Rules for Being a Girl by Candace Bushnell

Author:Candace Bushnell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

Nineteen

Gray takes me skating at the Frog Pond on Boston Common on Friday night, his big hand warm against my chilly one as we weave our way through the crowded rink. Little kids in hockey skates whiz past clusters of college students in fur-collared parkas while Ariana Grande blasts over the speakers; a giant Christmas tree winks with colored lights.

Once the session ends we get hot chocolates in a tiny coffee shop overlooking the park, all Edison bulbs and basket-weave tile, a heavy velvet curtain hung across the doorway to keep out the chill. Gray folds his bulky body basically in half to sit in a wobbly chair by the window, his knees bumping the mosaic tabletop, which isn’t much bigger than a dinner plate.

“You okay over there?” I ask with a laugh, grabbing my mug before its contents go sloshing over the sides.

“Oh, I’m great,” he says, and I think he’s joking around until I glance up and catch how he’s looking at me, his gaze calm and steady. My whole body gets warm.

“Well,” I say, taking a sip of my cocoa to hide my blush. I never felt like this with Jacob, like my actual bones were glowing deep inside my body just from being near him. “Good.”

Gray breaks a massive snickerdoodle into two pieces, handing me half. “My moms make these every Christmas,” he tells me. “They have this whole baking day they do—they both have a bunch of sisters, so my aunts and all my girl cousins come over and make like a million different kinds.”

“And you taste test?” I joke.

Gray snorts. “You think my moms would let me get away with sitting on my ass while a bunch of womenfolk make me food?” he asks with a laugh. “I do my fair share. I’ll have you know I’m an excellent measurer.”

“I don’t doubt that,” I say with a smile. “So you have a big family?”

“Huge,” Gray says, finishing his cookie in two bites. “Like, twenty-two first cousins. And some of them have kids now too. It’s a zoo.”

“That sounds nice,” I tell him, using a teaspoon to scoop a mound of whipped cream out of my hot chocolate before it can sink to the bottom of the mug. “It’s always just been Gracie and me and our parents. It’s part of why we’re so close to our gram.”

“Oh yeah?” Gray looks interested. “Is she cool?”

“She’s the best,” I say immediately, leaving out the part where she’s not always reliably herself these days. “And I actually just found out she’s got this whole secret Riot Grrrl past I never knew about.”

“That’s awesome,” Gray says with a grin.

We sit in the coffee shop for a long time, until the crowd thins out and it’s just us and a glamorous-looking middle-aged woman nursing an espresso, and still I’m in no hurry to get home. Gray’s a good question asker, full of self-deprecating stories about being the only guy in a family full of ladies; he’s got a sister named Alice who’s studying political science in Chicago.

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