I cackled. “How would I even know?”
“Good point. So who?”
“That guy from the bar. Bas.”
I passed a young family, Mom pushing a stroller with a kid licking an ice cream cone, chocolate smeared all over his face, Dad wearing a second kid. All of them dressed in orange and blue like it was game day. Their wholesomeness, theirtogetherness, squeezed my heart with yearning for a differentpast, an impossible future. I shook off the useless emotion and pressed on.
“Seriously?” I could hear the way her face had just lit up with interest. She’d probably illogically closed her laptop so she could hear better. “Makes you wonder how often you’ve crossed paths without even knowing it.”
A shiver crawled down my spine. “It’s just coincidence. We live in the same town. The odds are pretty high we pass through the same spaces.”
“What did he say?”
“Nothing.” I slowed down, hesitating to admit this to her, but we had no secrets. “I kind of hid.”
“Chelsea.” She was right to chide me. “I thought you’d really made a breakthrough with him.”
“I didn’t make a breakthrough. I fucked him on his kitchen counter, E.”
She laughed. “I’m jealous. Here you have a chance to see him again, while I’ve been ghosted.”
Two full weeks, and the man had disappeared like he’d never existed. Elizabeth had found his profile on the webpage for an Indiana weather channel, which led her to his Facebook profile. She’d scrolled through his photos but stopped short of friending him.
It was time for her to forget about the sexy weatherman. It was time for me to get laid by someone else. “I think we should take a trip out of town. Blow off some steam. We could meet some other guys. Different guys.” Faraway guys.
“I told you meeting people in a bar was a bad idea. That night only proved it.”
“You weren’t complaining when you were boning your male fantasy.”
“And look how that turned out.”
I didn’t want to fight about this. “Look. We did something onthe list, right? So all in all, I’d call that a win.”
“Fuck the list, Chelsea.” She raised her voice. “This stopped being about the list the second condoms entered the picture.”
“You’re right.” I swerved to avoid a gang of teens. “But the wholepointof the list is to be more open to new experiences. It doesn’t always have to be comfortable.”
“Like talking to a guy you really liked.”
Fuck. I’d walked right into that. “It’s never just talk.”
“And? What’s wrong with more? Not all guys are like your dad.”
I flinched. She was throwing gut punches at me. “I know that.” I did. “I know men can treat women well.”
“So why not give a guy a chance?”
“Because you never can tell, can you? My mom certainly fell for one of the bad ones. What if I’m just like her? What if I have genetically impaired judgment?”
“You’re not your mom.”
I stood at the corner of Market and 4th, watching the cars go by, waiting for the crosswalk signal to change.
She must have taken my silence as permission to press on. “I’m just saying, you deserve a chance at love, too.”
“Love?” I scoffed. “I thought we were talking about talking.”
“Bas is cute, Chelsea. You should just call him.”
