Summer Static

The cable van smelled like stale coffee and my dad's Old Spice. This was my summer job—shadowing the cable guy, which wasn't exactly the glowing resume builder I'd promised myself I'd land. But whatever. I needed cash for the new gaming setup, and this beat driving around in air conditioning while my friends worked at the Pizza Palace.

"That's the one," Mike said, pointing at a gray house with peeling paint. "Someone called about the internet going down every time they used the microwave. Classic."

I grabbed the toolbox, trying to look competent. The door swung open, and there she was—Maya Rodriguez, in her swim team practice suit, wet hair dripping onto her shoulders, holding a calico cat that looked judgingly at my crew uniform.

"You're the cable guy?" she asked, and I swore my face matched the red Toolbox logo embroidered on my chest.

"Apprentice," I managed. "This is Mike."

Her parents weren't home—she'd let us in. Mike started working on the cable box, leaving me alone in the kitchen with Maya and the cat, which she'd named Picasso.

"So you play baseball?" she asked, noticing the Braves cap I'd left on the counter. "I saw you at that game against Central. You were running toward second when that guy totally nailed you in the back with the ball."

I laughed. "Yeah. Thought I was gonna be safe. Turns out I'm not as fast as I think."

"No one is," she said, and something about the way she said it made me feel less ridiculous.

Picasso jumped from her arms and bolted toward the open back door.

"No!" Maya took off after him, and I followed without thinking. We ended up in her backyard, where she stopped short at the edge of her swimming pool. Picasso sat by a lounge chair, grooming himself like nothing had happened.

"You swim?" she asked, noticing I'd stopped running too.

"Not really. I mean, I can, but..."

"I could teach you," she offered, and something in my chest did this weird fluttery thing that definitely had nothing to do with physical exertion. "Unless you're too busy with your cable apprenticeship."

"I'm never too busy for that," I heard myself say, and Maya smiled, and suddenly Mike was calling from inside that the internet was fixed, and this was the moment everything could change, and I was terrified, and I was ready.

"Tomorrow?" I asked.

"Tomorrow," she said.

The cable van smelled exactly the same on the ride home. But I felt completely different.