"Logan," I whispered.
He didn't reply. He was either a really heavy sleeper, or he was really good at ignoring me. Even after a few months away from Paradise City, I still wasn't quite sure which it was.
"Puke Boy, you promised that we could finally go on our hunt today. You pinky promised," I said.
Still nothing.
"It's ten o'clock. You've gotten enough sleep. I'll even make you some coffee if you get up right now." I shook his arm. "You know, you should start paying rent if you're just going to spend every single night here."
At this point, he was definitely ignoring me.
"I've been thinking about the wedding, and if you don't say anything, I'm just going to assume that it's okay to have it on a boat. Wouldn't that be fun?" I asked.
"Rea, we're not getting married on a boat. You'll get all offended when I throw up during the ceremony," Logan said, and he propped himself up on his elbows. "You little shit."
I smiled. "I'm so glad you're awake. Can we go now?"
"Slow down. First of all, we need to establish that I am paying rent to you with endorphins. You're welcome."
"What? Is that what you're doing?" I laughed.
Logan nodded. "Second of all, you have to calm down about this stupid hunt. It's fucking ridiculous."
"It's not ridiculous, Logan. It's really important to me. I need to find it before I graduate, or I'll feel like a failure for the rest of my life."
"I thought you already felt like that."
Well, I did, but he didn't have to say it.
"Logan, please." I rubbed my eye. "You promised, just like I promised to marry you. We can all change our minds."
"Fine, fine." He let out a drawn-out sigh. "Just remind me why this is so important to you."
He dragged himself up out of bed, and I popped up and followed him to the kitchen. We were both only half-dressed, so I pulled on a sweatshirt that I stole from Logan. My apartment never heated well, and even though it was only October, the West Virginian blood in me never got used to the colder climate in Maine.
"I desperately need to see the only ginkgo tree on campus because they're super cool. They're the only species left in the Ginkgo genus," I said.
"You're probably the only person who's fascinated by that," Logan said. "Wait, is that my hoodie?"
"Well, yeah. Isn't that what normal couples do?" I asked.
"Whatever. Just give it back when you're done with it."
I probably wasn't going to give it back. We were getting married anyway, but I didn't say that. I still wanted him to go with me on my field trip to the sole ginkgo tree.
The two of us got ready for our expedition, and although I didn't actually know where the tree was, we were going to find it if it killed me.
I had heard a couple classmates talking about how it was a great tree for studying in the shade. During the fall season, ginkgo trees turned to a gorgeous golden yellow, and hopefully, their distinctive fan leaf would lead me straight to it.
They were native to China and not the US, and people especially didn't plant them frequently in Maine. There were some in West Virginia, but I wanted to see the only one on the campus of the Atlantic Coastal College.
If I couldn't look for whales, I had to spend my time doing something else, after all.
I packed us some snacks before we headed out for our search, and when we arrived on campus, Logan turned to me.
"Okay, so where's this tree?"
I shrugged. "I don't know."
"Why don't you know? You know everything, but you don't know where this fucking ginkgo tree is?"
"I thought it'd be fun to find it together. We get to go for a walk and use clues to find where the tree is," I said.
"For fuck's sake, Rea. It's Saturday. I don't want to be here if I don't have to be, and I sure as hell don't want to spend all day looking for a tree."
I didn't even reply to that. I didn't force him to come to look for this tree, so if he was that against the idea, why did he even bother?
Logan let out a sigh. "You're lucky I love you. I'd let anyone else just look for this stupid tree alone."
Maybe I would have searched alone, but I probably would have just texted Brett and asked if he wanted to come. He was too sweet to say no, and he definitely would have wanted to learn a thing or two about the ginkgo.
I smiled anyway. "I'm glad you're officially on board. It wouldn't have been any fun without you."
"You're such a liar, but I'll ignore it," Logan said, and we walked down the brick walkway that snaked throughout the entire campus. For a college that was just miles from the ocean, the lush greenery was one of the biggest surprises. It was just another reason I decided to chase my paradise.
Ironically enough, there wasn't much green grass on the rock Paradise City.
As we wandered side by side without any leads as to where the tree could have been, Logan nudged me. "What are we gonna do when we find it?"
I thought for a moment. "I'm not quite sure. I'll probably be very overwhelmed with emotion, and I might cry."
"You said that in the most monotonous voice ever. You're the least emotional person I know, and yet, you're somehow also the most emotional."
I supposed that was true. Most people had no idea that I had a little too much heart because they never bothered to look past my resting bitch face. Eventually, Logan figured me out, and that was good enough for me.
I nudged him right back. "The same goes for you."
He rolled his eyes as we walked past one of the buildings where a lot of bio classes were held. There was a library in there too, and if I wasn't in class or at home, I spent quite a bit of time in there. There were countless books on whales that filled the shelves. I sometimes fell asleep while I was reading them, and it was easily some of the best sleep I ever got. I also crammed for exams in there with more coffee than water in my blood. It was much more of a tossup than it needed to be.
"You know, maybe we should capture the moment of truth on video, just so we can look back on it with Blue and Racecar. I think they'd like to see another plant for once," I said.
"Wow, Rea, that's a really great idea. I'm sure they'll appreciate it a lot," Logan replied, and there was no way he wasn't being sarcastic.
But I didn't care. I took my phone out and started recording a video.
I narrated as we continued on, and although there were plenty of trees that lined the path and buildings, there was no ginkgo.
"It should be somewhere around here. This campus really isn't that big." I stopped in the middle of the walkway, and Logan did too.
The buildings were also made of brick and looked old from the outside, but they looked even older on the inside.
"Rea, isn't that leaf what you're looking for?" Logan said, and he picked up a leaf off the ground and handed it to me.
It was golden and fan-shaped, just like the pictures I had studied. There were so many other colored leaves that blanketed the ground, so it was lucky that he stumbled upon the right one so easily.
"That's it. We have to be getting close." I smiled. "This is so exciting." I scanned the rest of the area, and just off the pathway by the chemistry laboratory, I saw it.
"Stop being such a nerd—"
"There it is!" I squealed. "Logan, look. That's our ginkgo tree." I grabbed a hold of his wrist with my phone in my other hand, and I led him to it.
On the ground beneath the tree, there were a few partially decayed green fruits that must have fallen from the tree. As the wind blew, there was a faint unpleasant odor, and I knew exactly what it was.
I knelt down and picked up one of the fruits from the ground and held it up to the camera. "Look, it's a female. The interesting part about that is that the females actually produce this fruit, and it's—"
Logan interrupted me. "As you can see, Reagan is very passionate about sexing things. Trees, whales, me."
"Logan!" I cried. "I was going to show this video to my dad. Now I'll have to edit that out later."
I turned off the video and stuffed my phone into my pocket. There were times I missed the first rule of Paradise City, and this was certainly one of them.
"Here, hold this and smell it." I handed the fruit to Logan.
He took a whiff and coughed. "That's horrible, Rea. It smells like vomit." He sniffed it again and winced.
"It's butanoic acid. Isn't it cool?"
"No."
"I thought it smelled like our first date. You know, like whale snot and you throwing up after we kissed."
"Rea."
I laughed. "Come on, Logan. It's funny now."
"Yeah, Logan, it's funny now," someone else's voice said, and although I recognized it, I had to turn to see who it was.
Jia's boyfriend.
I shook my head as I stood up. Not this guy again.
"You guys know Jia, right?" he asked.
"Who the fuck are you?" Logan asked. "We're clearly in the middle of an argument, and you interrupted us with pointless bullshit."
Jia's boyfriend held up his hands. "Look, I'm just trying to surprise my girlfriend, and I know the redhead is friends with her. That's all."
"What do you want?" I asked.
"Where's Malcolm Hall?"
That was the biology building we had passed earlier, but I didn't remember which way we came from.
I pointed down the brick path. "It's somewhere that way. I'm not even entirely sure where we are now, but that seems right." I looked over at Logan. "Right?"
Logan shrugged. "This sounds like not my problem."
Jia's boyfriend smiled and waved a couple finger guns at us. "Thank you guys so much." He continued on his merry way without saying anything else, and I looked over at Logan.
"Poor Jia," Logan said.
I nodded. "Well, she didn't have too many options since I took the good one. You want a granola bar?"
I held one out to him, and he took it.
"So what's the real reason you wanted to see this tree? Sure, it's pretty, but you're a lot deeper than superficial beauty," Logan said.
I hesitated. "I don't know. I read somewhere that it symbolizes love and unity, and I don't know if it's true, but I want to believe it."
"That's really fucking cheesy," Logan said. "But it's sweet."
"Just eat the granola bar. I don't want to talk about this silly tree anymore."
Logan smiled, and we didn't talk about the not silly tree anymore. Even if I was wrong and the ginkgo tree symbolized nothing for the world, it now symbolized something for the two of us.
That was just the way we worked, I supposed. And I kinda really liked it.