His dad put his tongs down and stared at him. “You don’t have to say it like that. We’re all trying the best we can.”
Gael just rolled his eyes. “The bacon’s burning,” he said, as the smell of smoke filled the air. He headed to the couch while his dad flipped on the fan and Piper ran around the kitchen, whipping a towel around in an attempt to diffuse the smoke.
Ever since Gael was old enough to look after Piper, their family’s Saturday morning tradition had been for his dad to go for a long run, while his mom went to yoga class. Around 11:00 they’d gather back at home for brunch.
Which had all been good and fine before they split. Now his dad’s attempts to make it just like it always was just felt pathetic, and like he was obviously trying to make up for something. Even the smell of bacon, previously Gael’s favorite food, had come to bother him.
Gael sat down and tapped at Cara’s contact on his phone. As the phone rang, he stared at the chipped paint on the wall near the ceiling. The all-white walls of this place were nothing like his house, with colors his mom had picked out and warm polished wood furniture and their fancy chemical-free laundry detergent smelling simultaneously of lavender and home.
In comparison, his dad’s apartment was bright and dingy, and the balcony that shot out from the living room was a sad excuse for a yard. Not to mention said balcony didn’t have cell service, either.
“Hello,” Cara answered, as the apartment’s smoke detector went off.
“Hey,” Gael said. “Sorry. Can you make that stop?” he yelled at his dad.
“Burning the house down,” Cara said. “I know it was a good victory last night, but there’s really no need to riot.”
He laughed nervously, as his dad and Piper got the alarm to stop.
“I was wondering if you wanted to hang out tonight,” he asked, his heart racing as he said it.
She paused, and took a deep breath. “I can’t.”
Gael decided right then and there that she hated him, that November was a stupid excuse, and their whole relationship was useless, and—
“But maybe if you want to hang out tomorrow. I’m randomly going to the zoo in Asheboro with a friend, and she said I could bring people if I wanted.”
“The zoo?” Gael asked. “Really?”
Piper ran out of the kitchen and was in front of him in seconds.
“The zoo? The zoo? I want to go to the zoo. Take me with you, please please please.”
“Chill,” Gael said.
“What’s that?” Cara asked.
Gael turned away from Piper, as if that might afford him a little privacy.
“My little sister is begging to come.” He rolled his eyes. In his actual home, Piper wouldn’t have been within earshot.
“Oh,” Cara said.
Piper kept insisting. “Please please please pretty please.”
Gael cleared his throat. “I don’t think so—”
“Come on,” Piper said. “It will be so much fun! Please please pretty pretty please.”
“Uhh, I guess that works,” Cara said. “I mean, it would be cool to meet her, anyway.”
Gael looked from his sister to his dad, who was nodding eagerly. “All right,” Gael said to Piper, resigned. “Looks like we’re going to the zoo tomorrow.”
Piper immediately did a happy dance.
(So did I.)
team samgael
The next day, Piper was mostly quiet on the fifty-three-mile drive to the zoo, which was strange for Piper. She kept pulling out papers from her backpack and looking them over. Gael didn’t ask what she was doing. It was usually easier not to ask when it came to Piper.
Instead, he spent the entire time going over and over in his head what Cara must be thinking. She’d said no to a Saturday night hangout and had suggested a super-casual thing with his little sister, no less. Maybe she really did just want to be friends . . .
(Worth noting here is a common little mind trap that you humans frequently fall into: thinking much more about whether the other person likes you than whether you actually like them.)
Needless to say, Gael was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he was wholly unprepared for what he saw when they finally reached the entrance to the zoo. There, standing right next to Cara, leaning against the entrance to the Africa section, Candide in freaking hand . . .
Sammy.
He was so surprised he didn’t even think to wave. He turned right down the row of cars, seeking out a spot to park.
“I didn’t know Sammy was going to be here!” Piper squealed.
Gael shook his head as he pulled into an open spot. Could Sammy be the “friend” Cara had spoken of? UNC was a school of twenty thousand students—it would be a crazy coincidence. And yet, she must be.
“Believe me,” he said to Piper, cursing his luck. “I didn’t either.”
After the OMG, I didn’t know you were going to be heres, after Cara explained that Sammy was a friend from school, after Piper yelled at Gael for calling Sammy the “babysitter,” not the “French tutor,” after all of them marveled at what a small world it was, they purchased their tickets and filed in through the large “Welcome to Africa” plaza.