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“My aunt.”

Riley’s not my aunt biologically, but I’ve never known what else to call her. She’s been around as long as I can remember and she’s just…my Riley? But that’s hard to explain to others, so aunt is the next best thing, I guess.

“Oh.” He nods. “Are you two close?”

I open my mouth to answer when Mavis clears her throat. “Any day now, Flick.”

“Right, sorry.” I step up and place mine and Riley’s orders, and before I can protest, the guy behind me orders his and taps his card against the checkout machine.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“No.” His smile grows more. “But I wanted to.”

As we wait in silence, I feel a tension between us. I want to ask him what his name is, but I’m nervous. His pizza comes out first and Joe calls out “Cal” when it’s ready, so I guess that’s my answer to that.

“Well, enjoy your pizza.”

“You too.” He laughs. “I’ll see you around?”

I nod. “See you around.”

Huh. How about that?

***

When I walk in and hand the debit card back to Riley, it kind of feels like I just magically appeared there. I don’t remember driving home, though I clearly did. But I just kept wondering what that whole pizza interaction was about so much that I think my mind went on autopilot while driving.

“How much was it?”

“How much was what?”

“The pizza you just bought?” She scoffs. “Do I need to take out a second mortgage to cover all this?”

“Free.” I pull at my curls until they fall all the way loose at my shoulders. “A…guy paid for them.”

“A guy? What guy?”

“His name was Cal, I think.” I know because I’ve been thinking about how it sounds kind of nice with Flick beside it. “He’s new in town, I’m pretty sure.

“Uh-huh.” Riley eyes me. “And he just randomly paid for all of this food for us?”

“Yup.” I think my cheeks might catch fire if they get any warmer, seriously.

“Was he cute?”

“Riley.”

“He was!” She takes a bite and pushes the slice away, grabbing the other box and opting for the non-vegan option. “Ugh, mushrooms.”

“What movie should we watch tonight?” I skirt around the topic.

“You’re not getting out of this. And Fury.”

“Again?”

“It’s all my favorite men on one screen, what do you expect? Seriously, I need details on this boy.”

“There are no details.”