And dear lord, the thing that came out of it.
“Is this the shipping forecast,” she said, in so deadpan a tone it didn’t even sound like a question anymore. And it was definitely the deadpan that made him bristle. He shifted in his seat, loudly enough that she turned to see it.Pointedly, she thought. As if to suggest,Well, now you’re going to hear just how wrong you are.
And then he said the following:
“It’s a station for people who like to hear about boats.”
Honestly it was all she could do not to throw her hands up.
“You’re just describing the exact thing I said a different way.”
“And I’m gonna keep doing it as long as you’re a jerk about it.”
“Miller, you were just a jerk about me liking love songs. Even though they rule far more than strange boat announcements. And I do not exclusively like them. I also enjoy angsty stuff. Complicated stuff. Weird stuff. In fact, my fave at the moment is always warbling about heartbreak.”
“There’s no way she’s as heartbreaking as my current favorite.”
“Probably not. Though I bet yours is nowhere near as cool. Or modern.”
“Think you’ll find she’s both. She is very young, and wearsblueeyeshadow.”
He said the wordbluelike anyone else would saywearing a live llama on your head as a hat. Much to the delight of the teasing side of her tongue. “Oh my god, someone call the weird-youths police.”
“You would say that. Instead of proving yours is better.”
“I don’t need to,” she said, half laughing. “If being young and wearing blue eyeshadow is the standard of coolness according to you, then she meets it. In fact, she leaps right over it. Her eyeshadow is so blue that if you stare at it for too long you can’t see any other color.”
“Yeah, but does she do a technique with her voice that nobody else can?”
“Well, I wouldn’t saynobody elsebut—” she started to stay, then had to stop dead in the middle of her sentence. Because it was dawning on her now. Slow at first, but then faster and faster until finally it felt like a jolt to the heart. She had to pause and take a breath and even try to deny it for a moment.
But the evidence was all there.
“Are we actually somehow talking about the same singer,” she said.
That got him denying it in the worst possible way anyone could.
“Of course not. That would be ridiculous. Just absurd. And impossible.”
“Yeah, but we have liked the same things before. We both love zombies.”
“That was just one thing. One odd obsession. There aren’t any others.”
“But there was also the book we tried to check out at the same time,” she said without thinking, too eager to prove him wrong. And now hewaswrong, and everything went abruptly quiet. Quiet, and much more tense.
Like the squabbling wasn’t the stressful part.
Something else was. Something like the eye contact in the diner. And the eye contact a few hours ago. Andthe laughing thing, when he had gone back to talking about rules and her whole body had sagged with relief. Now it was rigid again, before he’d even restarted the goddamn car.
In fact, it wasworsethan that.
He seemed rigid, too. She could see him out of the corner of her eye, ramrod straight in his seat, like he’d been superglued to it. And god, you couldn’t have cut the atmosphere with a fucking chainsaw. It pressed against her, all heavy and weird—not to mention bizarrely hot. She almost asked him to put the air conditioning on. Her cheeks felt as if they were suddenly bright red.
And it wasn’t just in her head, either.
The windows were actually steaming up.
Like when people had heated sex in a car in a movie.
