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“I mean,” I started, thinking back to last night. Thinking back to crying out as he pushed me against the wall. “I thought he was cute, but...” Thinking of this morning, how slowly our lips let go. “Whatever. We are so awkward together. We piss each other off constantly. He’s, like, this conservative bro. Maybe I have a thing for bros.”
“You don’t have to justify it to me!” She tossed the eyeliner toward me. I missed it. It clattered on the floor.
Right. It was her idea. Kind of.
But Luke, specifically, was not her idea. And in any other circumstances, I would have never seen Luke again after that night at the bar. Maybe I would have run into him again through Frankie, but we would have never even remembered each other’s names. And now we were entwined. There was another mismatching jigsaw puzzle piece: Luke’s silver-blue eyes.
I heard the door open and close upstairs. Toby. It was time for practice. I got nervous.
“Okay, Nor, this is an absolute, military-grade secret.”
“Ha!” She squatted near the case for her bass, flipping the levers on the lid. “Duh.”
“Swear.”
She did a budget John F. Kennedy impression. “ ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident,’ I solemnly swear not to reveal this classified information.”
Toby came down the stairs, wearing a fantastically crisp white shirt over his broad shoulders, a red bandanna, and his dusty brown hair pulled into a ponytail. “Very festive Mick Fleetwood, Toby,” I called.
He grinned. “Long time, no talk, Cass,” he said.
“Sorry.”
As we set up, Toby came near where I was bent, and plunked a few notes on the electric piano. “Oh, by the way.”
I looked up. In his hands was a shiny, brand-new vegan cookbook. “I saw this and I was thinking about you today, so...”
Nora released a large cough. I looked over at where she was innocently plugging in her bass. I couldn’t be sure, but I could have sworn I heard her say something underneath it. “Bad timing.”
