Lyn on the train, telling me I’m catastrophizing.
I don’t…
“Baba,” Solvi’s voice comes. I look at her to find her holding another stack of books, and my eyes dart from her face to the stack and back again.
“Yes?”
“Are you really going to stop me from getting these?”
I snort. “No, blossom. You can get whatever you want.”
“What were you thinking about?”
I gesture at the book in my hand. “I was just reading.”
“No you weren’t,” she shoots back. “You were juststaringand pretending to read. Trust me, I know when people are doing that.”
I cock my head at her.
A smile creeps over her face.
“You were thinking about Lyn, weren’t you?”
I roll my eyes, shaking my head vigorously. “No.”
“Youlike her.”
“I don’t.”
“You do.”
“I absolutely do not.”
Solvi beams, triumphant. “That’s what people say right before they admit they do.”
I hold up the book in my hand. “Did you learn that in your little romances?”
“Don’t call them that,” she says.
“Then what should I call them?”
“It’s very serious literature. Art.”
I give her an entirely serious nod, well aware of how she’ll take it if she believes I’m disrespecting her.
“Is this all you need?” I ask.
It better be. This is probably more than a summer’s worth of reading material.
“I guess,” she says. “Noodles?”
“Mmhm. Noodles.”
We gather the books into neat stacks, and together we load them into a library cart to take them to the checkout desk. From there, they’ll be delivered to my apartment, while we take the afternoon to wander around in Mythara Village.
Unfortunately, Solvi doesn’t let things go that easily.
“How long have you and Lyn known each other?” she asks as we walk through the vast library entrance and out into the streets.
