“I’m here for the summer,” she said. “But I go to school in L.A.”

“What are you studying?” Brian, busy adding pico de gallo to his burrito, wasn’t looking at her, and so missed the look of momentary panic that flashed across Caddie’s face as she tried to choose from one of a multitude of possible lies.

“History,” she said, grasping at the first thing that came to mind.

“History,” Brian repeated, sounding impressed. “What’s your favorite period?”

Caddie, who at that moment couldn’t think of a single historical era besides the 70s, bought herself some time by saying, “No girl has a favorite period. They all suck.”

Brian snorted. “I guess I asked for that,” he said.

Caddie, relieved, suddenly found that her brain had begun working again. “I guess I’m most interested in the Renaissance,” she said casually. “You know, when everything was changing and there was all of that great art and music and ... stuff,” she finished, wishing she’d stopped when she was ahead.

But if he noticed her fumble, Brian didn’t show it. He was working on the second half of his burrito. “I didn’t much get into history in school,” he said. “To me it was just a bunch of dead guys. No offense,” he added. “I’m sure it’s actually really fascinating.”

Caddie shook her head. “Not really,” she agreed, relieved he hadn’t started asking her about her favorite king of France or something. “I’m considering switching to film or something next year.”

“Now that’s something interesting,” said Brian. “I love movies. What’s your favorite?”

“What’s with you and favorites?” countered Caddie.

“I don’t know,” Brian said. “I guess it’s a fun way to get to know someone.”

Caddie drank more of the horchata before replying. “I guess my favorite movie would have to be Pan’s Labyrinth,” she said, thinking about the last movie she had seen with Sam Bree. “What about you?”

“Pirates of the Caribbean,” Brian said. When he saw Caddie looking surprised he continued. “What? I didn’t say I was deep. Actually, it was one of only two movies we had on the boat last summer. The guy who was supposed to bring them forgot them, so we had to watch that and Steel Magnolias for two weeks straight, until we got back to La Paz and could get some different ones.”

“I’d think you would hate it, then,” said Caddie.

“I think it’s a case of that, what do they call it—Stockholm Syndrome. You know, where you spend so much time with the person torturing you that you kind of fall in love.”

“So you’re in love with Johnny Depp,” said Caddie.

Brian paused, as if considering her statement. “No,” he said eventually. “I don’t like guys with facial hair.”