“Does she watch you sleep?” Alix asked.
“Or just judge you,” Grace added.
Alix glanced toward the bed. “So, just the… one… bed?”
“Yes.” Sylvia nodded, cheerful and oblivious, then swept out of the room.
The door shut.
Silence, then a long look between them. Grace’s mouth twitched like she might say something.
Alix shifted her weight and adjusted the strap of her bag, pretending to study the room like it might reveal a second mattress if she looked hard enough. The walls were a polite beige. The comforter neatly folded. Nothing helpful in sight.
Her pulse did that unsteady thing again — too quick for how still she was standing. She tried not to picture it: Grace asleep beside her, close enough to share warmth, the quiet sound of her breathing in the dark.
She rubbed the back of her neck. “Guess I’ll take the side that doesn’t hog the blanket,” she said.
Grace laughed uncertainly, still looking anywhere but her.
Alix smiled too, though she already knew she wasn’t sleeping tonight if they were sharing a bed. And she wasn’t ready to fully unpack why that might be.
She found a bit of luck in the living room. She pressed a hand to the couch, felt the click, and unfolded a brand-new pullout bed. “Ta-da.”
Grace laughed, half relief, half disbelief. “You genius.”
“Oh, yes, there’s also this bed,” Sylvia said, as though she had magically forgotten that the pullout existed.
Grace and Alix made up the pullout together after Sylvia brought linens. Their hands brushed, sparking up Alix’s arm. She ignored it. Grace seemed to ignore it harder. Baby tried to claim the mattress until Grace shooed him off.
“You can take the bed, and I’ll take the pullout,” Alix said.
“No way, that haunted doll is all yours,” Grace said. “I’m taking my chances out here.”
“It’s probably more comfortable. I wouldn’t want to impose,” Alix tried again, desperate not to sleep near an object that was highly likely to be wielding a kitchen knife in the night.
“No, no, I insist,” Grace said, but Alix could see there was a hint of a smile.
The rest of the tour blurred by: seashell soaps in the bathroom, a corkboard labeled TRIPS I WILL TAKE, neon towels stacked high in the laundry room, a back porch teeming with plants, and a mason jar labeled ALGAE?? that glowed faintly. Alix peered into it with reverence.
Most of the backyard was taken up by a large pool.
“Don’t worry, it has a sensor that will tell you if Baby falls in,” Sylvia explained.
“What do I do if he falls in?” Alix asked, worry pitching her voice higher.
Sylvia looked at her with the kind of look normally reserved for small children asking ridiculous questions. “You get him out, dear.”
Alix exchanged a look with Grace that she hoped communicated her distress about the idea of fishing a gigantic Newfie out of a pool, including but not limited to having to lift a two-hundred-pound, soaking wet dog.
Sylvia left shortly before dinner.
After inspecting the empanadas, Grace gave up and ordered takeout. Grace slipped into quick Spanish on the phone, and Alix tried not to stare too openly at her, or notice how attractive that sounded. They carried everything out to the patio: containers of eggplant Papas Rellenas, oyster mushroom ropa vieja and yuca fries, mismatched plates, half a bottle of Rioja, and Baby, who begged shamelessly and who Alix nervously watched pace back and forth by the edge of the pool.
For a long time, they just ate. The kind of quiet that wasn’t strained, just the muffled symphony of plastic lids popping, silverware scraping, occasional appreciative groans. They poured second glasses, then third ones. By the time the bottle was gone, awkwardness had softened into ease.
In the glow of the patio string lights, Grace looked more at ease than she did on video calls. Her eyes reflected gold, her tied-back hair coming loose around her face. Alix watched her for a heartbeat too long, tracing the curve of her smile, the small gestures that screens never caught.
She found herself smiling and looked down at her glass, swirling the wine like it was fascinating. The crickets began their night song somewhere in the nearby bushes.
