Page 17 of Counting the Days

“It’s just part of living in Topanga; they’re everywhere.”

“You named it Steve?”

“I named it Steve.”

Danny smiled.

“So, yeah, this is the yard. There’s not a lot of space.”

“It’s actually a really special yard. There’s so much you could do with it. I mean, the view is incredible.” He pointed across the canyon at Dead Horse Trail, and Rhea squinted, trying to see the beauty of a view she thought was only subpar. “I live in the valley, so I’d kill for this expansive feeling you get out here.”

“What part of the valley?”

“Pasadena.”

Rhea took a beat, silently acknowledging their tragic geographic incompatibility. But she decided to keep an open mind, because, as of now, she thought Danny might be worth the torture of sitting in traffic for ninety minutes.

Danny took some measurements of the space while Rhea explained she wanted a garden that was roughly one-one-hundredth the size of Tiny’s.

“I really just want…tomatoes and maybe some…” She could not think of another vegetable she would honestly prepare in her microscopic kitchen. “Carrots?” she offered weakly.

“Tomatoes and carrots. We can do that,” he said with a teasing smile.

She felt as if they could read each other’s minds, as if he knew she had no actual interest in purchasing a garden.

You know I like you,she said with her eyes.

I do,he replied with his own.

And you like me?her eyes inquired.

I do….

But you don’t even know me….

Well, you don’t know me either.

But I feel like I’ve known you…for a very long time.

Strange, isn’t it?

But since neither one of them could read minds and there was a viable chance this was merely a business transaction, their audible words were much more guarded. He asked if she wanted his company to keep up the regular maintenance of the garden or just complete the initial installation. She lied and said shereallywanted to do the maintenance herself. Truthfully, she didn’t know if she could afford to outsource the maintenance, since even Tiny had balked at the cost.

He asked how much time she wanted to commit to gardening, and she managed to say, “Like, three or four hours a week,” with a straight face.

He asked her to pick a day and take pictures of her yard once every hour so he could figure out the best placement for sunlight. She pretended this did not sound like a giant pain in the ass and agreed to take hourly pictures that weekend. He told her about various essential oils that acted as natural insecticides, as if he believed she would use them, and she typed it all into her phone, as if she were going to buy them.

He jotted some things down on his iPad, then said, “So, there are a couple of options payment-wise. You could pay the entire cost up front or just make a ten percent deposit now and pay the rest when we come back.”

“Hmm, interesting, and what is the grand total?” Rhea tried to sound cool, although she was unable to even imagine what the number might be.

“Well, you actually have excellent timing, ’cause we are running a special on first-time installations of single raised beds. Right now it’s, uh”—Rhea watched his eyes crinkle into a smile—“zero dollars if you let me take you to dinner.”

302Days

Rhea woke up with astomachache. She stared at the ceiling, replayed the events of the previous day, and shuddered. She thought the way Danny had asked her to dinner was incredibly romantic, but after she accepted his proposal, she said, “But you can’t actually give me a free garden bed, I wanna pay for it.”

“But we’re running a special, I can’t go against the special.”