“Friends don’t send a thousand messages on a dating app.”
“Well, we do.”
“Okay, then. What’s your friend’s name? Age? Occupation?”
“I…don’t know.”
Daisy blinked at the side of her head. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”
Lily shrugged. “We made a deal when we started talking to keep things vague. To not say anything that would make us identifiable.”
“Why?”
“So we could get to know one another without any preconceived expectations.”
“That is weird as fuck.”
Lily snorted. She could see Daisy’s point, though; it was weird she knew Elsa’s favorite meal and her preferred vacation spots, and not her name, but it was working. And Lily liked the ease of it. Liked knowing there was someone on the other end of the phone who wanted to talk to her—and not just to send her sexually explicit messages or offers for a threesome like most of the others in her inbox. She liked asking Elsa questions—both serious and random—just to see what she’d say. To add to the picture Lily was building of her in her mind.
“Have you spoken to anyone else on there?”
“No.” Lily hadn’t so much as scrolled through another profile in weeks.
“Even though it’s a dating app,” Daisy said. “You know, to find people to date?”
“Yes, I know, but…I don’t know if I need that right now. I only downloaded it to see what’s out there. I like talking to her. And that’s enough for me, for now.”
Daisy didn’t look convinced.
“Are you ever going to meet up with her?”
“I dunno.” Lily turned her attention back to her cupcakes, opening the recipe on her phone and resisting the itching curiosity to see what Elsa had messaged her, knowing she’d have Daisy’s eyes on her the whole time. “Probably not.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
“Yeah,” Lily said, and she meant it. She knew Daisy didn’t understand, but Lily didn’t need her to. “I am.”
“But don’t you want to—”
“Enough.” Lily waved a wooden spoon toward her. “I don’t expect you to get it, but I’m done talking about this.” Lily narrowed her eyes when Daisy opened her mouth to argue. “If you carry on then no baked goods for you.”
“All right, all right. Sorry for snooping.” It was an afterthought, but it was still an apology. Only so Lily would continue to help her out, but she’d take it.
“Just don’t do it again.”
“I won’t.”
“Hand me the whisk.”
Chapter 11
Time passed, the leaves onthe trees outside of Lily’s classroom window turning hues of orange and red before falling to the ground. Each day the air grew colder, a smattering of snow falling more often than not as Christmas approached, and with it, the prospect of a few days off.
Lily needed it. Her workload seemed to be increasing with each passing day, and she felt close to burning out. She had exams to grade over the break—and was particularly interested in seeing how Carly had done on her first exam since Lily had started tutoring her—but at least she could do that at home in her pajamas.
When the bell rang for her last class on the final Friday of the semester, Lily didn’t know who was more relieved—her or her students.
They all scampered away, free for the holidays, and Lily breathed out a long sigh, leaning back in her chair and kicking her feet up on her desk. She tilted her head to look at the equations she’d scribbled on the board before giving up with teaching and letting her class talk among themselves for the last ten minutes.
