Chapter 22

PRESENT DAY

 

Gwen calls us in the morning to tell us that she’s purchased five tickets for the afternoon showing of Dogcat. I distinctly remember stating that we had already seen Dogcat and that we were never, ever going to see it again. But it’s hard to get too angry when I see how excited Lily is.

“Dogcat is my favorite movie in the whole world,” she tells Noah while we’re eating cold cut sandwiches for lunch.

Lily’s favorite movie is always the last movie she’s seen. Every time she sees anything, it’s suddenly the greatest movie ever. But I’m worried. If she sees Dogcat a second time, will that cement the movie as her favorite movie of all time forever?

“What is this movie about, anyway?” Noah asks me as he bites into his turkey sandwich on wheat bread.

“It’s about a cat,” Lily explains to him. “But then the cat becomes a dog. Except he wants to be a cat again. And also? He fights crime.”

“Does he?” Noah looks like he’s suppressing a laugh.

“Yes, he does,” Lily says. “Like he saves a whole family of frogs from a burning building.”

Noah frowns. “Why is there a family of frogs living in a building?”

Lily frowns back. “Where else would they live?”

“It’s an alternative universe,” I explain to Noah. “Where instead of people, animals are essentially in charge of the planet.” I think there was also some sort of lesson in the movie about taking good care of the planet, but the message was lost in the awfulness that was Dogcat.

Noah is smirking. “I can’t wait.”

We drive over to the theater to meet Gwen and my father. Gwen is holding another shopping bag and this time she pulls out a dress that she bought for Lily. It’s bright pink with a lacy skirt—beautiful but completely impractical. I can’t even imagine an occasion where Lily will be able to wear this dress. But of course, Lily loves it. She loves it so much that I have to promise her to take her to the bathroom as soon as we get into the movie theater so she can put it on.

“I’m so happy you like it, sweetie,” Gwen says. “You should have at least one nice thing.”

My face burns. Lily has nice things. Well, some nice things. I mean, it’s not like I can afford to buy her tons of frilly, impractical dress just because.

Noah notices the look on my face. He frowns at his mother and says, “Actually, I think Lily has on a really nice outfit right now.”

Lily glances down at the outfit she’s wearing, clearly skeptical. It’s a short-sleeved rainbow-colored shirt with black stars on it that she paired with pink shorts. It’s a completely unremarkable outfit I threw into the duffel bag when I was randomly shoving in clothes for our trip. I wouldn’t call it “really nice.” It’s acceptable. It’s clean, at least.

“Of course she does!” Gwen says quickly. “Lily always is dressed in nice outfits. And of course, we’re all so excited to see this Dogcat movie.”

Gwen might hate me, but at least she’s sucking up to my daughter.

However, Noah sticking up for me—that’s a new development.

“I’ll buy the popcorn,” Noah offers. He looks at me. “What do you guys want?”

Lily nearly explodes from happiness. “Popcorn! Mommy never lets me get popcorn! It’s too ‘spensive.”

Here we go again. My daughter knows the words “too expensive” all too well, even if she can’t quite pronounce them.

Noah grins. “Well, this is a special occasion because your grandpa just got engaged. So you get to have popcorn.”

Lily runs around in a happy circle. Literally.

Noah looks at me again and furrows his brow. “So to drink… she wouldn’t have soda, right?”

I snort. “Why? You think she needs more sugar? Water is fine, thanks.”

Gwen takes Lily to the bathroom to help her put on her new dress and I’m left alone with my father, while Noah gets in line to buy the popcorn. I notice the girl at the counter immediately starts flirting with him. And I can tell he’s flirting back. Not that there’s any reason he shouldn’t.

“So it looks like you and Noah are getting along okay,” Dad says.

“We had a truce,” I say, and wince at how dumb that sounds.

Dad smiles. “That’s good to hear. I knew it would be okay, once we were all settled in.”

“Yeah,” I mumble.

“Gwen was surprised at how upset he seemed when you showed up,” Dad adds. “She said that he… well, obviously he’s done well for himself, in spite of everything. She said he never even talked about you. Not since right after.”

“Oh.” I don’t know why that comment leaves me feeling cold. It’s not like I wish Noah had been obsessing over me for the last ten years. But at the same time, I feel sad to discover he never even thought about me. I sure thought about him. I always wondered what he was doing. If he became a surgeon. If he was married. If he had a little girl of his own.

But I never checked on Facebook to find out if it was true. I knew how painful it would have been to find out Noah was really taken.

Noah comes off the line carrying three bags of popcorn and three empty cups for drinks. He’s limping more than usual due to the strain of everything he’s holding, and he looks like he’s about to drop everything. “Little help here?” he calls.

Dad comes over to take their popcorn and drink, while I grab Lily’s smaller bag of popcorn and the cup I’ll probably fill with water (or lemonade, if she really insists). With impeccable timing, Lily emerges from the bathroom with her impractical new dress on. It’s so frilly that she looks more like she’s going to a wedding than seeing Dogcat for the second time. She runs right up to Noah to show him.

“Do you like it?” she asks.

“I love it,” he says very seriously. “Just be careful not to spill anything on it.”

Lily nods solemnly, her blue eyes wide.

We all fight over who’s going to sit next to Lily. Well, I don’t fight too hard, considering I got to sit next to her the first time we saw Dogcat. Lily wants to sit next to Noah, and her choice is to sit between him and me, but Gwen wants to sit next to Lily as well. After some intense negotiations, Lily ends up between Noah and Gwen, with me on the end next to Noah.

“Be careful,” I whisper to Noah. “Lily may make a move when the lights are down.”

Noah laughs. “Don’t worry. I’ve got lots of experience fending off female advances. Even six-year-olds.”

I’ll just bet he does.

As the lights dim though, it’s not Lily I’m thinking about. It’s Noah, inches away from me, in this dark theater. I can just barely smell his aftershave and it’s making me want to rest my head on his shoulder to get closer. After all, the last time Noah and I were in a dark theater like this together, his arm was around my shoulders, keeping me close to him. And if the movie was boring, we’d start making out. Or maybe just because we felt like it. Every activity was an excuse to make out with each other.

It was never like that with any other guys. Not even with Theo.

“Hey,” I hear Noah whisper as the opening credits to Dogcat start rolling on the screen. “I didn’t know Robert DeNiro was in this movie.”

“Yeah,” I whisper back. “He does the voice of some mob boss parakeet that Dogcat has to take down.”

I can make out Noah smiling in the dark of the theater. “Wow, all-star cast.”

“Yeah, I wish they’d spent the money making the movie not suck.”

Noah stifles a laugh. He shakes his bag of popcorn in my direction. “You want some popcorn?”

“Nah.”

“You sure? I got a large.”

I shake my head. “It will make me too thirsty.”

He raises his eyebrows at me. “I also got a large drink.”

Sharing a drink.  That means drinking from the same straw.  I stare at him in the dark.

“I don’t have cooties, Bailey,” he whispers.

He’s looking at me in a way that makes my heart speed up. This is definitely the most excited an adult has ever been during a viewing of Dogcat.

“Fine,” I whisper back as I take a handful of popcorn.

He’s just sharing his food with me. There’s no reason to make more of this than it deserves.