Three people look over. She freezes, eyes wide, then eases herself back down.
“Ahem,” she says, quieter. “Okay, sure. Questionable, professionally speaking, but… not automatically a bad thing.”
“But there's more,” I say.
She blinks at me. “There’s amore?”
“Today,” I go on, “even though I took DuoBlocks… my scent apparently erupted out. Out of nowhere. And theirs hit me at the same time. Full-force.” My pulse jumps just remembering it. “And then we realized—”
The words jam up in my throat.
“Tell me,” she says gently.
“We’re scent matches,” I manage. “All four of us.”
Mia just stares. “Holy shit.”
“Yeah.” I take another sip because my hands need something to do. “It doesn’t even make sense. DuoBlocks don’t just… give up.”
She sets her mug down, leaning her elbows on the table.
“Actually,” she says slowly, “they kind of do. In one very specific situation.”
I frown. “And what would that be?”
She takes a long sip of hot chocolate, like she’s bracing herself. “When you’re around your scent matches.”
I just blink at her. “I’m sorry,what? That doesn’t make sense. Where are you even pulling that from?”
“I swear I’m not making it up.” She leans in a little. “So I told you a few days ago my friend Elena was on DuoBlocks for years. But what I didn't tell is that, when she met her current scent-matched pack—” she makes a little explosion gesture, “—her scent just erupted out. That was quite the scandal in Lakeview actually, since everyone thought she was a beta... Anyway, she eventually researched and found out what I just told you.”
I shake my head, eyebrows practically up in my hairline. “No way.”
“Way.” Her mouth quirks. “I don’t know why the drug company doesn’t advertise it. ‘DuoBlocks: Stops untimely biology, except when you meet your scent matches.’ She shrugs. “But yeah, it's an official side effect. Or feature. Depends how you spin it.”
My brain scrambles to rearrange itself around that. So my DuoBlocks didn’tfailrandomly…
“Fantastic,” I say faintly. “So destiny decided to jailbreak my meds.”
Mia’s lips curve. “And you still chose to sleep with them before any of that happened.”
“I mean, did I?” I frown at the reindeer on Mia's mug. “Do I actually like them, or did my body just get steamrolled by ‘ooh, yummy, nice-smelling alphas’?”
Her gaze softens. “I don’t know… I just know you lookalivein a way I’ve never seen on you.Here.” She taps lightly over her own sternum.
“I mean… I think I miss being with them,” I admit, barely above a whisper. “I just…” I clear my throat. “I need to know I wanted them because our connection, like personality wise, is real. Not just because biology flipped a switch.”
“Naomi.” Her voice is gentle, but not mushy. “You overthink where your stapler lives. Answer me honestly: before the sex, before you knew anything about their scents, when I told you rescue would probably get there within forty-eight hours… were you relieved?”
“No,” I blurt. “I wasn’t.”
“Okay.” She nods once. “That’s a data point.”
I let out a shaky breath. “You make it sound simple.”
“I know it's not.” She leans back. “You got dumped by your previous scent match, so this rewires all your alarms. I get it. But that doesn’t mean nothing good can ever be trusted again.”
“Yeah, that old story… I was so sure about him, you know? I don’t remember being as… enthralled by his scent as I am by theirs, but still. We were together for years. And when he left, my whole world collapsed.”
