She gave him a reading assignment

A quarrelsome playlist

Chapter 2

Josh proves an unbeatable advantage on the scoreboard in the game of glow-in-the-dark bowling.

“Reading assignment" Oakley laughs.

"Oh, like a teacher?" Josh responds.

"She tells me that she doesn't believe in closure and then leaves me with this."

"I see some people I recognize from the app."

“Go for it. You know what to do."

"You bet." Josh briefly wanders over to the table for a few nachos.

"If she had something to say to me-" he trails off. "I mean, she's already said it. We already had this conversation and I already told her!"

"It's your turn Oak."

"I'm ready for it!" he slams a dark green bowling ball down the lane.

"Nice one! We have the heaviest!" A few outsiders notice Josh's flamboyance. “Oak, you can't be shy to say like, ‘I’ve seen you, I gave you a chance, I sampled what you have to offer, and I didn't like it.' Nothing personal, just didn't like it.”

“I did. The traits!"

"The traits?"

Oakley's volume increases as well. "I'm to figure out what I'm going to do with it."

"No- it's not like a mission is it?"

"Same logic like where she wrote that she doesn't usually believe in the burning necessity of closure."

"The burning necessity!" Josh cracks up. "All the burning necessities in life."

"So she does like closure, after telling me she didn't. I tried to follow your advice. I tried to be an-”

"Yeah, I would expect that out of her."

“I got it covered now."

"You got what covered?"

"She gets the picture, letters or not. I’m a free man!"

"That's what I like to hear! Cheers!" He yells too loudly and clinks glasses with other bystanders.

Glow-in-the-dark badminton bounces in the near distance as the RV casts a spotlight on the dim picnic table.

Harmony's mother Lynnette waves down Kat to signal ten minutes and turns back to the campsite. "Look at this semi-large group we have here! And they're all bundled up during the end of June excited for my soup. It's quite cold compared to the desert."

"The wind is a little much on the beach at night. I'm happy we so many heavy blankets. The view is gorgeous. I love the waves to my left and the trees to my right.”

"I was talking to the woman at the flower shop- did you see my message and stop in there?"

"Yeah, we did!" Harmony's thermos of taste-testing soup sways in her hand.

"Oh, isn't it so lovely?"

"We caught it in the rain and it was amazing!"

"I knew you'd love that. And was Liz there?"

"No, we just kind of wandered in and I looked for her but it was slow and close to closing time. We checked out with a young girl."

"Liz said you have a discount with her, and we got to talking about how you love flowers and you're very artistic and interested in bringing that to volunteering. She's hoping you'll stop by her booth at one of the events coming up if you don't see her before then.”

“I love that idea- sounds great!"

"And she also said you'll meet people your own age!"

"Hilarious. Remember the dance studio incident, where I went in for their little party and it was a hudred percent seniors? I'm expecting this place to be the same deal."

"Kat moved to Oregon before you and I know Georgia visited a few times.”

"Kat's in the cities, though, for college and work stuff. And Georgia moved back, from what I saw online anyway. Kat is super cool to share the state with. I think she'll stop by often."

"She'll come visit when she can."

"Mom, this soup is so good!"

"Next time I'll have to make more!"

Harmony looks away and puts the thermos on the table. "Mom, I don't want to meet anyone new."

"Oh? You don't know who you're going to meet!" she laughs.

"I don't have a lot of consistency to form circumstantial relationships anymore. No one in my generation really does. I'm too uptight to do what everyone thinks a young adult does for fun. My mind is totally open and hopeful for the future, as always, but it's never an emergency for me."

"No, it certainly is not, and it doesn't have to be. Lots of people in our family didn't get married. And if you do, not all wives really know how to cook. You'll find someone who will accept a takeout-dinner-wife."

A genuine laughter escapes Harmony's usual rigidity. "That is hilarious, Mom. Does that put me on the clearance rack in the wife realm?"

"Just promise me, promise me, promise me- you will never rely on packaged microwave food as a lifestyle."

"I promise! I have quite a few untraditional cooking techniques up my sleeve."

"Yeah, but he'll have to order or cook all of the meat. You'll always but it frozen and ready-made."

"I've tried to work with it but I feel like I have to wash my hands and disinfect the surface every three seconds. Just very confusing food safety there."

"Whoever it is will learn. Is anyone from back home texting you after you posted those gorgeous road trip photos?"

"Dead silence. Everyone's busy at the same time. But I'm having a blast."

"Good! I'm having a blast too, even though not everyone in our family is here."

"Mom, please."

"I miss Piano and I'm never not going to stop caring that she never comes along on vacation with us."

"I seriously don't know how you could ever" Harmony fills her water glass from the pitcher "even want her here. I don't care about her anymore."

The timer inside the RV dings. "Well I hope that's not true. I still have two children." Lynnette removes the bread from the oven and covers it to cool off. She collects her seasonings and olive oil back outside.

"It's not true, mom." Harmony grasps the blanket hugging her shoulders. "I still care about her, no matter how hard I try not to."

"I know honey. I know."

"You never heard from Oakley again, not once?"

"No."

"You just moved. I think it's going to get back to him."

"He doesn't care."

"You should reach out to him again sometime. Have you ever tried?"

Harmony looks down. "It means so much to me to finally hear you say that. But I tried."

"You tried? And he wouldn't answer?"

"Not really, no. No. Super empty answers that told me he'd had enough of me."

"At least he answered."

"I needed to stop deciding so adoringly that I knew how to relate to him, looking at him with those flowery eyes."

"I was proud of him for not running away when I yelled at him."

"I'm sorry about that. It was one of those 'anything for you' moments."

"Crazy teenagers didn't expect me to come home on time that night and crash your grad party. I was expecting a grad party anyway."

"I still think that might have been part of what scared him away."

"The thought of me as a mother-in-law; I know we'll have to work through that for you."

"No, it was all me, and it doesn't even hurt to say that."

"Well I am so mad at him for that. But he might contact you again someday. I bet you anything he does."

"You never know."

Listen to songs argue like lovers in "A quarrelsome playlist" on YouTube or Spotify