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I was in a rush because I saw Luna’s Prius in the parking lot and I needed a Best Friend Confab like nobody’s business.
I still wasn’t breathing right.
This was not helped when I opened my locker and saw it stuffed full with a bunch of same-sized but different-colored paperbacks.
The one on top, which was a pretty blue color with a film strip across the front and a familiar title, had a Post-it, on which was Tito’s handwriting.
And it said,Read this one first.
I didn’t have time for that right then.
I pushed the books aside, grabbed the closest server apron at hand (it was powder blue, which only semi-worked with the muted berry tee dress I was wearing, but I was in no headspace to be matchy-matchy).
I tied it on as I hightailed it through the kitchen, my head too cluttered even to call my usual greeting to Lucia.
I hit the main area and spied Luna behind the bar taking a sip from a foam-topped mug.
She took one look at me, put it down, and we both ran to each other.
I thought she’d read my mood.
I was wrong.
She grabbed both my hands, lifted them up and girlie bounced twice before she announced, “I got a unit at the Oasis.”
I blinked at her. “What?”
“I was sending that email last night, and I saw I got one from your new landlord, and it was notification that a unit was opening October one, andI’m in!” she squealed her last and bounced again.
Although, after her being on the waiting list for over a year, I was thrilled she’d scored a unit and that she’d be so close I could walk down a walkway or across the courtyard to hang with her, the timing was suspect.
But I couldn’t handle another freaky coincidence in that moment.
“I think Cap and I broke up this morning,” I announced.
She stopped bouncing and stared at me. “What? Why? How? Again…why?”
“He found Clarice’s business card and went ballistic.”
She let my hands go but didn’t move away, and she appeared as confused as I was that morning.
“Why?” she asked.
“Apparently, Clarice was a runaway in Denver too, back in the day. And she used to hang at the same shelter Cap did.”
“Whoa,” she said, her eyes rounding in shock.
“Yeah,” I replied. “I can’t tell whether he likes her or he doesn’t. I got the sense he was as uneasy about the coincidence as I was, but his uneasy came out as being bossy and a dick, which segued to me sharing she’d broken into my pad, and things, already careening, went downhill from there.”
“Break it down, sister,” she ordered.
“Well, he was pissed I didn’t tell him immediately someone broke in, when we weren’t even a thing then.”
“Wait, I thought he’d asked you out by then.”
Shit!
“Okay, we weren’tofficiallya thing.”
