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Avery turned to stare at Taylor.

“You told Calliewhat?”

Taylor made a face.

“You’re right, without any context that sounds unhinged, let me explain. She was asking questions about you and why we were suddenly hanging out a lot and if we were dating, blah blah. I had to tell her something, but I didn’t want to tell her about the flirting lessons, since that seemed personal and I didn’t want to tell the world about that without talking to you first, so I kind of riffed on it? And telling Callie would be telling the world, trust me. Wait, are you mad? I probably shouldn’t have said that, either. I’m sorry.”

Mad? Avery was flattered that Taylor’s friends had asked Taylor if they were dating, especially since they’d already asked her that. It felt good that they thought she’d be good enough for Taylor.

“No, of course I’m not mad. Thanks for not telling everyone about the flirting lessons; I appreciate it. I’m impressed you came up with ‘queer chaperone’ on the spur of the moment.” Avery giggled. “Wait. Does that make me a queer debutante? Do I get a coming-out ball?”

Taylor grinned at her.

“Say the word, and I’ll throw you one.”

A few minutes later, Taylor pulled into a parking spot in downtown Napa. Avery followed Taylor down the street to a bar and read the sign on the door.

“ ‘Trivia night,’ ” Avery read. And then smiled.

Taylor smiled back at her.

“I had a feeling you’d be good at trivia. You seem like that kind of person.”

Avery glared at her.

“That sounds like you’re trying to insult me, but I’m going to take it as a compliment.”

Taylor laced her arm through Avery’s.

“Youshouldtake it as a compliment. Come on, this way.”

Avery looked over to where Taylor was leading her. Aah, this made more sense now. Taylor’s friends were over there. That must be why Taylor had told her about the queer debutante thing on the way here.

“Avery, you’ve met Callie and Rex. This is Dani and Nadia,” Taylor said, gesturing at first Dani, then Nadia, thank goodness.

“Hi, all. Good to see you again,” Avery said as she nodded toward Rex and Callie. “Nice to meet you Dani, Nadia.” Dani was gorgeous; she was tall, with light brown skin, and looked like a retired professional soccer player or something. Nadia had dark skin that looked amazing with her bright yellow dress, and was very curvy. Avery tried to smile at them naturally, like she wasn’t nervous walking into a group of people who knew one another and were friends and probably saw her as an interloper. Was it weird how she’d tried to say hi to all of them and “good to see you again” to just some of them?

Why was it easier to unbutton her shirt one extra button than it was to not feel anxious in a social situation?

Everyone smiled at her, though, and Callie pulled her into a hug.

“Good to see you too, Avery!”

“Over here!” a woman shouted in their direction.

“Excellent, Liz got us a table,” Taylor said.

They all sat down, and Avery ended up between Liz and Callie. She wished she were next to Taylor, but the whole point of doing this was to flirt, learn to talk to strangers, maybe go on an actual date with a woman, and not be so fucking anxious in social situations that were new to her. It might be counterproductive to sit next to Taylor, whom she already knew, and whom she obviously would not be going out on a date with. If Taylor wanted that, it could have happened at any time in the past month.

“We missed you at the party this weekend, Avery.” Callie turned to her and put her hand on Avery’s arm.

It was likely for the best that she hadn’t been there, because otherwise Avery probably would have blurted out the truth about why she and Taylor were spending time together. And she didn’t really want all of Taylor’s friends to know that Taylor was teaching her how to flirt. That made her sound pathetic.

“I was sorry to have missed it,” Avery said. “Happy belated birthday, and thanks for inviting me. Taylor said it was great, and that the food was amazing.”

Callie preened from the compliment.

“I go all out on the food at my parties. I used to cook in restaurants, but that got exhausting, so I haven’t cooked professionally in years. Whenever I have people over, I get to go a little wild.”