The partition at the back of the shop divides off a small semiprivate space. Tonight the gaming tables have been pushed against the walls, and a row of folding chairs is arranged in a loose semicircle facing a wheeled whiteboard. A long side table runs along one edge, crammed with snacks. Kettle chips in three flavors, pretzels, a plate of chocolate-dipped shortbread, two bowls of dip, a pitcher of iced tea with lemon slices floating on top and mint.
I go straight for the food. “Oh, thank God,” I say and grab a handful of the chips and pour myself a glass of the iced tea.
Clio grabs a handful of the same and drops into one of the folding chairs. She pats the one next to her, and I sit and set the glass between my feet on the floor.
“We’ve got about twenty minutes before Malia gets here,” she says. “She’s always early. Priya’s coming straight from court, so she’ll be late.” She pops a chip into her mouth. “Talk. What’s going on?”
I take a breath, then tell her. She already has the basics from the phone call, so I give her the specifics that won’t stop replaying in my mind.
“Dozens of knives,” I say. “And that’s when I found the three black masks made from some kind of weird fabric.”
“You sure they’re not Halloween ones?”
“I mean, I can’t be certain, but why would they hide them in the knife cabinet?”
Clio sets her iced tea on the floor and turns to face me, one knee up on the chair, her hand finding mine. “Okay,” she says. Her voice is lower and more serious than I’m used to from her, which makes the whole thing worse. “What’s the worst-case story in your head right now?”
“That I’ve been sleeping with three men I don’t actually know.” The words shake as they come out of me. “That every one of them told me separately they had a past they weren’t proud of, and I believed the edited version, and now I’m thinking I ran from one murderer and ended up with three others.”
“Okay, that’s a big leap.”
“Am I safe?” I press the heel of my hand against my eye and rub the itchiness. “Maybe this is the part where good things end for me, and I should have known, but I did know and I ignored it.”
“Stop. Don’t say that.” She holds my hand tighter. “You’re not allowed to pre-mourn.”
“I’m not?—”
“You are. You’re about to write the whole ending of this story before you have even a quarter of the information. I won’t let you.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Talk to them tonight! I can join you if you need. Ask them what you saw. No assumptions. Just be direct.”
“What if the answer is bad?”
“Then we’ll deal with it together.” Her thumb strokes across the back of my hand. “But you don’t get to decide it’s bad before they’ve said a single word. You owe them that, especially after you’ve been through the worst couple of months of your life and your instincts are frayed.”
A tear slides down my cheek, and I swipe it away with the back of my hand, furious at my weakness. “I really like them, Clio. And that scares me.”
She nods, holding me.
“I wasn’t supposed to.”
“Oh, babe.”
“I could live there. I was starting to imagine it too. Christmas with them. I was writing whole chapters, and even inviting Chris to come visit. And now…” I sniffle.
“Now we have questions to ask, not jump to conclusions.”
I nod, but my throat is too tight for words. She leans her head against my shoulder, and we sit there for a moment with the amber lights. Of course, she’s right and maybe I just need to hear it from them.
The stockroom door swings open with a cheerful, unrepentant bang. Aura emerges with a stack of games that is taller than her body, her eyes peering over the top.
“Oh, thankGod,” she says. “A distraction. I’ve been sorting through an order of T-shirts for an hour, and I want to die. Adelaide, you’re back. Tell me something interesting, as my brain’s melting.”
I find half a smile. “The shop, by the way, looks incredible. Amazing job.”
“Right!” She sets the stack of games down on a gaming table with a theatrical sigh and pushes her hair out of her face with the back of her wrist. She’s in a lime-green tee that readsDEFINITELY NOT A GAMERin bold across the front, and in small tag font underneath,(i am a gamer).“So what’s the drama? Both your faces are doing drama. I want in.”
