“Come here, we have something for you,” Patty says. She is standing near the coffee bar, waving me over with a huge grin.
I see that Beckett is sitting at the counter, as are Sutton and Andi. Everly, Ruth, and Thea are at one of the tables near the bakery case. Lawson is here with all the rest of the players.
I texted them all on my way to Nora’s. I knew I would be there for a while and figured that would give them all a chance to get to the coffee shop if they wanted to. I’d had no expectations, but I feel my throat tighten when I realize that even Zeke and Josh came over from Autre.
But I hadn’t told Bruce or Patty or anyone else in here that we were going to be meeting up.
As I draw closer to the coffee bar, I see six glass bowls sitting in a row.
“You have to try mine first,” Patty says. “It’s the classic. If all you’ve had is Nora’s, you haven’t even had the basic one to compare the rest to.”
Of course, when someone says something about ‘having Nora’s’ all I can think about are all the very inappropriate-for-the-coffee-shop things that I’ve had of Nora’s that I very much enjoyed and want a lot more of.
There’s a pain in my chest as I think about the fact that not only did I say goodbye to her today, but she also essentially told me that she won’t be coming to Portland.
Of course, she won’t. Her life is in this town. If she came to visit, what would that accomplish? Sure, we’d have some great sex and enjoy every second together, but it can’t turn into anything. It wouldn’t last. It would never go beyond long-distance fuck buddies.
And after a while, that would wear on us. We would both want more, and it would hurt to know that we couldn’t have it.
“Alex?” Patty says. “Here.” I focus and realize that she’s holding out a small bowl to me. There’s a spoon stuck in the bowl, and suddenly everything clicks.
What have I had of Nora’s that isn’t the classic?
This is banana pudding.
“What’s going on?” I ask, accepting the bowl.
Sure enough, the bowl is full of pudding with sliced bananas, whipped cream, and crumbled vanilla cookies.
“It’s a banana pudding buffet,” Muriel says with a grin.
“This is all banana pudding?” I ask, eyeing the six bowls.
“Sure. There’s all kinds,” Muriel says. “And since you’ve come around, we decided that you should get to taste all of the best ones. So a bunch of people made you their recipes.”
I look at Andi. She just shrugs. Then I look at Sutton.
She laughs. “I had nothing to do with this. Neither did Nora. This is all these ladies. I mean, Nora might’ve mentioned to me that you really liked her banana pudding, and I might have said something about that…”
“You didn’t just make all of these just now, did you?” I ask, looking around.
Is this some kind of going-away party? Could they have found out? Did Astrid say something?
“Of course not. Banana pudding has to sit at least overnight,” Patty says. “We planned to do this today before we found out that you were leaving.”
So they do know about that.
“Who told you?” I asked, looking at Sutton.
“When Nora left the otter club early, people got concerned. They called me. She wasn’t answering her phone, though, so, since everyone saw you leave with her, I called Astrid.”
That all makes sense.
I look at my teammates. “Sorry. I wanted to tell you all.”
“We get it,” Beckett says. “You have to go. We all heard the news about the coach. It makes sense Declan would call you.”
Yeah, Nora said that too.
