Vail tossed her ponytail over her shoulder. “Oh, probably. I’m sure a psychologist would have fun with me. Maybe I should go see one.”
“I went to therapy a little. Not for very long. And I wouldn’t talk about certain things, so we didn’t get anywhere. Sometimes I think about going back and really being honest. See what would happen.” It probably wouldn’t be very pleasant at all.
Vail sighed. “We seem to be doing okay?” It sounded like a question.
“Sure we are,” I said, because I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. It made me feel all kinds of thick and sticky things that were best avoided.
One of the kittens rescued us by twitching and making noises in its sleep and the subject was dropped, not to be picked up again anytime soon.
* * *
Vail stayedfor longer than I thought she would. So long that I got up and started making dinner.
“I’m not overstaying my welcome, am I? It’s just nicer being here with you than being at home.” My heart tripped over itself when she said that.
“No, of course not. I like having you here too. All of you.” Brit and Tana were awake again and making menaces of themselves as they screamed for attention. Vail picked them both up and showed them the cucumbers I was slicing. I had salmon going in the oven, which I knew they could smell, and rice in the rice cooker. Simple salmon bowls was a good comfort dinner.
“And don’t worry about dessert. I’ve got that covered.” She winked and I almost sliced one of my fingers off. No looking at Vail when I had a knife in my hand. New rule.
“And what will dessert be?” I asked, keeping my eyes on my knife.
“That’s for me to know and you to find out when it arrives.” I’d seen her on her phone so it made sense that she would have ordered something online.
“I’m not normally a fan of surprises, but in this case I’ll allow it.”
I finished the cucumbers without any injuries and Vail set her hand at making carrot ribbons with a peeler. They always looked fancy to me.
A little while later we settled into the couch again and the kittens inhaled their little bowls of food that Vail had left out for them on the kitchen floor.
“Eat fast, because they’re going to come and beg as soon as they’re done. They will convince you that they haven’t been fed.”
I laughed when that was exactly what happened. Two screaming kittens, pawing at my leg and acting like they’d never had anything in their poor empty bellies.
It wasn’t easy to eat and ignore them, but we did our best, and by the time Vail got a notification that the dessert had arrived, the kittens had given up on trying to get at our empty bowls.
“I’ll go grab it,” she said, putting her shoes on. She came back in a few minutes with a box held carefully in one hand.
Setting it on the counter, she slapped my hand away when I wanted to open it.
“Ow!” I said. “What was that for?”
“I wanted to do a grand reveal,” she said, undoing the sides of the box and then pulling off the top. “Tada!”
It was a blueberry cheesecake. Because of course it was.
“Fine, but I get the biggest piece first to recover from the violence.”
“Deal.” I got plates and forks and found my cake cutter, leaning over Vail’s shoulder as she cut two pieces. One was significantly bigger than the other.
“That one’s mine, right?” I asked as she slid it onto a plate.
She licked a few bits of cheesecake that had stuck to her thumb and grinned at me. Her face was very close to mine. “Sure is, sweetheart.”
Both the proximity and the endearment rocked me to my core. They shouldn’t, but they had. For a moment, I forgot everything else but Vail standing near me.
“There you go,” she said, when I didn’t take the plate.
“Thank you,” I said, stepping back and clearing my throat. “And um, thanks for getting dessert.”
