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“You’re welcome. But I’m not completely selfless here—I love both of those authors, and I’d been wanting to go to that event. So thanks for coming along with me, and for being a good sport about me making you do this.”

Now Avery did look at her.

“But was I a good sport?Really?”

They both laughed.

“Okay, well, not at first,” Taylor said. “Maybe not even atsecond. But you got there. And it wasn’t that bad, was it? This is going to be a breeze for you. You’ll be hitting on people and asking them out in no time.”

Avery burst out laughing. “I absolutely won’t be hitting on people in no time. As for asking people out? Oh God no. Because, wow, that was most definitely not a breeze for me.”

At first Taylor laughed at the expression on Avery’s face, but then it worried her.

“Was the bookstore really that hard for you?” Was she putting Avery through hell? “It seemed like you were having fun while we were there.”

Avery looked up quickly with remorse on her face.

“No, no, I really did. I’m sorry for being such a buzzkill aboutall of this. I really did have a good time at the bookstore, and I’m so grateful that you thought of this and brought me there, truly. I mean it.”

She sounded like she meant it, but Taylor still didn’t know her that well. Avery was hard to read.

“You don’t have to apologize, but I guess I just want to understand more. You seemed good at chatting with people tonight, and you obviously do it a lot for work, and I’m sure you’re great at that. What’s so hard about this for you?” Taylor shook her head. “Forget I said it that way, I sounded like an asshole. I just mean—”

“No, you don’t sound like an asshole, I get what you mean.” Avery’s expression had relaxed from the rigid look she’d gotten while Taylor had been talking.

“I guess it’s a few things,” she said. “This isn’t the biggest one, but ugh, the small talk! It’s so stupid, I don’t know how you do it all day. I mean, I guess I do know—you must have a system like I do when I’m doing it for work. And yeah, I do it for work, but I hate it so much. I do it the same every damn time: blah blah talk about the weather, the traffic, ‘ooh, I love your shoes.’ But it’s so inefficient! I would rather just cut to the chase and get business done, you know?”

Oh God, Avery was one ofthosepeople.

“No, I don’t know,” Taylor said. She set down her horchata. “And also no, I don’t think small talk is stupid, either. That’s the way people get to know one another, trust one another, find common ground in things. What’s so great about efficiency anyway? No one is going to trust you to do business with them if they don’t think you’re someone who will respect them, listen to them and their needs and concerns, take them seriously. Small talk is the way people learn about one another in social contexts. No one is going to want to be friends with you—or go home with you thatnight—if they can’t have a fun little conversation with you about cookies or books or music or whatever. Well, some people would want to go home with you without doing that, but no one you’d be interested in taking home, I bet. How do you think people learn to trust other people with the big talk if they don’t start with small talk to warm things up?”

Avery stared wide-eyed at her, and Taylor realized she’d been getting progressively more and more passionate as she talked.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get so worked up,” she said, “but I guess this is something I care a lot about. People are always so dismissive of small talk and the getting-to-know-you type of conversation, and it irritates the hell out of me. Especially since I work in hospitality, and it’s one of the things that I do all day, as you noted. And Ilikethat about my job. I get to know so many new and different people. Sure, sometimes it’s boring, or the people are annoying, but other times those same questions and conversation starters can lead to such interesting stories.”

Avery didn’t say anything for a moment.

“Don’t apologize,” she said stiffly. But then Avery always seemed stiff; maybe it was that perfect posture of hers. “I insulted what you do without even thinking about it. I’m sorry. And you’ve given me something to think about.”

Avery looked uncomfortable, and for a moment, Taylor regretted her monologue. Then she pushed that regret away—she and Avery had to be honest with each other, like she’d said, right?

“Good, I’m glad,” Taylor said. “Don’t worry about insulting me—I mean, don’t do it again, for sure—but lots of people feel this way. I think most of the time, it’s because they’re just nervous in social situations with people they don’t know, and maybe a little awkward and self-conscious, so they resent having to do any ofthat because they hate feeling uncomfortable and bad about themselves. And they blame it on ‘small talk’ in general, instead of any of the reasons that they feel like that.”

Great, right after she’d gone on a rant about what Avery had said, she then turned it back around and made it about Avery being self-conscious and awkward, the very things she was trying to make Avery not feel like.

“I didn’t mean that you—”

Avery cut her off.

“You did, and you were right. Iamawkward and self-conscious in situations like tonight. That’s one of the reasons I wanted—sort of—to do these…flirting classes or whatever with you.”

“Okay, you’re definitely not as awkward as you think you are, though you may be very self-conscious. Also, you’re not always self-conscious, right? I mean, I’ve seen you work events, you’re great at those. And I saw you talking to other people at the winery party, you seemed to do well there.”

“Oh, but see, I know how to do those things,” Avery said. “I’m used to events, I’m prepared, I know what to wear”—Taylor grinned at her, and she smiled back—“and who is going to be there and what they’re going to be like. Plus, I know what my role is for all of those things. But…” She stopped and shook her head. “Never mind, it’s nothing.”

Taylor gave her a long look.

“Don’t do that. It’s not nothing. If you don’t want to talk about this, just tell me that, but don’t say it’s nothing.”