“No, I need to go,” Tavi says somewhere in the darkness. “I’m just about back to Tickled Pink. But I’m excited about our plans, even if it’s a little scary. This has potential, you know? I’ll call you later, okay? Yeah. Love you too, Naomi.”
I catch a strip of reflective tape and her distinct outline in the first light of day as the breathing gets louder. “Coffee?” I say when she’s within spitting distance.
She shrieks and throws up her hands over her face, like she’s afraid I’m going to attack, and veers toward the lake itself.
“Whoa, just me.” I stand, peering into the darkness. “Tavi?”
“Give a girl a heart attack, why don’t you?”
“You know you can take a day off now and again.”
“And you can maybe not be all creepy waiting-in-the-dark guy.”
Been called worse. I sip my coffee and keep a close eye on her while she hunches over, panting.
“How’s Naomi?” I ask.
“Please pretend you’ve never heard that name.”
“We still playing this?”
“Yes.”
“I have a vegan sugar-free caramel macchiato made with oat milk steamed to some magic temperature for a woman willing to sit down and talk with me like I’m a guy she trusts to keep her secrets.”
She makes a noise low in her throat, and I know I’ve got her.
“Are you seriously waiting for me?” she asks.
“I shut my phone off.” Mostly because it hasn’t stopped blowing up with messages from people excited that I’m “TikTok famous,” and I’ve seen enough comments from people in my past that I’m remembering—vividly—why I’ve never gottenanysocial media accounts before. “Whole day to myself. And I hear I have a friend with too much to do. Thought I’d see what I can help with.”
“Why?”
“That’s what you do for friends.”
She bends at the waist again, holding her side like she has a stitch in it. “I’m a terrible friend.”
“If you could spend an entire day doing nothing but whatever youwantto do, what would you do?”
The outline of her face shifts in the dim dawn light, like she’s staring at me and debating if she should answer that question.
I hold out the second coffee tumbler and shake it at her.
“I have to answer to get coffee?”
“Coffee’s free. You have to answer for me to make all of your dreams come true.”
She huffs out a small laugh. “You shouldn’t offer women things like that.”
“I was a shit in high school. I’m not anymore.”
“I’ve heard rumblings to that effect.”
“No, I mean, I don’t make offers I won’t follow through on anymore.”
She pulls a foot up to touch her ass, stretching her quad. “I spilled the beans about your best friend’s pregnancy to her mom, I gave you a concussion, I still chase you out of ...places... regularly, and you still want to be nice to me.”
“You know my favorite part of a banana?”
