1
FELIX
“Felix,all I’m saying is, you’ve gotta get back on the horse. Piotr being a dick doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ride one ever again.”
“Thank you for phrasing it exactly like that,” I said, holding my phone up with my shoulder while I locked my temporary apartment door and stepped into the first of the spring sunshine, breathing in a lungful of crisp morning air with a hint of salt on it. “I can always count on you to lower the tone of a conversation.”
“You love me,” Avery said. “So how’s… Muskrat Falls or whatever?”
“Otter Bay,” I corrected for what felt like the seven hundredth time. Avery was just screwing with me at this point, and I knew it. They wouldn’t have been my best friend if they couldn’t get me to lighten up every now and again. “It’s… quiet. I mean,quietquiet. I think I heard actual crickets last night.”
“In March?” Avery asked.
“Okay, well, maybe not crickets. I don’t know how bugs work. It’s not New York, anyway.”
“Nowhere’s New York except New York, babe,” Avery said, letting their thick Brooklyn accent come through loud and clear. “But it’s not the same without you.”
“It’s only been two days. You miss me?”
“Like a limb. What’re you doing up this early? Isn’t this meant to be, like, a vacation for you?” Avery asked.
“I have class,” I said, holding my phone out to glance at the time. I needed to be there in ten, but I could see the dance studio from where I was standing. “Ballet for over 65s is first thing Monday mornings. Amelia wants me to sit in on it so I know what I’m doing later today.”
“She’s got you teaching on yourfirst day?”
I snorted at their indignant tone. “She’s always been a hard taskmaster, you know that.”
“Is she still insanely hot?” Avery asked. “I bet she is.”
“You’re asking the wrong man,” I said. “She looks, uh. Relaxed? Soft, I guess. Not in performance shape, which makes me think I might actually be able to do this.”
“Yeah?” Avery asked as I side-stepped a woman walking a tiny little dog in what I was fairly sure was a hand-knit sweater. When I looked up again, something caught my eye.
Coffee.
“How’s your pain today?”
“Uh,” I said, distracted by the promise of caffeine. It was across the street, but it was technically on my way to the studio. It was good manners to come bearing gifts, right? Amelia had framed this whole thing as a favor I was doing her, but it was really a favor she was doing me.
Also. Coffee.
I could be in and out and still show up to the dance studio on time, as long as there wasn’t much of a line.
“Like a four?” I answered belatedly, already looking both ways to cross the street, which was equally deserted in either direction. At a little before eight, it was just me, the dog walker, and a woman in front of the florist down the street setting out flowers.
“So at least a six,” Avery said.
“I’m fine,” I said, and I was fine. Pain was just pain. It wasn’t as though it was going anywhere.
I was fine.
“Mmhmm. Okay. Tell me about Beaver Canyon or whatever.”
“Otter Bay,” I said automatically. “You’d like it here, actually. There was a huge sign on the way into town advertising Big Dick’s.”
“Wait, for real?”
I chuckled. “Local mechanic. It’s… a very small town.”
