The last few days at Hartley House had been a bit weird, ever since Dominic had broken down a bit about the bone marrow transplant. It might have been my imagination, but it seemed like he had been avoiding me over the past couple days.
My stomach was a ball of nerves about the party. Would Dominic act all weird towards me, would the companies I’d convinced to donate items in return for promoting their brands on social media be happy with the posts I made? Not to mention the worry that Ethan’s fever would cast an anxious shadow over Lillian’s birthday party. When we entered Hartley House and I saw the excitement, though, I relaxed a bit.
“Welcome!” Claudia yelled over the racket. “Drop your coats in the closet and head over to the kitchen. Dominic’s getting everything ready, I’m sure he could use a hand!”
“Oh no,” I laughed, “I wonder what kind of disaster is going on in there?”
Libby gave me a sideways look, but she just shrugged off her coat and hung it up, then followed me in to the kitchen.
The kitchen was quieter than the rest of the house. There were only a few children there. Lillian, of course, and Jackson Maycomb, and Kaylee Stewart out of the hospital for an afternoon – but they were shrieking and running around in the living room with enough energy to generate the noise of a dozen children. Dominic was standing on the table, taping up crepe paper streamers so they crisscrossed the room, surrounded by a bunch of balloons.
“Need any help?” I asked.
He looked down, and his face instantly relaxed when he saw me. “Natalie! Yes! And your friend. You can blow up balloons and do... something with them.”
“Oh, yeah. Dominic, this is my roommate Libby.” I’d almost forgotten that she was there with me.
“Hi,” said Libby cheerfully. She grabbed a balloon. “What do you want me to do with these?”
Dominic looked at me helplessly. “I have no idea. What do you do with balloons at a party? I blew a bunch of them up, but I don’t know what to do with them.”
“Let’s tie them up in bunches,” I said, gathering a few balloons together. “We’ll tie three together in a small bunch, then attach them to the wall. And leave a few loose on the floor for the kids to play with, of course.”
“Good idea. Phew. I’m glad you’re here,” he said, smiling down at me.
“Do you need any help with the set up?” asked Libby. “I can set out plates and cups on the table.”
“That’d be great,” said Dominic, and Libby quietly slipped out of the room to find the stuff for the lunch settings, leaving us in the room together.
We worked quietly for a few minutes, each of us focused on our own task. I gathered the pink and purple balloons in bunches of three and tied them together, while Dominic taped a streamer to one wall and then slowly unwound and twisted it until it reached the other side of the room. “This look okay?” he asked me, breaking the silence.
“Um, maybe a little higher,” I suggested. He raised the streamer. “A bit more... Yeah, that looks good.”
“Thanks,” he said, taping it in place.
I waited for him to say something else, since he was usually so chatty, but he didn’t. I tied three more balloons together, then dragged a chair over to stand on while I taped them to the wall. “Hey, do these balloons look okay here?” The words felt awkward coming from my mouth, but I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“Looks good,” he said, and I taped the balloons where I had them.
Libby entered the room then, stacks of plates and napkins and a basket of forks piled high in her arms. She set it all down on the table and observed us, working quietly. “You guys okay? It looks great in here!” Her voice sounded overly cheery.
“Thanks,” said Dominic. “I’d better go set the drinks and pizza out. You guys can finish hanging the balloons and then go hang out with everyone in the living room, okay?” He disappeared in to the kitchen.
Libby and I watched him go. She turned to me and said, “Is everything okay? I’m getting a weird vibe. Did something... um, happen between you two?”
“No” I exclaimed, loudly. Then I relented. “Well, maybe. But not what you’re thinking. He... he was pretty upset to hear that Ethan wasn’t doing well.”
“I thought Ethan just had a fever,” she said.
“He does, but a fever can be really serious for him right now. He’s getting ready for a bone marrow transplant so he’s on a few medications to prepare his body. The fever is reaction. It’s normal, sort of, but the fever has to go down in order for the transplant to happen.”
“Oh.” Libby’s sunny face went dark. “Oh, no. I didn’t think it was anything that serious. I thought if he was getting a bone marrow transplant that meant he was going to be okay.”
“So did Dominic. I mean, usually it does, but he needs to get the transplant first. And that can be harder than some people think.”
“Poor Ethan. And his poor family.”
Libby looked so sad that I tried to change the subject. “Let’s hang these last balloons on the wall and then go say hi to everyone in the living room, okay?”
13
In the living room, most of the kids and adults staying at Hartley House had gathered. We were just waiting for people like Ryan and Teresa, who would be coming in on their day off. I went around and said a quick hello to all the adults who took the time to be here, then went and found Lillian where she was sitting in a corner, having just collapsed after spinning in so many circles she got dizzy and fell down. Her pink party dress was hiked up over her knees, and she was already wearing one of the unicorn headbands we’d gotten at Party Supply Outlet earlier that week.
“Happy birthday, Lillian,” I said to her. “Your party is so awesome!”
She beamed at me. “Fanks. I wike your pwetty pink shirt!”
I knew it had been a good decision to borrow the blouse from Maya. “Thanks, sweetie,” I said. “I like your dress, too. I saw you doing some great dancing earlier.”
“Yeah, I’m a gweat dancer,” said Lillian nonchalantly. “Is my bwudder coming?”
It took a few seconds to register that she had asked about her brother. “I don’t know, Lillian,” I said, searching for the right thing to say. “Did you ask your mommy and daddy?”
“Mommy said he’s sick.” She looked up at me hopefully. “Natawee, is he sick?”
My heart broke for her. “I don’t think he’s feeling too good right now, but I think if he gets a lot of rest then he should be feeling better soon.”
Lillian looked doubtful. I didn’t want to go down this path right now, not at her party when we were supposed to be taking our mind off this. So I stood up and held out my hand to her. “Should we go see if the pizza’s ready?”
Pizza was the magic word. Lillian jumped to her feet and ran out of the room ahead of me, hollering for pizza the whole way. Luckily, by then Dominic had had enough time to get the table all set up, so when everyone wandered after us towards the food, it was all ready. Lillian climbed into a chair that Claudia had decorated like a throne, and everyone else grabbed pizza and a plate and found a seat at one of the long tables in Hartley House’s dining room. I poured some juice for Jackson Maycomb, then looked around to find Libby and sit next to her.
Libby was sitting at the next table, in between Ryan and Rachel Stewart. I brought my plate of pizza around to the other side of the table and sat down, just as Dominic slid in to the seat across from Ryan. I stole a sideways glance at him.
“Looks great, man,” Ryan was saying, around a mouthful of pizza. “Nice work on the free pizza, Natalie.”
“Oh, right!” I grabbed my phone and started snapping pictures. Guests lining up for pizza, the half-empty box, Lillian lifting her cheesy slice to her mouth. I’d go through them all later and choose the best ones to upload.
“Take a picture of Dominic, too,” directed Libby from across the table. “Maybe the Tigers will share it if you tag them.” She smiled sweetly at me.
I could tell wh
at she was doing, and I wanted very badly to give her the old stinkeye, but I didn’t want Ryan to see. So instead I smiled back at her and said, “Fantastic idea, Libby. Say cheese, Dominic!”
Dominc turned and gave me a big, cheesy grin, mouthful of pizza. “Happy birthday, Lillian,” he said, and a chunk of pepperoni fell out of his mouth.
I yelped and slid my chair back a foot. “You’re disgusting! Oh my gosh! This is my roommate’s shirt, I can’t get pizza sauce all over it!”
“Oh, it’s nowhere near you,” he laughed, but shoved the pizza back in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. Then he held the slice up and gave a thumbs-up, and I snapped a picture.
Libby leaned across the table. “Let me take one of you guys together,” she said. “You know, to show the face behind all the social media posts.”
“Oh, I don’t think I need to do that,” I protested.
But Libby was firm. “Yup, your hair looks great, no pizza sauce on your face, just lean in a bit. Closer, closer. Oh come on, Nat, how bad does he smell? Scoot your chair over!”
Libby was relentless. I didn’t want to make a scene, so I reluctantly scooted my chair over a few inches. Leaned in next to him. I smiled, and held my breath. I was so close I could smell him, his aftershave lingering underneath the pizza smell. We smiled, and Libby snapped the picture.
“You better post that,” she told me, handing my phone back. “You need to show the world how great your hair looks.”
“Thanks, Lib,” I said. I finished my pizza and stood up. “I’d better go take some pictures of the cake before it gets cut up and served. When is the princess coming for face painting?”
“In about five minutes, actually,” said Dominic, glancing at the clock. “I’d better finish up too.”
I waited to see if he was going to follow me in to the kitchen, but he headed for the front door instead to wait for the princess. I turned and went back to the kitchen, slightly disappointed that he hadn’t followed me.
Still, I had a job to do. I snapped pictures of the cake from every angle. It really was a beautiful cake, with ponies made of fondant frolicking over a stream. When I had finished, I went back to the living room where the princess was setting up. Lillian was, of course, first in line to have her face painted. I hovered around the action, snapping pictures with my phone to make sure I had plenty to choose from later. Lillian wanted to be a butterfly, so a butterfly she was. There were only a few kids at the party, so once they were finished the princess opened it up to the adults.
“I’ll do it,” said Dominic. Somehow I knew he would volunteer.
“What’ll it be?” asked the princess.
“A pony!” yelled Lillian.
But Dominic shook his head. “Nope, I think I’m going to be a tiger. You know, for the Tigers.”
This could be good. A Tiger getting his face painted like a tiger for charity. This was the kind of stuff that the team would share on their page, too, reaching an even wider audience. It was for work, I told myself, as I moved in closer for a picture. He looked down at Lillian at just the right moment, as she beamed up at him, and I pressed the button on my camera. Perfect. We’d get thousands of likes, and the princess would get lots of positive exposure to.
He looked up at me then, and winked. I almost dropped my phone. I took a step backwards and almost crashed in to Tiffany Maycomb.
She grabbed my arm and helped steady me. “You okay, Natalie?” she asked.
“Just tripped over my own feet,” I lied. I gestured to the high heels I was wearing today. “I guess that’s what I get for trying to wear fancy shoes!”
Tiffany laughed and let me go, and I turned and fled the room. My heart was fluttering even though I didn’t want to admit what caused it. Dominic. I took a deep breath and kept moving.
In the kitchen, Libby was helping Claudia and Teresa clean up the table from lunch and set out clean plates for later, when the cake was going to be served. “What are you doing in here?” Libby asked me, clearly disappointed if her frown and tone of voice was any indication.
Teresa looked up, too, and frowned. “Aren’t you supposed to be taking pictures of the party? Sharing and tagging the partners who donated their time and services in exchange for you taking pictures and posting them?”
“I just came here to edit,” I invented quickly. “I got some great shots of the face painting, and the pizza. Just going to go through them all and choose a few, then upload them. I took a ‘before’ picture of the cake, and then once it’s served I’ll take an ‘after’ shot of Lillian eating it, and upload those too. I think it’s better to upload the pictures quickly instead of waiting until tonight or something.”
I was mostly babbling as I went along, but Teresa nodded thoughtfully and said I was probably right, so I breathed a sigh of relief. I grabbed a glass of lemonade and sat at one end of a table, all by myself. I stared at my phone as I scrolled through the pictures I’d taken, trying to decide which ones to choose.
The last one in the series was Dominic winking at me. I shook my head and scrolled back to the beginning. The pizza box with Gino’s logo on it, I must include that. And Lillian, eyes wide with delight, taking a bit bite of her slice. And then there was Dominic, goofily talking with his mouth full. I scrolled past. There was the shot Libby had taken of the two of us. Heads together. Smiling. We looked happy. We looked like the kind of people who would go shopping together for supplies for their three-year-old’s birthday party.
But that was ridiculous. I didn’t even like him that much, I told myself. He was full of himself and he made too much money and he had knocked me over and spilled water on me and laughed. He was a disaster in every way.
I hesitated, my finger hovering above my phone screen. I went back to the picture of the two of us. Was that list really it? Sure, he had spilled water on me, and then coffee a few days later, and had thought it was funny. I was embarrassed, and he had thought it was funny. That was why I didn’t like him.
Now that I had reminded myself of that fact, I kept looking through my pictures. Lillian getting her face painted, Kaylee and Jackson getting their faces painted, and then there he was again. He might have laughed at me, but he had planned this whole party for a little girl he’d only just met. He was getting his face painted like a tiger and wearing a unicorn headband to make a little girl happy. Maybe, possibly, he wasn’t that awful?
“What are you doing?”
I jumped, and instinctively hid my phone. I didn’t want anybody to see which picture I was staring at. “Nothing,” I said, as Libby sat down next to me.
“You sure?” She leaned over and tried to look.
Suddenly I wanted to talk to her about it. I could trust her. “So, now that you’ve met him, what do you think of Dominic? Like, does he seem like a jerk who would laugh at someone for spilling stuff? Or a nice guy who put together a birthday party for a little girl he doesn’t even know?”
“Can’t he be both those things?” asked Libby. “Nobody’s perfect and nobody’s the same all the time. He can be a nice guy who threw a party for a little girl but who also had a moment where he laughed at someone and was kind of a jerk, and then felt really bad about it and tried to apologize.”
“Have you been talking to him?” I asked her suspiciously.
Libby laughed. “Maybe. I’m not telling. I think he has a thing for you. Anybody who has eyes can see that. All I have to say is, if your pride is the thing holding you back, then think about which you’d rather have. Your pride, or maybe finding someone who cares about you. You’re not as good an actress as you think you are, Nat. At least, you can’t fool me. I can tell you like him. Maybe he was a jerk at first, but you’re allowed to change your mind.”
I nodded silently. Libby reached over and grabbed my phone, then scrolled up to the picture she’d taken of us together. “This is a great photo, though. You guys look cute together. Think about it. Also, almost time for cake.”
“Right. Cake.” I took my phone back an
d quickly uploaded the pictures I’d chosen, added some captions, tagged the bakery and Gino’s and the party princess and Dominic and the Tigers, and posted them just before everyone came back in to sing Happy Birthday to Lillian.
I watched Dominic from across the room as he helped carry the cake in. His face looked so gentle and loving by the candlelight, and as he put the cake down in front of Lillian. Suddenly remembering I was supposed to be taking pictures, I grabbed my phone and snapped a shot of the delight on her face when she saw it.
I thought about how Libby must be right. So he had done something unkind to me, once. He felt bad about it. That didn’t mean that was who he was, did it? I had no idea, but I had a hard time believing he was a bad guy as I watched him help Lillian blow out her three candles.
14
The cake tasted as good as it looked, and after it had been served I made excuses to go home early – I had to go through my cake photos and post the best ones, I said, and neither Libby nor Teresa pointed out that I had already done the pizza and princesses while the party was going on, for which I was grateful.
I just wanted to think. I needed to think. Libby knew me well enough to give me some space, and she must have talked to Maya, too, because when I returned her pink blouse Maya only asked how Lillian had liked her party. The two of them had spent a lot of time teasing me about all the time I was spending with Dominic in the days leading up to the party, so I was grateful that they were giving me a little break.
The morning after the birthday party, I felt as nervous going in to work as I had been on my very first day, when I’d started work straight out of college. On the walk over, I imagined a million different scenarios in my head. Should I say anything to Dominic? Should I wait and see how he acted first, before I said anything? Should I invent some busy work that would keep me at my desk all day, unable to see him?
Good Works (Hero Hearts: Contemporary) Page 7