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“See, this is exactly why I needed you to help me. That’s the perfect solution, and it would have taken me weeks to come up with it. I’ll ask her at work tomorrow.” She made a face. “I will not, however, tell her why I’m planning a baby shower, even though I know she’ll ask.”

Just then, Taylor stopped walking and opened a door with a flourish.

“Here we are!”

Avery stepped back and read the sign above the door.

“ ‘Let’s Paint!’ We’re painting pottery?” That didn’t sound like a normal Taylor Cameron–style flirting lesson.

But Taylor nodded.

“Yep. There’s a whole queer mixer tonight, so I signed us up. Wine and pottery and paint, what could go wrong?”

“Incredible.” Avery looked at her outfit as she walked inside. “Aah, ‘something you can get dirty in,’ now I get it. But wouldn’tmessybe a better word thandirty?”

Taylor waved that aside.

“Close enough. I’m excited to see how colorful those jeans are by the end of the night.”

As soon as they walked in, a very brightly dressed person greeted them.

“Hi! I’m Lupe! Did you two register for the event tonight, or are you dropping in?”

“We registered,” Taylor said. “I’m Taylor Cameron.”

“Hi, Taylor!” Lupe said. “So nice to meet you!” She turned to Avery expectantly, so Avery smiled at her, too.

“Hi, I’m Avery.”

“Welcome, Taylor and Avery! We are so excited to have you here at Let’s Paint! Have you been here before? No? Great, welcome in! I’ll explain to you how it works! Head over to the wall and select the piece of pottery that you want to paint, and then you join your group at your table to paint! Someone will be walking around to help if you need it! At the end of the night, you leave it with us, we fire it, and in a few days, you can come back to pick up your beautiful new pottery! Any questions?”

Taylor looked slightly shell-shocked by how aggressively bubbly Lupe was, so Avery answered her.

“No questions for now. Thanks so much for the explanation, I appreciate it!”

She couldn’t help herself with the exclamation points. They were catching.

Lupe beamed at her.

“You’re very welcome! Time to pick your pottery!”

Avery nudged Taylor on their way over to the wall.

“You okay over there? I’ve never seen you so taken aback.”

Taylor shook her head slowly.

“That was a lot more cheerfulness than I expected, that’s all. I should have assumed from the exclamation point already embedded in the name of the place that this night would be full of people with that much enthusiasm, but wow, I still managed to underestimate it.”

Avery patted her on the shoulder.

“Time for us to select our pottery, which you obviously wouldn’t have known to do if she hadn’t told you. Do you want a mug, a teapot, a cup and saucer, or—ooh, I need some new vases! I’m going to paint one of those.”

Taylor picked a mug, like Avery knew that she would. Taylor didn’t seem like a teapot or cup-and-saucer kind of person. She also didn’t seem like a paint-your-own-pottery kind of person, which made Avery wonder what they were doing here. Did Taylor thinkshewas a paint-your-own-pottery kind of person? She didn’t think either one of them was that kind of person, for opposite reasons: Taylor was too cool, Avery was too bougie.

But this was the new Avery, remember? The new Avery flirted with people and made new friends and slept with women! She was going to paint her own pottery and like it!

Had Taylor thought of going to Let’s Paint! tonight because she thought neither of them would be into it? Was she trying to create some distance between her and Avery?