* * *
By the timewe got home, Phil and Chloe were ready for us. I’d cancelled our Friday night plans when Amy had texted, but when I’d un-cancelled them before the drive home, they’d pulled through big time. Phil handed us both ice-cold beers as soon as we walked in, where we found a spread of hot pizzas waiting on the kitchen island and a rom-com queued up on the TV.
“Good to see you Ames,” Chloe said, wrapping her in a hug. “Important question first: meat lovers or veggie?”
“Veggie, please,” Amy said, cupping her hands in front of her and jutting out her lower lip, looking like Oliver Twist. Chloe plopped a plate with two slices of veggie lovers pizza into her hands.
When we’d been growing up, I’d hated how Amy tried to wriggle her way into my little friend group. She and I had been close, but it had always annoyed me when she’d tried to hang out with my friends. But the older I’d got, the more I’d appreciated that they were close, too. And when I got back from travelling and realised that they’d been keeping up with her just as much whilst I’d been away, it had given me a newfound appreciation for them. All three of them.
Still though, there were times when I began to regret how integrated they were. Like when we were done with our pizza and halfway through the crappy Netflix rom-com, the four of us squished together on the sofa, and Chloe started pestering me about Morgan.
“I hear kayaking went well,” Chloe said, her voice suggestive.
“Yeah, it did,” I said, trying to be as matter-of-fact, nothing-to-see-here as possible. “Wait, how do you know about that?”
Chloe shrugged. “I may have seen a sketch of a kayak over her shoulder on our lunch break on Monday. So I asked her.”
“You took herkayaking?” Amy asking, balking at me. “You wouldn’t even teachmeto kayak!”
“That’s not true!” I countered. “I’m the one who did teach you!”
“Only because Dad made you,” she said. “You said it was your happy time, and teaching a newbie would just ruin it for you.”
I cringed. I had actually said that; I remembered it perfectly. And I had meant it, too.
“I don’t know,” I said, trying to come up with an explanation for the three sets of prying eyes staring at me. “I just felt like she needed to experience it. She’s trying to be more adventurous this summer.”
Not one, not two, butall threeof them smirked suggestively at that.
“Fuck all of you,” I said, sitting back and taking a long swig of my beer.
“Now that would be adventurous,” Phil said, “but sadly illegal in Amy’s case. So let’s keep it family-friendly, shall we?”
I rolled my eyes, a million other expletives running through my mind, but I was sure any of them could be twisted against me, so I kept my mouth shut.
“It’s nice that the two of you are spending so much time together,” Chloe continued. “I don’t think she’s got any local friends other than us since Cara left.”
“We’ve hung out literally twice,” I said, clearly too defensively, because Amy tilted her chin down to look up at me sceptically.
“Who is this Morgan person? Why haven’t I met her if she’s so important that you’ve hung out with hertwice?”
“Just someone from our D&D game,” I said, wracking my brain for a change of subject, but not coming up with one quickly enough.
“Someonehotfrom our D&D game,” Chloe said. “But tragically straight, otherwise she would have succumbed to my charms first.”
“Definitely cute,” Phil agreed. “And I’m making her chain mail armour, which is awesome.”
Amy looked at me as if for confirmation of Morgan’s attractiveness, but even as I pictured just how true that claim was, I just shrugged. I wouldn’t give Chloe the satisfaction. Though I’d spent far too much time these past weeks admiring and imagining Morgan to deny it if pressed.
“What are her big three?” Amy asked, wisely directing that question to Chloe.
“I dunno about moon and rising,” she said, “but she’s definitely a Sagittarius. Her birthday was the same day as the work Christmas party last year.”
“Oooooh, a Sag. Interesting choice for a Pisces.”
“Yes, because we’re nothing more than our birth charts,” I said, rolling my eyes, “and everything is preordained. Tell me, oh wise one, when are my stars next aligned with hers?”
“Well I’d like to meet this Morgan,” Amy said, completely ignoring me. “If she can worm her way under the surface enough for Jack to take her kayaking, I suspect she’s worth getting to know.”
