Merit
Monterey, California
July 2019
Present Day
“You’re late.”
Abbey’s feet against the cement floor are at a quick pace. She throws her bag on the chair and runs to our clock-in machine. A machine that Eddie, our boss, still insists we need. A machine from circa 1960. A machine, he claims, that is still valid and relevant even though Abbey has somehow enabled it to work to her advantage, so every morning she runs in late, it inaccurately reflects her arrival as on time.
She pops her gum in her mouth, grinning from ear to ear. She clocks in at 9 a.m. even though it’s clearly 9:37 a.m. The collar of Abbey’s lab coat is coiled, twisted, as if her attire is an afterthought, pulled out of the bottom of her drawer, even though our lab coats are a requirement for the job, per Edith in Human Resources. Eddie doesn’t give a shit.
Pencil in hand, writing up lab notes from yesterday’s observations from Lucy’s and Ethel’s eating patterns—two of our resident river otters here at Monterey Bay Aquarium, I watch as Abbey pours herself a cup of coffee, grabs a doughnut, and sits in the chair next to mine.
“What?” she asks with a mouthful of doughnut after placing her gum behind her ear.
Abbey got me the job at the aquarium. Fresh out of graduate school with motivation to do well in this world, we both left our pasts behind. She’s also been my roommate for the last eight years. And, if I were to give her a classification in the friend arena, I’d say she’s a close second to Eli, my younger brother by a year and a half. But Abbey and me, we couldn’t be more opposite.
She’s late.
I’m always fifteen minutes early.
She’s messy.
I’m neat.
She’s a night owl.
I’m an early bird.
Raised Mormon with a secret penchant for one-night stands, Abbey is uniquely her own character.
Raised without religion, I haven’t had sex in … well, I’d rather not go there. Let’s just say, I’m a thirty-something single woman still weighing my options.
“So, did you call him back?” She licks her fingers.
“Who?”
Abbey pulls her chair forward, so she can see the face of my phone that sits on my desk. “Ryan Taylor. See where it says Missed Call?”
Abbey O’Brien is a smart ass.
“No.” I flip the phone over, so I can’t see the missed call.
“Come on, Young, you never talk about this guy. You never have. But I see he calls you every now and then. I’ve read through the texts he’s sent you.”
I look back to face Abbey. “You have not.”
She shrugs. “No. No, I haven’t. That would be an invasion of your privacy, and I would never do that.”
“Liar.”
“It was only twice, Mer. He seems like a nice guy. He seems like he’s really into you.”
I laugh. “You don’t know Ryan Taylor, Abbs.”
Abbey’s phone starts to ring. She leans back in her chair, grabs her bag, and pulls out her phone. “Oh, for Pete’s sake. It’s Andrew. From four nights ago.” She rolls her eyes.
“Toe fetish guy?”
“That’s the one.” She hits Ignore.
“You never give out your number.”
“Hey, if you’d had three Long Islands and he whispered the lyrics of Color Me Badd’s ‘I Wanna Sex You Up,’ you’d have given him your number, too.”
“I highly doubt that. Wait, can we just go back to that for a second?”
“Morning, ladies.” Eddie’s lifestyle, an old surfer from Santa Barbara, slowly drags the sentence out. His smooth steps make it look as though he’s floating around the aquarium, like the fish we keep. The swoosh of his board shorts is the only indicator that he’s actually walking. “Glad to see you’re on time, O’Brien.” His tan, a collection of years spent waiting for the perfect wave, is resilient, waterproof even. His silvery-white hair is still thick and full.
Abbey looks at me as Eddie saunters to the copier. She leans in and whispers, “So, does he know I’m always late and that I’ve fixed our clock-in machine?”
“No idea. But I think I know how to fix the situation,” I whisper back.
“How?”
“Get here on time.”
Abbey rolls her eyes. Her phone sounds again. “Fuck,” she whispers. “It’s my mom.”
“When’s the last time you talked to your mom?” Eddie asks from the copier.
“Whatever, Eddie.” Abbey picks up her phone. “Hey, Mom.” She rolls her eyes.
Eddie walks to my desk as we both stare at Abbey. “She realizes, I know she’s late every morning, right?”
“I’d hope so.”
He looks at me. “Doing okay, kid?”
Define okay.
“Never better.”
Eddie’s thick white eyebrows pull together. “You know what my dad used to say?” His words are drawn out—and not because he smoked too many joints when he lived on the beach, but because that’s his pace. No rush to do anything. Methodical. He’s brilliant actually. “If you don’t let the turtles in close, you’ll die alone.”
Eddie is notorious for ocean metaphors. He’s like a wise owl that quietly whispers the answers to life, hoping you’ll come to your conclusions. And, God forbid, you ask him to explain. He’ll give you a smug look, draw up his shoulders, and say, “Dunno. What do you think?”
“Mom. Mom. My phone’s going to die. I’ve gotta go. I’m at work.” Abbey pretends her voice is cutting out. “M—ca—hea—me? M—” And, just like that, Abbey hangs up and shoves the phone in her bag. Her phone probably is dying. It’s always dying. But also, she and her mother don’t have the best relationship.
“All right, ladies, see you out on the floor today.” Eddie turns, his flip-flops squeaking with each step as he leaves our main office.
Abbey goes into work mode. I think work is a welcome distraction from her family issues.
Her dad left her mom about five years ago. Left the Mormon Church. Just upped and left everything. I think it really took its toll on Abbey. An only child, she was really close with her dad. He’s tried to call her. Make it right. But Abbey refuses to talk to him. I think that’s what has attributed to her infatuation with the male body.
I left Granite Harbor, Maine, at eighteen to attend college at the University of San Diego for their marine biology program. I needed as much space from Ryan Taylor as I could get.
“Drinks after work?” I hear Abbey calling me from my thoughts.
“Yes,” comes from my lips before I can protest.
“Mingo’s?” she suggests. “Oh, no. No, wait. Can’t go there.”
“Why not?”
Abbey searches her desk with overly eager eyes, trying to escape our conversation.
“Abbey.” My eyes narrow.
She briefly looks at me, and then her eyes fall back to her desk. “I thought I put that paper clip—”
“Abbey O’Brien, did you sleep with Brad the bartender? Come on. He was off-limits. Mingo’s was our neutral spot.”
She nervously bites her lip. “Merit, in my defense, he came on to me.”
I roll my eyes. “Abbey, he comes on to everyone. That is not an excuse.”
“There’s a new place down on Pacific Street. We could try there?”
My phone illuminates. It’s Alex. I debate on picking up. Our normal mode of conversation is text. She doesn’t call me often, and the last time she did, it was to tell me that Pop was really sick.
I hit Talk. “Hey.” My voice changes to something softer.
“Thank you, Mer. They’re beautiful,” Alex says.
She’s received the bouquet of red peonies I sent her.
“Hey, it’s not every day your sister-in-law releases a book.”
“How are you?” she asks.
“Good,” I lie. “The otter count out here on the West Coast is thriving. Ethel is about to give birth any day now.” Biting my lower lip, I wait to see if she buys this.
There’s a short silence on the other end. She could have bought my excuse, my feeble attempt at a life lived to its fullest, or she isn’t buying it but doesn’t feel comfortable with calling me out.
Instead, I change the subject. “How are Pop and Meredith?” Meredith is Alex’s mom who moved out to Granite Harbor from Belle’s Hollow.
“She’s like a watchdog with your dad, making sure he eats right. They seem really happy.”
I mull this over for a moment, relishing in the satisfaction this gives me. That Eli and I don’t have to worry about Pop so much anymore. He’s finally happy. I just wish he hadn’t waited so long. But, then again, Meredith wasn’t available then.
“How’s Emily?”
“Sweeter than ever. Your brother is changing her diaper at the moment. She managed to get poop all the way up her back. It’s amazing what can come out of such a small child.”
I feel every inch of the three thousand miles that separates us. Something’s up. Off.
“You’re stalling, Alex.”
“Well, it’s just …” she sighs. “Ryan would kill me if he knew I was telling you this. He got into an accident last night.”
Tiny, microscopic needles make the surface of my skin tingle. “What?”
“Tore up his left shoulder. Broken ribs.” She stalls again. “But you know Ryan. He won’t allow anyone to take care of him. Says he’ll be fine. Mer, he can feed himself but it isn’t pretty.”
“His dad is worthless,” I say. An asshole, to be exact.
“So, I was thinking, maybe you could, um … well, it’s a funny thing …you know your brother, Eli. He thinks the only person Ryan will listen to is you.”
“Did my brother put you up to this, Alex?” My stomach grows into a messy ball of knots, tangled in past love, old hurts, and a lot of baggage. “Put him on the phone, Alex.”
I’m fuming.
There’s a whispered exchange and muffled voices, as if someone has covered the receiver.
“Well, hey, Bug.”
“Don’t you Bug me, and don’t bullshit me either, little brother. How bad is it?”
Bug is my brother’s nickname for me. He’s called me this since we were kids because of my fascination with bugs.
“Well, let’s just say that Ryan is finally out of the hospital, but it was a good three days before they released him.”
“For Christ’s sake, Eli.”
He lets out a long, exasperated sigh. “Mer, he needs help. I’m covering at work for him. Alex has Emily. And there’s no way in hell he’d ever let Pop or Meredith come over and help. So … well, that leaves you.”
“The problem with that is, I’m on the West Coast! Eli, I live here. I can’t just up and leave my job.”
Abbey is in the background, nodding. She whispers, “All you do is work. You have enough comp time on the books for a six-month sabbatical, Steve Jobs.” She takes a sip of coffee.
I roll my eyes and rub my forehead. “I can’t.”
Eli sighs. “Look, Mer, I wouldn’t have called you if I didn’t need you.”
“You didn’t call me. You had your wife call me.” Sarcasm and truth bleed through my tone. “Eli, you’re asking me to leave my job to come help take care of Ryan.”
“Look, I don’t know what happened to you two at eighteen, but, Mer, it’s Ryan. He was there when Mom died. He was there when Dad took a fall at work, and he helped around the house. He’s always been there. So, as much as you want to hate him, you don’t.” He sighs heavily into the phone. “You and I both know you don’t hate him. So, please, it’ll just be for a few weeks. At least until he can get back to work and sit at his desk.”
“I can’t.” My tone wavers.
“For me, Mer?”
“I just can’t, Eli.” I won’t. For several reasons. “I can’t.” And I hang up the phone.