─── CHERRY LIPGLOSS (⌗ ♥︎! ) 一 the summer i turned pretty ❜
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"So, keep it in the wind?" Cleveland asked the boy.
"We should be good." Conrad responded, walking back to the front deck, "The anchor's gonna hold."
"So, what are we trying to catch?" Cleveland asked once the boy was in front of him, "Because I don't want a great white in here..."
"No, the outer bays are great for stripers, blues, sea bass, that sort of a thing. It's one of my dad's favorite spots." He responded without thinking, only realizing his words halfway through his sentence reason why he mumbled the last few words as he turned away.
"Speaking of your dad," the man started, and Conrad rolled his eyes, knowing what was coming, "How was yesterday?
"A shit shows," he responded as he searched for the fishing rods.
"Yet you seem happy..." Cleveland pointed out, smiling at the boy as if he knew something.
"Why does everyone keep saying that?" he mumbled, referring to his brother, mother, and Laurel, who had also asked it during breakfast.
"Is it, um..." Cleveland began, trying to sound vague but failing, "You know, the girl that you blew me off for during my Good Morning Massachusetts show interview?"
"Avery?" he asked, hoping he had managed to fight back the smile that keeps showing up whenever he says her name.
"Yeah, yeah." the man nodded.
"I don't know." Conrad mumbled, unsure if he should tell the man their secret, "I don't know..." he shrugged.
"Well, I give good love advice. No charge."
"What do you know? You're, like, a hundred, right?"
"I'll have you know I do just fine." Cleveland responded, pretending to be hurt by his comment, "In fact, I am debating whether to text a woman I had a very memorable liaison with just last night."
"Look at you, man!" Conrad beamed, for some reason feeling comfortable around the stranger enough to do so, "Who is she?"
"No. I can play your game." Cleveland laughed, shaking his head as he tried to hold back a smile.
"Okay. All right." Conrad laughed, nodding as he studied the man, "Let me guess, let me guess. She's, uh, she's half your age, she's..."
"No. Not at all." the man quickly shut him up, "She's a mature, divorced, talented writer that I met recently... And I'd like to see her again." he confessed, causing an instant smile to show on the boy's face since he knew the woman quite well.
Laurel Park had always meant a lot to him. She was his second mother and one of his favorite people in the world. She was his Laura, the first woman, other than his mother, that he ever gave his heart to. He wished nothing but happiness for the woman he loved so dearly, so after seeing the smile on the man's face as he talked about her, Conrad couldn't help but to smile and say,
