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“Does it have any car chases or badass female superheroes in it wearing skintight outfits?”

“Nope.”

“Then no.”

“Anyway,” Megan continued, “in World War Z there are these zombies, right? And of course, it seems like the zombies attack everybody, but the zombies actually only attack healthy people; they can tell if someone is infected with a disease or something. So, when Vanessa and I met yesterday, we both said how we knew the other one wasn’t sick with Covid and how that was like the zombies in World War Z. The T2 reference is because she thinks Terminator 2 is better than the first Terminator, which is dumb, but she’s super pretty so I can forgive her that.”

Abby rolled her eyes.

“So, let me get this straight,” Abby began. “Queen of the Dorks—that’s you—discovers that there is in fact another Dork Realm somewhere and that the queen of that realm not only lives in Carlsbad but is also gay.”

“You know what’s dorky? Using the word ‘realm’ more than once in a sentence.”

“Not if that sentence is a sentence about dorks,” Abby insisted. “Anyway, the point is, you found another lesbian who knows about zombies and Terminator robots and Ewoks. Why are you wasting time pretending that this isn’t going to end with you both renting a U-Haul?”

“Shut up,” Megan said, laughing. After a few moments, she asked, “So, what’s her story?”

“Who? Vanessa? She’s good people,” Abby declared.

“Why is she single?”

Abby shrugged.

“Vanessa is one of those chicks who is, like, super focused on whatever it is they got going on. Chicks like that don’t have time for relationships. I mean, she was involved with a girl named Rebecca for a while, but that didn’t last too long.”

“Well, I guess I’ll find out more about her if she chooses to tell me,” Megan said, not exactly feeling as nonchalant about it as she sounded. She wanted to know more about Vanessa. But then she scolded herself internally. “It doesn’t matter anyway. It’s not like our little fling is going to amount to anything.”

“Except a trip to the U-Haul office,” Abby said.

“Shut up.”

Then, as if the gods were conspiring against Megan with her best friend, her car’s touchscreen display chirped and a message appeared.

Text message from Vanessa.

Before Megan had a chance to tap the Ignore option on the screen, Abby cackled and tapped Read.

The car’s robotic female voice spoke from the Bose speakers.

“Text message from Vanessa. It was great seeing you tonight. What a surprise! I can’t wait until I see you tomorrow.”

Abby was laughing.

“Oh my God! This is great!” Abby said, chuckling. “So, the cool thing about U-Haul is, you can use their website to set up everything. Like, the truck reservation, ordering supplies...”

“I swear to God, if you do not shut up!”

***

Once home, Megan went upstairs to her bedroom and changed into a comfy pair of pajama shorts and a white tank top and then, because she hadn’t had a chance to do it yet, she sat on the edge of her bed and replied to Vanessa’s text.

Sorry, I was driving and couldn’t answer. Can’t wait either. So excited! How does a walk along the seawall and maybe some ice cream sound?

That wasn’t her fir

st choice of a suggestion for tomorrow but Megan figured that flat-out asking Vanessa over so they could fuck each other’s brains out was probably being a little too pushy.

She then headed downstairs but halfway down the steps her phone chirped and she stopped to read the newest message from Vanessa.