Page 46

hahahaha you’re hilarious. answer the question before i go berserk

Are you telling me we’re going on another… bucket journey today?

obviously?????

Well, if it was that obvious. It wasn’t like I wanted to fight it anymore. I was… curious what kind of look she’d wear to today’s.

don’t know… you’ve given me prompts now for the last two. I’m waiting for the next.

an attraction you’ve never gone to.

She pounded that out instantly. I chewed my cheek, mulling on it.honey’s?

She responded with an eloquent,asjdfhsfjkhdskfs, and then after that,you’ve never been!!!????!?

nope. have a feeling that’s about to change.

jesus christ you are forsaken by the gods. we’re fixing that!! be there at four ok??

I laughed despite myself, sending a thumbs-up emoji. A kind of lightness settled in my chest, one I hadn’t felt much recently—just a casual, easy feeling, and it shattered like glass when I looked up and saw the exact one person I needed notto see right now, apparently having come in without me even hearing her.

Priscilla gave me a knowing smile. “You look happy,” she said, setting a brioche loaf on the counter. I busied myself putting the phone aside, ringing her up, not looking at her. Like that would save me.

“Didn’t even hear you come in. Just the brioche?”

“Mm-hm. So… things are going well with her?”

“Don’t know who you’re talking about. That’s five forty-five.”

She laughed, leaning over the counter, eyes sparkling. She was dressed nicely again today, with a flowy shirt tucked into a skirt, a jeweled hairpiece gleaming in her hair. I wondered if Paisley would wear things like that, too. What she’d think about Priscilla’s fashion sense once she’d developed more of her own. If she’d…

“You’re thinking about her right now.”

“I—dammit, Priscilla—” I scrunched up my face. “Five forty-five.”

She shook her head, smiling, and handed over her card. “You spent yesterday with her, didn’t you?”

I focused on swiping her card, well aware how useless it was against her. “I spent yesterday curled up in bed watching TV. Doing something special with your brioche?”

She rolled her eyes, smiling. “Okay, we can change the subject. Yeah. I’m finally able to take the evening to myself after classes today, so… Annabel and I are having a little at-home date. We each decided to bring something nice to surprise one another. This is my pick. If she comes around here to get a brioche, um… try to subtly convince her the brioche isn’t good today?”

“You know she goes all in on something once she sets her sight on it. She’s probably going to spend the whole time you’re in classes making an elaborate six-course dinner.”

She pursed her lips. “Harper. This is you trying to convince me to buy something else.”

“Annabel loves chocolate chip muffins.”

“You are so one-dimensional,” she laughed, waving me off. “Just the brioche! She insisted I didn’t buy her anything too expensive. So… anyway, yes, I am doing something nice with it. Now… back to you?”

I looked away. “Yeah, we hung out yesterday. It was nothing like you’re thinking.”

“Mm. So why aren’t you looking at me?”

“Because… you’ll start speculating about my deep, abiding love for her and analyzing my face.”

“I’m not analyzing your face,” she laughed. “Just that you seem so… pulled in two directions, you know? You’re so happy, but you’re so sad. And I don’t know what this thing you’re hiding that’s giving you all that stress is.”

I sighed, putting her brioche in a bag and sliding it over to her with her card. I could have just told her, but… maybe it would be easier to have her say it first. “Guess.”