“Hmm . . . I wouldn’t say Hagrid. I’ve always thought you were more of a grumpy, brooding Jason Momoa.”
“Should I know who that is?”
“He’s Aquaman.”
“Who is that? Is he in charge of the lake?”
“The what?”
“The lake. With the giant squid.”
“No, he’s from the DC comic books. Wait a second. The giant squid? Like the lake and the giant squid at Hogwarts?”
“Yes. Isn’t that what we’re talking about?”
“No, I was . . .”
Tavey trails off. And I can practically hear her thinking. No one thinks louder than Tavey.
And it’s never a good sign when she has to think longer about something than a few seconds.
“I’m almost to my car,” I tell her. “I’ll call you—”
“Holy shit,” she mutters. “This is about that woman, isn’t it?”
“What woman?” Though, obviously she means Holly.
“That woman who went to your house that Saturday. The one who is so into you.”
“She’s not—”
“And oh. My. God. You are into her.”
“I’m—”
“Yes. You are. Not only are you upset that she said you look like Hagrid—”
“I’m not upset.”
“You called me to get a second opinion about it. Do you know the last time you needed a second opinion about something? Or called me, for that matter?”
“I call you.”
That’s not true. I can’t remember a specific time I’ve called her. Not in the past few years. But I don’t need to call Tavey, because she calls me.
“It was five years ago when you were debating whether you should accept the job at Texas University or the one at DuPont. And before that, it was when you were trying to decide between universities for your graduate studies.”
“That’s ridiculous. I have called you more than twice in the past decade.”
“No, you really haven’t. You only call me when you have some massive, cataclysmic shift in your life. You didn’t even call me to tell me about the McPherson Fellowship. And that was huge. But now, suddenly, you’re calling me because some woman said you look like Hagrid? And not only did you run out and research who Hagrid is, you’re reading the books.”
“You can’t possibly know that.”
“Dude, give me a little credit. I’m looking at your Amazon purchase history right now.”
My steps slow a little. “Tavey, you are kind of terrifying.”
“Take that back. I am not kind of terrifying.”
