“Hey, Noah!” she shouted, not bothering to lean away from her phone for our benefit. In the driver’s seat, Dex flinched. “How do you feel about Utah?”
I could just barely make out Noah’s response: “Uh, pro?”
“Interesting,” she said, returning her attention to us. “I could get him on board, I think.”
“Noah would go anywhere you asked,” Phoebe pointed out. Dex glanced at me, so briefly I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t spent a majority of the last eighty miles staring at him. My heart fluttered.
“He would,” Arden agreed. “But it’s ourhoneymoon. He should enjoy it, too, and you know he would spend the whole time complaining about the smell.”
I looked at Dex and said, “He has a weird thing about zoos.”
“The smell or the institution?” he replied.
Phoebe snorted. “You’d think the institution, but no. He hates the poop.”
“It’s not just the poop,” Arden said. “It’s all the poop. Multispecies poop.”
“Great band name,” Phoebe quipped.
“I can’t make him deal with multispecies poop on our honeymoon.” Arden sighed. “So, it sucks that you guys are doing this magical thing without me. I hate you a tiny bit.”
“Sorry.” I reached for the bag of gas station goodies stashed at my feet, rifling around for snacks. I came up with a package of powdered donuts and tore them open. “Be glad I vetoed Phoebe’s Mall of America suggestion.”
Arden gasped. “I’mdyingto go to Mall of America!”
Dex made a face. I smiled and said, “Dex thinks Mall of America sucks.”
“You suck!” Arden cried.
He shrugged. “There are better places.”
“Than the biggest mall in the world?”
I had to bite my cheek to keep from laughing at Dex’s eye roll. “He thinks you have bad taste. And that you need better life goals.”
“That’s…” Arden paused. “That’s nice, actually. It sounds mean, but it’s like telling someone they need higher expectations. Dex thinks I’m worth more than Mall of America.”
“A cockroach is worth more than Mall of America,” he muttered.
I couldn’t stifle my laugh that time.
It was honestly embarrassing, how taken I was with this man. My mind had whirred to life, concocting scenarios where we were partners, he liked my friends, and he brought takeout to the apartment and playedMario Kartwith Phoebe while I dozed on his shoulder. Quiet, domestic scenarios. A future. And then he would discreetly brush my hand or my thigh and I’d be ripped into the blissful present, and I’d remind myself to appreciate it. Here on a highway in Utah, Dex caught my eye and smiled a small, secret smile. He didn’t care that I wanted to talk to Arden. He adored Phoebe. It felt like he adoredmeand that meant he was willing to tolerate anything he deemed unpleasant.
If I asked him to take me to Mall of America, he would. He’d complain, but he’d do it.
Before hanging up, Arden asked me to take her off speaker. Softly, she asked, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I answered honestly. “Things are really, really good.”
She inhaled sharply. “Oh, you slept with him.”
“No.” I cleared my throat, casting a quick glance over my shoulder at Phoebe. She’d lost interest in Arden, now grinning at her phone. “Not even a little.”
“Oh, you didsomething.”
“Something isn’tthat.”
“What did you do?”
