Chapter 54

The three sneering ice cream eaters were back, smirking away. My bet was on one of them.

“I don’t want it there.” Phil cradled the sign, a little bigger than a folded-up chaise lounge, in one arm, and swiped at the words, leaving nothing put a film of white and wetness. “I’ve got a lot to learn,” he said, standing in the pouring rain when the sky opened up, “but I never said and never meant anything like that.”

Was it true? Was he angry about the message someone on his side had written, or was he just trying to save his business by pretending to be?

No one admitted to creating the hateful marquee, but several around me gasped, not just me, yet again, when it changed. Like magic, in front of all of us, as Phil still held the chalkboard against his side, the words For Calvin and Jefferson. For love appeared in blue, pink, yellow, green, and lavender.