Chapter 1
Xavier
The evening air rushedpast, warm for early summer, but refreshing through my helmet’s open vents. Milo’s taillight glowed ahead as we carved through the back streets. There was no destination, only the familiar ritual of cruising around town until something interesting happened. I downshifted, and the bike responded beneath me, stopping alongside Milo at a red light. He turned to me and tapped his stomach in our signal for food.
Milo was always hungry. Maybe it was because he hadn’t had enough growing up.
We ended up at the convenience store on the frontage road, where the coffee was always burnt but they never hassled us about loitering. I was antsy and waited outside while Milo went to get our food. I leaned against my Kawasaki, stretching mylegs. The bike was still warm beneath my hand as I ran my palm over the tank, checking for scratches I knew weren’t there. I treated my Ninja better than I treated myself.
“Catch.” Milo tossed me an energy drink, already sipping from his. His broad shoulders stretched his riding jacket, and his helmet hair stuck up in tufts, making him look younger than twenty-five. “Got you your candy, too.”
“Thanks.” I cracked open the drink, letting the sickly sweet smell hit my nostrils. It tasted like chemicals and regret, but it would keep me awake for the ride. I’d had a morning shift at the diner and had been up since before dawn.
Milo leaned back against his Honda, scrolling through his phone with one hand and holding a questionable hot dog in the other. His face lit up, eyes crinkling at the corners.
“X, you gotta see this.” He turned his phone toward me, showing a TikTok of two guys on motorcycles parked outside a big bookstore. The caption read: “Spawn camping for book babes.”
I snorted. “That’s some desperate shit.”
“It’s fucking genius, is what it is.” Milo laughed, taking his phone back. “Look at the comments. The romance book community ladies are going feral for them. Book babes and bikers, the perfect mix.”
“Since when do you care about girls who read?” I asked, finishing my drink in one long gulp that burned all the way down.
“I wouldn’t mind a man. I’m not picky,” Milo said, winking. He looked down at his phone. “Ooh, it’s a romance bookstore. These are romance book lovers.”
“So?”
“So some of those books are filthy. Someone who reads filthy sex books must be ten times hornier. And we’re here to make sure that every single one of them gets their fantasy fuck.”
I rubbed my forehead. “You’re losing your goddamn mind.”
“Could be.” Milo’s eyes gleamed with that look he got whenever he had a terrible idea. “But it’ll make great content.”
“Right. Because your TikTok has, what, ten followers?”
“Twelve, actually.” Milo wasn’t offended by my teasing.
“One’s your mom. You can’t count her.”
“Why not? She says I’m funny.” He crushed his empty can against his thigh, tossing it and the hotdog wrapper into the trash bin.
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help the small smile that crept onto my face. Milo’s relationship with his mom was warm, supportive, and uncomplicated. When we first met, I’d been jealous of that, but soon enough, Mary Kwon was fussing over me as much as she fussed over Milo and his sister. “You’ve made so much content, though. It seems like a lot of work for ten people.”
“We just need the right video to go viral. I have faith,” he said. “Then it’ll trickle back to all the content I’ve spent the past six months building up.” “Ah,” I said, eying him. My best friend was the sort of daydreamer who bought lottery tickets and entered contests, sure he could figure out a way to set us up for life. His way of taking care of me, I suspected. “It’s a strategy! We just need something with a good hook to pull people in, then they’ll check out our profile and see we do some cool content. Besides, a few videos have reached more people. The engine rebuild on your Kawasaki has a lot of views.” “And book babes are the hook?” “You never know.” But Milo was already on a mission, searching up bookstores on his phone. “Fuck yeah. Honeybee Books in Old Town closes at nine. We could catch the shots with this epic sunset in the background if we hurry. Aesthetic.”
“Sure. It’s not like I have anything better to do.”
“That’s the spirit!” Milo cheerfully tugged on his helmet. “We’re gonna be famous.”
He wasn’t very realistic, as a rule, but I liked that about him. I liked that he had big dreams, that he had plans for us even when I couldn’t bring myself to make them. And when getting out of the hole we were in felt like an impossible climb.
I tugged on my helmet and followed him out of the parking lot and down the busy street towards Old Town, Altavista’s attempt at touristy Colorado charm. A place where people paid fifteen dollars for a sandwich just because the menu used words like “farm to table” and “artisanal.”
Honeybee Books stood on the corner, painted a warm yellow that glowed amber in the fading light. The windows displayed colorful book covers, with little wooden bees hanging from the ceiling.
It was aggressively cute.
“Perfect spot,” Milo declared, parking beside the bookstore, swinging his leg over his bike and digging into his backpack. He pulled out a tripod.
