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“No kidding. Wave on.”

Greta’s mouth pulled into a leisurely grin. “Wave on.”

They wiggled their fingers at each other, then launched into all thingsSea Voyage Five. Joan slid an amused glance at Sadie. “That’ll keep them busy for the next hour.”

“Don’t you have to talk about something?” Sadie said.

“It’s probably nothing.”

At least it wasn’t about work. Greta seemed to be a regular friend—a “norm.”

Sadie set about making their drinks. Amit caught wind of theSea Voyageconversation and joined with the enthusiasm he reserved for gaming. Joan thanked her when she brought the drinks over. Mark was busy swiping on some hook-up app.

What a weirdly wonderful cross-section of her life. Of Vector City.

She couldn’t help studying them as she got the pastries. The Five Hive trio huddled around Nyah’s phone. Mark and Joan traded beverages and taste-tested one another’s drinks. The vibe was relaxed and happy. Easy. Even the indie music skewed more upbeat today.

Warmth pulsed through her chest. This was the atmosphere she wanted to create at Sadie’s Café. A place where people could congregate to talk about video games or whatever their passion was. Open mic nights. Poetry readings. Artists cultivating creativity together. It’d been a dream that felt too out of reach, but now…

She could see it now.

Joan met her gaze and smiled over the cup of iced coffee. A drink she was rapidly heating because she’d said liquids were unstable. Starting a new phase of life with her in it would be a thrill ride. A Superhero girlfriend who was just as super in quiet moments like this. Exactly the sort of excitement Sadie had been craving.

Something in Joan’s content expression said she was loving the simple normalcy. This could be exactly what she was looking for, too.

CHAPTER14

Joan grinned at her text chain with Sadie. Lots of winking and kissing emoji-filled messages about tonight. They were pretty tame given that Sadie was at work, but the thoughts they conjured were decidedly more?—

A burst of snow hit the side of her face. She wiped the wet flakes off as Mark leaned back in his plastic warehouse chair. “Hi. Remember me, your brother? The one you dragged to HQ only to ignore and draw little doodles with Sadie’s initials?”

The fast-food napkins in front of her were covered in big hearts withJM + SEwritten in them. “So we could finally talk to Perry,” Joan said.

Perry glanced at them from where he was on his phone in the nearby kitchenette.

“We’ve been trying to talk to Perry.” Mark picked lint off his cerulean-blue shirt. “It’ll be a cold day in Hades before he works with the Supers.”

“You said the same thing.”

“Do you really want to form an alliance with Darlene and Otis?”

“No, but…” Joan tucked her phone in her pocket. “Zee seemed to get that we don’t want to be lumped in with Trick any more than they want to be lumped in with the other Supers.”

“It doesn’t matter. We’re guilty by association. And I don’t trust anything a Super says.”

She normally wouldn’t either, but Zee had opened up in a way no Super had ever done. In a way they hadn’t really needed to.

“Do we tell Per about what Greta said?” Mark asked.

“It’s just gossip. Per hates gossip.”

Greta’s words from earlier gnawed at the back of her mind. Rumblings among the criminal element that Spark and Ice were acting weak, not supporting their fellow Villains. How distancing from Trick—even though no one could stand him—went against their code. Losing respect in their line of work was never good since nobody would have your back.

Did that really matter anymore? It’d make it easier to get out of the life. Not get grouped together with the other Villains. Be able to hang out freely at Vector City Coffee to marvel at Sadie in her element. She truly had the gift of connecting with people.

Perry nodded and said something into his phone.

“Sounds like we’re unloading that ugly painting of some old jugs and fruit sitting on a rickety table,” Mark said.