From somewhere above me, Lucy adds, almost thoughtfully, “Also…he picked you up.”
Very slowly, I lift my head.
“What?”
Her grin widens.
“Like fully picked you up.” She tosses her head back andcackles like a witch standing by a cauldron. She’d be perfect at a Halloween store right now. “YouknowI watched, and holy cow!”
I drop back down behind the counter.
“I’m never speaking to anyone again.”
“Oh, you will.”
I blink up at the sudden voice right above me.
Lucy isfullydraped over the counter now, elbows planted, chin in her hands, staring down at me like I’m the most entertaining thing she’s seen all week.
“You will absolutely speak to me again,” she continues, eyes sparkling, “and you will give medetails.”
I groan, dragging a hand down my face. “Lucy…”
“Because I need to live vicariously through what I saw,” she barrels on. “I mean, you two are like a Netflix special. It was ridiculous.”
“Oh my gosh, stop,” I say, but I’m already laughing, the mortification starting to melt into something lighter.
She narrows her eyes at me, like she’s zeroing in. “You’re falling for him.”
I press my lips together, then shrug a shoulder, half hiding my smile. “I don’t know.”
Lucy waits.
I sigh. “Probably.”
Her reaction is instant—pure delight. “Iknewit.”
“Don’t make it a thing.”
“It already is a thing,” she says, like that’s obvious.
I shake my head, laughing again, pushing myself up just enough to rest my arms on the counter while she stays perched above me like a very glamorous, very nosy gargoyle.
“Also,” she adds, lowering her voice conspiratorially, “the way he was looking at you?”
“Oh no,” I warn.
“Oh yes. That man is gone.”
I drop my head to the counter, laughing into my arms. “Stop talking.”
“I will not stop talking.”
A phone buzzes.
We both ignore it.
Lucy keeps going.
