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“You’re our lucky charm, Avery,” Callie said. “That just means you’ve got to come back next week.”

Avery looked at Taylor for a second. Was she checking in with her to see if Taylor wanted to come back, or was she trying to get Taylor to give her an excuse not to? Taylor wasn’t sure. Avery turned back to Callie.

“I’ll see what I can do,” she said. “You know how it is to own a small business; work often gets in the way of fun things. And a lot of my stuff is at night, unfortunately. But this was really fun, I’d love to do this again.”

After another round of hugs and goodbyes and whispers in Taylor’s ears (“Leave it to you to bring around a hottie no one knew” from Dani; “Okay, but seriously, is something going on between you two?” from Nadia; “Bring her back!” from Callie; “I have so many questions” from Liz), all of which she just laughed at. Taylor and Avery walked back to Taylor’s car.

“So,” Taylor said as soon as they drove away. “Didyou have fun,andwouldyou love to come back, or were you just saying that to Callie?”

Avery had a smile on her face, but then, she’d had a smile on her face most of the night, which was why Taylor already knew the answer to that question.

“Yeah, I had a great time,” she said. “You were right, I am good at trivia, I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. And your friends were all super nice to me.”

Taylor raised an eyebrow.

“You mean my friends all thought you were hot as hell.”

Avery’s smile turned just a tiny bit smug.

“Well. I wouldn’t have put it that way, but Ididget some good flirting practice in.”

“Oh, I saw,” Taylor said. “But what was that look you gave me when Callie said she wanted you to come back?”

“That was just…” Avery said. “I wasn’t sure how to answer.”

“Why not?” Taylor asked. “Didn’t you have fun?”

“I did,” Avery said. “It’s just…these are your friends. I didn’t know if you would want me to come back and hang out with them. I also didn’t know if Callie’s invitation was real or just something she says to everyone, and I shouldn’t take it seriously. But mostly the first thing.”

Taylor was glad they were stopped at a light so she could look at Avery.

“Callie’s invitation was definitely real, but why wouldn’t I want you to hang out with my friends?”

Avery didn’t look at her.

“Sometimes people…like to keep circles separate. Plus, we’re not…I mean, you’re doing these flirting lessons for me but that was you taking pity on me, we didn’t really know each other before, so I don’t want to…”

Taylor shook her head.

“Avery. I like you. I’m not doing these flirting lessons for you because I’m ‘taking pity’ on you—I’m not that kind of person. I’m not that nice! I wouldn’t hang out with someone on a weekly basis if I didn’t like them. We are friends, and friends help each other out.” Taylor paused. “I mean, that’s if you want to be. I don’t know, maybe you don’t like me, in which case I just made a fool of myself, but then I do that often, so—”

By this point, Avery was laughing.

“No, no, I like you, too. I thought we were friends, too. Or hoped. I mostly thought we were; I guess I was just having a moment of insecurity, or, I don’t know, mean girls from the past getting into my head about friendship and everything. I’m sorry for being weird.”

“No apologies necessary,” Taylor said. “Any other questions about tonight?”

“Now that you ask,” Avery said. “Is there a story with you and that bartender?”

Taylor let out a loud laugh.

“Why does everyone ask me about Sofie? Yes, we may have hooked up before, but she’s taken now.”

Taylor could feel Avery’s smirk without even looking at her.

“I knew it,” she said.

Taylor rolled her eyes.