CHAPTER TWO

                                                                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~

I never expected that I wouldn't get the job in New Orleans. After all, everyone who knew me at the agency firm in Manhattan told me that I had the chops for the position. After all, I was working in New York. I racked my mind as I walked into the coffeehouse. I must not have been thinking straight because I sat down at a table full of strangers.

"I'm sorry," I said, my voice thin and raspy.

I shook the cobwebs out of my mind, or at least attempted to, as I walked away. Patrick and Tori were looking at me with eyebrows furrowed. I could tell they were concerned for me. As soon as I sat down Tori wasted no time in asking me the question I really didn't want to answer. It was too embarrassing.

"Is everything alright?" she asked, looking at me.

I sighed, exhaling deeply. "Yeah, everything's alright."

"No," Patrick said. "Something's wrong. I can tell."

I was cornered. I couldn't evade the question.

"You know the job I applied for? The one in New Orleans?" I asked, my voice higher than I anticipated.

"Yeah, of course. Did you get it? Please tell me you did."

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. With a shake of the head, I said, "No. I didn't get it. I didn't get the job."

Patrick stared at me with wide eyes, his mouth slightly open. It seemed like he stayed that way for several more seconds. It took Tori to nudge him to get him to respond.

"Are you serious?" he asked, his voice thick.

I nodded.

"I thought you would get the job. I was pretty sure you would be a shoo-in!" He was shaking his head.

"It's how it goes sometimes. I'm a literary agent. It's tough getting a good job."

I made eye contact with Tori when I felt her looking at me, curiosity in her eyes.

"But how hard can it be?"

"Agencies have specific expectations, and most of the time, you have to be really good. Like, it all depends on how many publishing companies you've gotten in the past. I've gotten a lot, but I suppose the other person who won the position has a lot of experience. More than me."

The air was now silent again. I took a sup from my coffee cup but was disappointed to discover that it had grown cold and rather stale in taste. I hated when that happened. I just sat there, looking at the chocolate-colored liquid, contemplating on whether or not to buy another, hotter cup.

"Hey, I want to buy another cup," I said to Tori.

She smiled and shook her head, her curls bouncing slightly. "It's totally on the house. Crazy Cajun, right? Judging by the cup, you want a medium?"

"Yeah, a medium sounds great." I wasn't going to lie. I was surprised by this act of kindness. Not that I was surprised that Tori was capable of that, but I just wasn't expecting it at all. "Thanks, Tori."

"It's not a problem. You definitely need it! Just consider it a welcome back present."

Tori walked away and once again, Patrick and I were sitting alone. I took a deep breath, hating this silence between us. I bit my lip, thinking of things to say. But I couldn't find much of anything to say at all. This was unnerving. I tapped my foot, keeping a fast rhythm.

"So," he said. "What do you think of Tori?" He looked at me, smiling. "Do you like her?"

I barely know her. "Well, I think she's nice. But I don't know her too well, Patrick. I would need to get to know her before I form an opinion."

"But you're a literary agent." His eyes twinkled.

"And?"

"You're supposed to be used to judging based on first impressions." His lips curled into a smirk.

"Oh come on, Patrick." I shook my head, glad that the conversation was finally going somewhere.

"Marley. Tell me, do you think you could see her as my fiancee? That's why I want to know what you think. I really do love Tori... I just can't see myself with anyone else."

He lost me at fiancee. My mind was in a blur, a haze of sorts. It made me feel sad, not for myself, but for the fact that I thought I knew Patrick better than I did. Looking at him now, I found myself wishing that I made more of an effort to come out here to Sunset. I only visited twice and that was once for my grandfather's funeral and the second time was for the Carlisle Family Reunion, which was a disaster like it usually was.

"I think you should... do what your heart tells you to do," I said, looking at him. There must have been something strange in the way I looked at him because he responded in a strange way.

"Yeah." He nodded his head. "You're right. I'll propose to her soon, then. Don't tell her anything, okay? She's coming back now. Oh, I hope she didn't hear." He moved over to the side to let her join us.

The smell of the Cajun Crazy blend once again brought back a memory from high school.

***

I looked at the math homework staring at me in the face. It was like it was taunting me, telling me that I would never be good enough to get an A in the class. I took a sip of the coffee, hoping that the jolt of caffeine would let me go into at least a temporary genius mode.

"Aren't you going to solve the problem?" Patrick asked, looking at me. "You've been sitting there for like five minutes."

"I can't solve it."

"Well, it's basic algebra," he said. "All you have to do is bring n over to the other side to make it negative n. Then you have 4. 5-n is 4.

Well, look at that. The school jock was actually smart. I smiled and chuckled.

"What? What is it?"

"Nothing," I said, shaking my head. "It's nothing at all."

"Well, maybe if you spend more time paying attention in class, you would be zipping through this homework faster than me." His eyes lit up when he smiled.

I couldn't help but smile in return.

***

"Earth to Marley," Patrick said, waving his large hand across my face. "Are you with us?"

I blinked for several seconds, bringing myself back to my current reality.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm still here."

"I know you must be pretty upset right now," he said. "But I know there are other jobs."

That was it. I should not have been so over-confident that I was going to get this job in the first place. But in my defense, it did seem like I was a shoo-in based on previous conversations I've had. I took a deep breath. I didn't even have a plan B. At this point, I definitely regretted not coming up with one.

"I'm trying to come up with a plan B."

"Plan B's are always good," Tori said. "Have you given it much thought at all?"

I shook my head. "Not really."

"There's always staying here, in Sunset. I know you were just planning on visiting your parents. Just talk to them about it. I'm sure they want you to stay here."

Patrick was right. They did want me to stay here. That's what they told me when I walked in the foyer. It was actually one of the first things they told me after I hugged them. It was strange coming back home. In the house, everything was the same, but it wasn't at the same time. The vibe that brought on the nostalgia was still there, but something was different. It wasn't necessarily a remodeling job, but I began to think that maybe it was me. Maybe I had done some growing up and was seeing my home through more adult, mature eyes.

"Yeah," I said, nodding my head. "They do want me to stay with them."

"Well there you go, then." He smiled. "They want you to stay. Honestly, I've missed you. Missed your company."

There he was with the talk again. I wished he wouldn't do that, with the whole smiling thing. I had no choice but to look away. What was I going to say to this? I glanced over at Tori, who was looking at me with a weak smile. How could I say, 'Yeah, I missed you a lot. Like a lot.' How could I say that in front of his almost-fiancee?

To my relief, Tori changed the subject.

"So, Marley. Have you been out to Sunset Point yet? They're having the block party there tonight. You should come. We'll be there!" Her eyes lit up as she took Patrick's arm and laid her head on it.

The block party. Right. Friday nights. Where they showed all the classic cars. Patrick loved hot rods. We used to go to them often, but never together.

"Yeah, of course I'll be there. I think my parents mentioned something about going, so I'll most likely be going with them. Even if they don't go, I'll be going too."

At the block parties, Patrick was always with his crowd of friends, and me with the quiet ones. He was always looking and discussing cars with their owners. My friends and I, we just sat at the steps of one of the local businesses, our favorite hangout. All of my friends had an infatuation on Patrick and they were always talking about him in a romantic way. I was already coffeehouse friends with him at this time, but my other friends didn't know this. To them, I would have been crazy if I had told them that Patrick was actually good at math and science. I looked at the Patrick now, who clearly surprised everyone, excluding me, that e got a full ride to Yale. He got his degree in English. I remember some of my old friends telling me that it was strange that the class clown, who seemed to make fun of the books we read in class, would be majoring in English. But they didn't know him like I did. I supposed it was all an act, a ruse of sorts. I supposed it was because he was a football player that he had certain expectations to uphold within his little clique of jocks, but looking at him now, you'd never think that he was a football player at all. I was sure he had a Murakami book somewhere in his sack. He told me that happening upon Norwegian Wood in the library one day was what changed his life forever. It was the seed that started a lifelong love for everything literature. He even got me to read the book, and I ended up loving it just as much as him. It's what got me into wanting to be a literary agent. I was already a bookworm long before he ever was.

"The block parties haven't changed much," Patrick said, looking at me. "It's pretty much still the same people. The guy with the Chevy Bel-Air still comes with his kids. They're older now. Can you believe it? They're already starting high school."

"I don't really remember them all that well, but of course I know Vincent and his wife." I smiled. "It's wonderful that they have two kids now. I barely remember when she was pregnant with her first."

"Yeah," Tori interjected. "Their kids are beautiful. You'd love them. I love them and I'm really not a kid person. Like at all." She chuckled.

But Patrick is. Will that be an issue in the future? I couldn't help but think that would cause some major issues, especially if Patrick wanted to marry her. As long as I'd known him, he'd always wanted to have children of his own.

More people walked in the coffeehouse and at the same time, there must have been someone coming in through the drive-thru. She waved at us while she answered the headphone. I took a sip of my coffee and thought of the block party that would be later that night. I was actually looking forward to it.

A/N: Hey everyone! Here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoyed it! :)

What do you think of Patrick, Marley, and Tori?

What do you think might happen at the block party?