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Avery

Oh no.

Taylor laughed at her phone. This week with Avery would be fun.

Seven

Avery shook her head atTaylor’s “casual but sexy” instructions in response to her “what should I wear???” text. Last time, it was risqué; now sexy? Not for the first time, she wondered what she’d gotten herself into.

The good thing was she’d bought a bunch of new clothes recently, some for her Taylor adventures, which was how she’d come to think of them, and some for the garden club. She now had more casual sundresses, tops that showed a lot more cleavage than her other clothes did, and, in general, more clothes that she could wear out of the house for occasions other than work. She thought for a moment and pulled on her new pair of denim shorts that somehow managed to both be comfortable and make her butt look great, and a white button-down from the work wardrobe side of her closet. She buttoned one fewer than she normally would, rolled up the sleeves to her elbows,andtied the bottom to show a little midriff. There. With some flat brown sandals, that should be good no matter where they were going. At least, she hoped so.

She worried that she didn’t look queer enough, but maybe being with Taylor gave her some sort of cred? She still had no real idea what she was doing, but after her first few weeks of total anxiety, the burlesque show had cracked through that wall. Taylor had said the goal was to have fun, and shewashaving fun. And as a bonus, she got to hang out with Taylor at least once a week.

Sure, she had a crush on Taylor, but she also knew how Taylor operated. Everyone did because, from what she had observed,everyonehad a crush on Taylor. She knew it, Taylor knew it, the rest of them knew it, so they just lived with their crushes and perked up every time Taylor smiled at them or flirted with them. And Taylor flirted with her, of course, both because she was literally teaching her how to flirt, and because she was Taylor and she couldn’t help it. Avery simply wouldn’t take it seriously, that’s all.

Anyway, it was fun to have a crush, for the first time in a long time. After she’d been so beaten down by her relationship with Derek, she’d wondered if she’d ever find anything fun about all of this again, if dating and relationships and love and sex were only about stress and pain and stifling yourself. Or if the good parts about it were reserved for other people, not her. But she felt butterflies again every time Taylor texted her, or when she got in Taylor’s car on their Tuesday nights, or when Taylor laughed at one of her jokes. She hadn’t had that feeling in a very long time. She was going to try to enjoy it.

She looked at herself in the mirror again right before Taylor got there. Oh, to hell with it. She unfastened one more button and walked out of her apartment before she could change her mind.

“How do I look?” she asked Taylor when she got into the car.

Taylor looked her up and down. Avery felt a little tingle go through her body the way it always did when Taylor did that.

“You’re going for prep school hottie tonight, I see,” Taylor said.

Admittedly, she had been fishing for a compliment, but she hadn’t expected that.

“Um, that wasn’t my aim, no. I think of prep school hottie as, like, short little plaid skirt. You know, like Britney in that video.”

Taylor laughed.

“I do know, and while I agree that you’d look great in that outfit, too, that’s the young version of the prep school hottie. Yours is the all-grown-up, polished, even hotter version.”

Avery smiled over at Taylor.

“You do amazing things to my confidence. Thank you. And you look pretty hot yourself tonight.”

That “tonight” was superfluous. Taylor always looked hot, but she was currently wearing the ur-Taylor hot outfit: jeans, a black belt, and a snug black tank top, with many earrings jangling in her ears. She’d gotten browner in the summer sun—it was almost impossible not to here in Napa—and her skin looked so smooth and supple. Avery wanted to stroke her arm. She made herself look up at Taylor’s face and smile.

“You’re getting good at this,” Taylor said. “Nice job there, returning the compliment.”

Avery tossed her hair.

“Remember? I’m a quick study.” She leaned back in her seat. “Plus, it has the advantage of being true.”

What had gotten into her tonight? Just because she’d made peace with her crush on Taylor didn’t mean that she had to overdo it!

But Taylor laughed and blew a kiss in her direction.

“Oh, how was Callie’s party?” Avery asked.

Taylor sighed, her smile dropping slightly.

“Oh, it was fun. Lots of people came, and I got there in time tohave her phyllo dough turnovers, which were wildly delicious. Definitely the star of the party this year.”

That sigh didn’t seem like Taylor. Avery started to ask about that, but Taylor kept talking.

“Oh! And just so you know—I told Callie that I was introducing you to queer society, you know, like an old-timey chaperone but, like, modern and queer. Just FYI.”