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CHAPTER 9
Lennox
“What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?”
We ask the question at the same time again, then we both roll our eyes and grin.
“Let me guess. Ransom?”
“Actually, Ayana, but good guess. It was Ransom for you, wasn’t it?”
I shrug while trying not to let my lips wobble in a gesture of mirth because I’m supposed to be aggravated about this, not secretly pleased. I’m not secretly pleased. Not at all. First, my granny with her meddling, now Ransom and Ayana are getting into it full scale, which might be on Granny’s orders. I’m not sure. I’ll have to ask Ransom right after I remind him that he’s a puckered butthole and that I named my pawnshop after him. Secretly, of course, so the name wouldn’t get rejected for the business license.
When I pull my head out of my butt long enough to study Cass, I realize she’s not just radiant in a pale blue blouse with little flowers and her skinny jeans but actually glowing. She’s biting her lip and rocking on her toes to her heels and back again in the flip-flops she has on like she’s dying to tell me something.
“What is it? Are you trying to contain the massive amounts of anger you have at getting duped by your best friend again and set up with a bearded rapscallion like me?”
“No. I mean, yes. I mean, kind of. Yes, but I also have something else to tell you.”
“What’s that?” It’s been a few days since I last saw her. A few days too many. I didn’t know what to do in order to…uh, take her out. I didn’t feel like I could just show up on her doorstep again. Then there’s the whole thing about that word. Date. I don’t use it. At least, it never crossed my mind before her. But now? I could handle the word.
What is happening to me?
I could have called her. That’s how one usually goes about making an appointment to see another person. They pick up their phone, they text, and they call. They get in touch in some normal way and don’t rely on their meddling family to set them up. I could have taken her on a real date.
Yes, idiot. That’s what people do when they’re into each other. Into each other. What a terrible and slightly scintillating term if taken literally. I’m not just into her. That doesn’t even begin to describe it. So what does? Under my skin? No, she’s more like a nice glass of cold water sliding down my parched throat, hydrating me on an unbearably hot day when I would pretty much do anything for that sip of cold liquid.
I might owe Ransom one for this. Just saying. But he’s still a butthole. Also just saying.
“What is it?”
Cass is beaming so widely that she looks like a cloud of golden sunshine. She’s that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. She’s also every rainbow sprinkled with extra glitter and a helping of pistachio pudding, which is honestly the best pudding. Hands down.
“I got my license! I retook the test yesterday, and I passed!”
My mouth drops open, but I quickly play with my beard in order to pretend like that was my intention all along. I truly did know she’d get it. I believed in her. I’m just pleasantly surprised. And awed. Mostly because Cass is so damn gorgeous right now that it’s instantly jaw-dropping worthy. But when her face falls a little, I try and recover.
“That’s great!” It falls further, and I’m not sure why that was the wrong thing to say. “It is great, isn’t it?”
She toes the grass with the tip of her flip-flops. “The thing about being unlucky all the time is that you don’t just know it. Everyone else knows it, too, because it’s a lifelong thing, and there have been way too many things added up, and it’s impossible for them not to know. I feel…I feel like this is tempered by everyone just waiting to see what bad will set off the good.”
“I have to admit that I’m not tracking.”
She lifts her head, and the sadness in her eyes kills me. “Balance. It’s a scientific law. You know, Newton’s third law.”
“That’s total imbecilic nonsense. I mean, not you. Just that theory. That doesn’t apply to superstitious poo turds shite shit shizzle. Is that really what you think, or is that what you’ve been trained to think by other people? I’m sure they’re not all waiting for the other shoe—or piano—to drop.”
She bites her lip hard and angles away from me before I can see her smile, but I catch sight of it anyway, and it makes my stomach clench and my heart freaking leap.
“Ayana? Ransom? You think they think nonsense things like that?”
“Uh, I hope not.”
