I elbow Henry and mutter like a ventriloquist, “What is happening?”
“They’re connecting,” he says close to my ear.
“Yeah, by talking shit aboutme.”
He shrugs. “And me. The boring one.”
“She’s so impulsive,” Tati’s telling Davis. “So careless. And dishonest!”
I’m tempted to defend myself, but I did lie about my college essays earlier, so I’m not operating with the cleanest track record. I might besort ofimpulsive anda bitcareless and alittledishonest sometimes. So what?
“He’s got his whole future planned out,” Davis says, waving a hand toward Henry. “He gets up every morning to run. He’sneverwithout a book.”
Tati laughs—laughs! “Hey, now. I like to read.”
“No shit. I’ve seen the library you call a living room. And what’s so wrong with a little impulsiveness anyway?” he asks, nodding in my direction. “Adventure’s hard to find when you’re married to a blueprint.”
Well. Davis might be okay.
I’m no body language expert, but Tati must think so too. She’s swiveled her chair toward him and is inclining her shoulders in his direction. She looks at him like he’s preaching gospel, which is crazy because she disagrees with literally everything he’s saying.
Davis seems positively entranced by my sister.
“Speaking of blueprints,” he says, “what’ve you got going on later this week?”
“Oh, gosh. I’d have to check my day planner.”
For a second, I think Tati’s being serious. But her eyes aresparkling, and her mouth is quirked into a smile aimed right at Davis, and I realize that—holy shit—she’s teasing him.Flirtingwith him.
“Yeah, I’ve seen your day planner,” he says, matching her grin. “Work, work, work. I assume you’re free evenings and weekends?”
“Imightbe,” Tati says. “Depending on what you have in mind.”
Davis stretches an arm over the back of her chair. He’s not touching her—not being handsy or too forward—but there’s something suave about his posture. Tati’s fixated on him as he says, “How about we go someplace nice? Someplace fancy.”
Henry leans toward me and whispers, “How hungry are you?”
“Pretty hungry.”
“Cool. Let’s get out of here, and I’ll buy you a burger somewhere else.”
I glance back at Tati and Davis. If this were a rom-com, the next scene would be a montage of the rest of their evening, set to a peppy song. The two of them trading anecdotes about their teenagers, Tati sharing her crab cake, Davis feeding her bites of his mud pie. They’d laugh and flirt. His palm would migrate to the small of her back. Her hand would land on his leg. And then, when the moon is high, they’d head out to the beach, where they first met. They’d kiss, silhouetted by starlight.
“Yeah,” I tell Henry. “Let’s bail.”
Henry
Dad couldn’t give a shit when I tell him Piper and I are leaving. Tati smiles, waving her sister off.
Piper gives me a flabbergasted look, dropping a ring of keys into Tati’s purse.
Before we walk out of Blitz Brews, I glance over my shoulder. Tati’s laughing at something Dad said, which is nuts—I rarely find the guy funny. He’s lit up, like dinner with this woman is all he’s been hoping for.
“Well,” Piper says once we’ve made it outside. “That didn’t bomb.”
“Holy shit, no. I was all about setting them up, but I wasn’t entirely sure it’d work.”
“Same. Tati washorrifiedwhen we pulled up here. I thought she was going to choose the long walk back to the Towers over going inside.”
