, but no one was ever going to try to understand him.
…