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“I haven’t met your sister yet and—you know what, never mind. If he has a plus one, it should be fine, right?”

“Right.”Wrong.

True’s voice held excitement when she said, “I’m gonna tell him yes. I need to get out more anyway. And I haven’t had anything to dress up for in so long.”

Biting down on my lip, I nodded, keeping my eyes ahead. Had my sister put some kinda jinx on me? So that I’d get rejected before I could even ask?

Greyson and True had chemistry. I could feel it every time I was in a room with them. It made sense that he wanted her to be his date.

SWV filled the car speakers next and all I could do while True sang along was tell myself it happened for a reason. I didn’t know what that reason was, but there had to be one.

Mama:

You need to get laid

Me:

Ma.

Mama:

I’m serious, True.

Me:

Ma.

Mama:

You need a release. Trust me, it’ll be cathartic and you’ll be over this writer’s block in no time.

Every time I get stagnant or experience a creative block, it’s because I need to release something in order for the new thing to sprout wings.

If she said the wordreleaseagain, I was going to scream into my pillow. Although, I guess I had to take her word for it. She was a creative through and through.

Patience St. John was a part-time sculptor, part-time seamstress, and part-time yoga instructor. She did nothing and everything. It was part of her charm. Because my dads supported her regardless, she did things because she wanted to not because she needed to. So she bounced around from one job to the next whenever the mood struck and regaled me with the stories before she moved on.

Mama:

Download a dating app. Krystal was telling me about a new one that was good

Why was our neighbor talking to her about dating apps when my mom had two husbands?

I rubbed my eyes, fighting a yawn.

A few seconds later, my phone vibrated and a picture popped up in our thread. It was a marketing photo for an app that promised their mission was to make you delete the app because you matched with someone.

“Yea, right,” I huffed, incredulous.

Of course I knew they existed, but I’d never used a dating app. I went out pretty regularly in King’s Town and met people organically. Since I’d stopped going out, I’d stopped meeting people and I didn’t know if that would be an easy method to resume in a town as tiny as Bliss Peak.

Mama:

Download it and give it a try, baby. You never know who you might meet

I mulled over her words, staring at the ad again before swiping the messaging app closed. I could be a pessimist or I could be grateful that she’d gone from telling me it was too soon for me to be writing to telling me I needed to find a date to help me speed up the process.

Without responding to her last text, I opened the App Store and typed in the name of the dating app, surprised when I saw it had over a million ratings with an average of 4.5.