Other than searching my yard and between the low bushes to make sure Rachel didn’t encourage that dog to poop anywhere else and leave without picking it up again? “No,” I say firmly. “I’m not acting strangely. But this whole conversation is a bit strange, so let’s get back to the lesson. Now—where were we?”
“Dopamine.” I don’t like the smug expression on Steven’s face.
“Of course. How could I have forgotten?”
The class titters as I turn back to the whiteboard and erase the love formula.
“You keep us posted, right?” Kaylie asks.
I ignore her and get back to teaching.
3
Rachel
“But where didyou leave the dog poo?” Demi demands.
“She still won’t tell me and I was there,” Biba says with annoyance.
Across the table, I smirk.
The three of us are out for our usual Thursday night drinks at the local gastropub that is conveniently located an equal distance from all three of us. If Biba is the Amazon, then Demi is the pygmy—pretty and petite and perfectly blonde with blue eyes. She looks like a doll and in all the years of our friendship, there’s been a few times when I thought she’s as breakable as one.
“I put the baggie in the basket of dog toys, of course,” I concede. “Poo for the new Poo.”
“Of course.” Biba rolls her eyes.
“How can that beof course?” Demi wails. “Who does that? First, who would carry around a bag of dog poop, and second, who would think to leave it in someone’s house?”
“At least I didn’t light it on fire.” I say to my jalapeño margarita.
“You watch too many movies,” Biba says, catching onto myCan’t Buy Me Lovereference.
“Butwhy?” Demi demands.
I mull over my words before I answer. Why would I pull such a prank on Liv? Is it because she broke my heart? Humiliated me? Betrayed me? Yes, but there’s more; Liv had been the only one in a long time who offered me something, something that would make me a better person. Then she took it away, like a magician yanking off the tablecloth, leaving me the shards of broken dishes. “She hurt me,” I confess, surprised at the ease of the words slipping out of my mouth. “I didn’t think she was like that.”
Biba heaves a sigh. Friends know all the dirty details of each other, so I don’t have to explain any more. “But this is the end of it, right? No more late-night break-ins?”
“I didn’t break in,” I remind her.
“But she could have,” Demi points out. “Rachel is stealthy. Sneaky. Not that anything like that is ever a good idea,” she adds hastily, worried that I’ll pull her in for the next outing. “I still think we should purge by fire, to cleanse the negative toxins and prepare the heart for love again.”
Biba can’t hide her expression of disgust. Biba, the brilliant mathematician, and Demi, the zen-like yogi. They’re so completely different that I wonder how the two of them remain as friends. I’m the only tether between them.
I love them both, so I’ll connect them for as long as I need to.
“Maybe I’ll save that for next time,” I hedge.
She claps her hands. “But you are thinking of a next time. Liv didn’t turn you off love.”
“No, but I think she turned me off women.”
“Men are lovely.” Demi smiles. “And now I can go back to setting you up with one of Ethan’s—”
“No!” Biba and I say together. Ethan is no one’s favourite person, other than Demi, and any friend of his that I’ve met is just as bad. I’m completely clueless about what she sees in him. Biba even made a flowchart once to try and figure it out, but no luck.
Ethan makes Shouty Boen look as nice and sweet as one of the bunnies I drew in the last book. The only thing I’ve got is that the guy must be exceptionally good in bed.
