Avery pulled out her phone and began scrolling.
“Are you sure you want to look at that shit?”I popped bagels in the toaster and got out cream cheese.Today was not the day to cook anything that demanded my attention.
“Huh.”Avery turned up the volume on her phone in time for me to hear her “I don’t care who he fucks” line loud and clear.She stabbed at the screen.“Yep, viral.”
“Your dad will look like the asshole, not you,” I reassured her.“Hey, might even be a selling point for your art.‘Help the woman escape her overbearing father.’”
“I don’t want pity-buys!”she snapped.“Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell at you.I know I need to make some money, but—”
“No, I swear, you don’t.Not right now.I was joking, but I guess it was too soon.”
“Uh, yeah.”She gave me a “duh” eye-roll and went back to her phone.“Nothing from Dad.I don’t know if that’s bad or good.”
“Good, I assume.You don’t want to hear from him, do you?”
Avery took a beat too long to say, “No, I don’t.”After another minute of scrolling, she set the phone aside.“I need to say a big thank-you to your friend.What was his name, Morgan?”
“Logan.”I kept my tone casual.
“I’m glad you have that kind of friend, a guy who you can call and say, ‘Hey, I need this crazy-ass thing,’ and they say, ‘Sure, be right there.’I’ve never had someone like that.”
“Rachel.”
“Well, she loves me, so that’s not the same thing.”
It was, a year ago.I shrugged.“Sure.”
“Funny I’ve never heard you talk about him before.”She peered up at me.
“Rachel knows him.Logan moved up to Tacoma about a year ago, and we kind of drifted apart, but he’s back in Eugene now.”I thought I’d phrased that perfectly.
“That’s great.And he’s still the kind of guy you can call to direct movers for a mutual friend he doesn’t know.”
“Yeah.That’s Logan.”I had a crashing moment of déjà vu— a time two years back with Rachel sitting right where Avery was now while I told her I’d met a guy, and she might not get to meet him any time soon because he was gun-shy about coming out, but I knew she’d really like him.Rachel had tilted her head almost the way Avery did now, trying to figure out what I wasn’t saying.
Rachel had asked, “Do you love him?”and I’d said, “No, but I think I could.”
Avery asked, “Can you tell him how much I appreciate the help?I hope I meet him again soon and can say something more coherent than sobbing on your shoulder.”
“I’m sure he knows,” I told her.“I’d have been crying too, if my dad said that shit to me.”
She snorted.“No, you wouldn’t.”
“Yeah, okay, only because toxic masculinity has been beaten into me since an early age.”
Her snort turned to laughter.“Youhavebeen hanging around Rachel, haven’t you?”
“Constantly.”
Avery got a more calculating look in her eyes.“Logan’s pretty cute, and kind of your type.Is he by any chance into guys?”
“Jeez, Aves, you know I wouldn’t tell you if he was or wasn’t.”I turned away to wash my mug in the sink and ignore the rush of regret through my veins.If I’d done things differently, or if Logan had, I might be introducing him as my boyfriend.I let the hot water run over my hands, my eyes closed against a montage of greatest hits.Logan at this same sink, washing a pot and laughing while I spooned him from behind, playfully reaching for his dick while he fended me off.Logan arriving from a road trip, saying, “I can only stay an hour.The guys want to go drinking and I couldn’t wriggle out of it.”With me determined to make the fucking most of that hour.Logan stretched out on my sheets, stripped naked, slowly stroking himself hard.
“How did you guys meet?”Her tone didn’t suggest she’d noticed I was having a moment.
I cleared my throat.“At the bike shop.”
“Motorcycles?”
