Page 25

CHAPTER 25

T hat afternoon, I went into the shop after school, and Marley wasn’t there. Again.

He’d come in after midnight on Monday, so he’d at least slept in Ozzie’s apartment that night, and then he’d let me sleep beside him last night, but he was gone when I got up. So he was still avoiding me , which made me mad. Lately everything made me mad or weepy, but that made me extra mad. The thing was, we’d been getting along so good until this moving in thing came up and before that there was the night of Barbie and Ice Station Zebra and honest to God?—

Somebody knocked on the door of the shop, and I looked up and saw Mei. I unlocked it and let her in.

“Marley sent me,” she said, breezing in. “I’m going to help you.”

“Why?” I said, thinking, Why isn’t he here himself?

“Because you and I are friends?” she said.

Of course we were friends, best friends, but she’d never volunteered before, and now she was offering because Marley asked her to? Were they back together? “What’s going on?”

She sighed. “Your mom asked Marley and Reggie to clear out Nice Funerals for her after school, and Darius and Owen are pitching in, too, and Marley thinks it’s a bad idea for you to be in there because you were so upset being there the last time. Also, that Hermione Witch woman was in Ecstasy telling people Nice Funerals is full of Russians, but she’s insane, so take that with a tablespoon of salt.” She paused and looked thoughtful, which was such a Mei thing to do. “You know, I think I’d be upset about going in there, too. He was a serial killer with a lot of pictures of your mom and a piece of Ozzie’s shirt. That would do it for me.”

I nodded. “I could have helped them,” I said, but then honesty made me finish with, “but I would have hated it.”

“Exactly,” Mei said, “and I wanted to see what you’re doing here. Marley talks about it all the time. Plus, you need a fresh set of eyes, and mine are very fresh.”

She was right. Well, Mei was always right, so I showed her all the stuff we had done—she loved the new windows and the rainbows of china and the teapot that poured the ribbon on the hour, and I told her Marley was making a dragon for the front room on the second side, and I showed her the eBay pages I’d mocked up but couldn’t use—and she had a few very practical suggestions because Mei is always practical, like she said I should consider changing the name of the shop to put it online. We ended up in the very clean and organized library on those overstuffed chairs Marley and I had found, talking about the shop and school and parents, the usual stuff. But as we went on, I began to see that she was distracted, and I finally said, “Okay, what do you really want to talk about?”

“Rowan wants my mom and me to move to New York with him,” Mei said, and I could tell by the way she said it, it was important, not just something her mom’s journalist boyfriend was doing. “He says it’s too dangerous here. And he says there’s a lot of work for lawyers in New York, but I think he just wants out of here and doesn’t want to leave my mom and me behind.”

So I nodded. My mom always nods when people are talking to her. It’s encouraging. “Do you want to?”

“Yes,” Mei said, very sure.

She hesitated, and I waited a beat and then said, “Spill it.”

She swallowed hard. “Somebody’s been calling me. I never pick up unless it’s somebody I know, my mom or Rowan, or one of you guys, and I’ve blocked whoever it is, but the number changes and it doesn’t register as unknown but as private, which is weird and something I’ve never seen before.”

“Okay.”

“And the area code keeps changing, which is weird. But always private.”

“All right.”

Mei took a deep breath. “I think it’s my father.”

“Oh, hell,” I said, sitting back. “Change your number.”

“Wouldn’t do any good.” Mei looked upset now, which was upsetting in general because she’d perfected her “Everything is fine and I’m in control” look; I think she inherited it from her mother. “He’s this big spy guy, he could find out. But he can’t make me answer.”

“Did you tell your mom?”

“No,” Mei said. “She’d just get upset. I’m handling it. But I think New York is a good idea. I was trying to convince her that we should leave right after Christmas, but now I think we should leave now.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t in favor of that, she should be here for Christmas, but I didn’t want her dead or kidnapped, either. “Would you be any safer in New York?”

“I think so.” Mei bit her lip. “We’re kind of sitting ducks here. And Rowan is kind of famous and I heard him tell Mom that the best protection is to be in the open so that if anything were to happen it would be public. And people like my father hate publicity in any form.”

“That makes sense.”

“But you could come visit in New York. Lots to do in that city. And I could?—”

She stopped and I realized how upset she was. “Not die? Live to go to college?”

“Yeah, that kind of thing.” Mei looked miserable. “I just want out of here.”

I thought about it. “So what’s keeping you here? I mean, does your mom not want to go?”

“No, she wants to go, but there’s Christmas coming up and I’ve got school here, and I think she’s scared to leave, but I’m more scared to stay.”

“Tell her that.” I saw Mei start to shake her head. “Look, she’s probably staying here for you, so if you tell her you want to go, that’s like giving her permission. Tell her.”

Mei thought about it, and I watched her think about it, mostly thinking selfishly that I’d miss her so much it would hurt, but if New York City could keep her safer from her awful father, then she had to go. She’d love a big city. I mean, I wouldn’t have one as a gift, but Mei would be all over that.

“I’ll miss you a lot,” I told her, “but you need to be safe. And I think Rowan is right. You’ll be safer there. Tell your mom and go.”

She nodded. “Listen, it’s okay about you and Marley.”

I blinked. “What about me and Marley?”

“That, you know, you’re together. You haven’t said anything, and I wanted you to know that it’s good with me.”

“We’re not together,” I said. “I mean, we work together on the shop, but we’re not . . . doing anything.”

Mei got that look on her face that said You’re being slow, Poppy. “You’re in a situationship, wasting time. You’re together. You may not have seen it yet, but I bet you have and you’re just in denial. And I just wanted you to know that if I was the reason you were denying your feelings about him, you can let that one go. I’m good with it.”

“It’s only been two weeks since you broke up,” I said.

“Closer to three,” Mei said. “Look, Marley and I were good for a while, but we both knew it was never going to work out. And if I’m leaving town, what kind of rotten friend would I be if I kept two of the people I love most from being happy together?”

I shook my head. “Darius?—”

“You don’t owe Darius anything,” Mei said firmly. “It’s good for him to see you moving on.” I must have looked doubtful because she said, “He’s still sad, but he’s not moping. He took Emily Douglas to the movies. Madison Reinhart asked him to that concert in Raleigh and he said yes. Olivia Rogers?—”

“Okay,” I said. “But Marley . . .”

“Stop it,” Mei said. “If you’re not going to be honest with me, at least be honest with yourself.” She hesitated. “Okay, here’s the truth. I think Marley’s always had a thing for you, but there was Darius, and Marley’s not the most aggressive guy, I mean I had to pick him up to get him to go out with me, and I never worried about him cheating, he’s too honest, but he always got lighter when you walked in the door.”

“No,” I said, but I kind of wanted to believe it.

“And you were the same way with him. It’s okay, we all had a good time with our temporary people, but now we’re grown up, and I’m going to New York and you’re going for Marley. Glad we had this talk. Now, let’s get some work done here. You’re going to have a dragon in the front room on this side, but what do you want on the shelves? Books back here, china on the other side, I think the front on this side should be weird stuff. You must have a ton of that; Ozzie was nothing but weird.”

“Sure,” I said, still a little stunned by the “You’re going for Marley” part.

“And you need that new sign,” she said. “Reggie can make you a beautiful one carved out of wood, and you can take down that awful one of Ozzie’s.

“I’m not sure about changing the name of the shop,” I said, not really willing to let go of Ozzie yet.

Strangely enough, I didn’t feel the same way about Darius. Emily Douglas was going to Harvard, too. She’d told everybody. I could let go of Darius.

So now I needed a new name for the shop, maybe. And after we searched through Ozzie’s boxes for weird stuff for the front room on this side, I was going to have to figure out what I wanted from Marley. Besides a dragon and a new sign from Reggie.

“Go for it,” Mei said, reading my mind as usual.

“Weird stuff,” I said and went to look for some.