Joel waved Finn off dismissively, turning his back to her. “Nah. My dancing days are behind m—” Then he spun back around suddenly and began doing a dance that resembled the Running Man being performed by the cast ofWest Side Story, replete with finger snaps. Finn joined him, laughing, and Zadie hid her face in her hands until the humiliating public display was over.
“We still got it!” Joel held up his right hand and the two high-fived. “So what are you guys doing here, anyway?”
“We’re trying to find our mom,” Finn said.
Joel’s gaze snapped back to his ex. “Wait. Seriously?”
He had met Zadie only a year after Nora had disappeared, when she was broke and still sleeping on friends’ couches. They’d met on one such couch the morning after a mutual acquaintance’s party. Each of them thought they were the only person crashing there until they woke up with the soles of their feet pressed together. Zadie instinctually screamed and kicked him in the shin. Joel alsoscreamed, but from pain, not surprise. After a solid minute of confused yelling from opposite ends of the couch—
What are you doing here?
What areyoudoing here?
—they were laughing at the burgeoning bruise on Joel’s shin. An hour later, Zadie found herself spilling the story of her mom’s disappearance to this guy she barely knew. If she had met him at any other point in her life, they would have been good friends and nothing more, but Zadie was lonely, and he made her happy. At least for a while, anyway.
“Yeah. That’s why we’re here,” Zadie said sheepishly, remembering all the times she’d cried in Joel’s arms saying things like:I hate her. I hope she never comes back.
Joel ran his fingers through his sweaty hair. “Whoa. That’s crazy. Do you know where she is?”
“Not yet,” Finn answered, then added, “but we’re getting closer.”
Joel appeared to have more questions, but a shout from behind him broke his train of thought. A man in a stiff collared shirt beckoned him over to the pool deck. “Shit. That’s my manager. I’ll be right back.”
When Joel was out of earshot, Finn asked, “Did you know he was here?”
“No idea.”
The two men were now standing face-to-face on the pool deck. From the way the manager was jabbing his finger in Joel’s face, it appeared he was not pleased.
“What do you think he did?”
Zadie shrugged. “Knowing Joel, I’ll bet it was probably something stupid.”
The heated exchange continued for another minute until Joel had apparently had enough. He shoved the soap caddy into his boss’s chest with such force that the man lost his balance and staggered backward over the edge of the pool. Zadie winced at the sound his body made as it slapped against the water.
Moments later, a wild-eyed Joel hurried past the Wilders. “Can I come in?” he said, not waiting for an answer before entering their room.
Zadie and Finn followed Joel inside, but they couldn’t see him anywhere. Zadie sighed, exasperated. “You don’t have to hide, Joel. He didn’t see you come in here.”
Joel hesitantly rose from behind one of the double beds. “What’s he doing now?”
Finn peeked through the curtains. “He’s climbing out of the pool. No, wait… he slipped… now he’s climbing out again.”
“Does he look mad?”
“Well, he doesn’t lookhappy.”
Joel buried his face in his hands and let out a pitiful groan. “I really fucked up this time.”
“What was he yelling at you about?” Finn probed.
“It wasn’t a big deal. The room wasn’t even being used. I was just keeping my stuff there until I found a place.”
“You’ve been living at the motel?” Zadie tried to sound surprised, but a motel was far from the strangest place Joel had called home. When they first met, he was living in a friend’s RV that had previously been used exclusively for a canning business. During those first few weeks, he’d show up to every one of their dates smelling like sauerkraut.
Joel looked neither ashamed nor remorseful. “Like I said, they weren’t even using the room. It was supposed to be fumigated for bedbugs last fall, but the owner hadn’t gotten around to it yet.” He was about to lower himself onto the end of Zadie’s bed when Zadie shook her head forcefully.
Joel hovered in a half squat for a moment, then straightened back up to standing. “Right. Sorry… Anyway, I guess I’m fired now. It sucks because I only have, like, a hundred bucks in my bank account.” He looked plaintively out the window. “I don’t even have a car.”