Page 19

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Aster was a hundred and twenty-two pages into her book and pretty certain that the alien leader, Krylie, was lying to her subordinates and the reader, making her the most unreliable narrator in history. She couldn’t turn the pages fast enough, taking a bite of her apple and flipping the page.

“Is there room for another?”

She looked up, ripped from the planet Pentagargo, trying to remember who she was and where she sat. After a minute, she returned to Earth, shocked and happy to see Brynn Garrett standing there, clutching a hardback book in both hands. “You want to read your book on this bench, too?”

“Look. I get that this is your bench, but I heard reading on it was the thing to do at lunchtime.” Brynn flashed a smile and her perfect teeth. She wore a peach and black striped shirt that made her look preppy and cute. Aster never in a million years would have guessed that she’d find preppy attractive, but here she was.

“It’s not bad. You can give it a try. See if you like it.”

“It just looks like a really peaceful way to read a book, which I’ve been meaning to do more of.” She flashed the cover. “The Girl on the Train.”

“That’s a relatively good one.”

“You’ve read it?” Brynn seemed surprised.

“It’s not a space opera, but the character study is intriguing.”

“I’ve been turning pages pretty aggressively for two days now. Translation: I’m hooked.”

Aster smiled. “Don’t let me stop you.”

“Likewise.”

They read side by side for an hour, and in that time Aster vacillated between engagement in her book and preoccupation with little things about Brynn. She smelled liked oranges with a side of vanilla. Her legs were long, even though she was shorter than Aster. She was capable of deep concentration developed in a short amount of time, something that Aster found attractive for reasons she couldn’t quite explain.

“You dog-ear your pages?” she asked when Brynn finished reading and marked her spot. She stared in sadness at the book.

“I know. I know. Most people think it’s barbaric. I don’t. I think it’s a map of my own journey with the book.”

“You relationship with it. Interesting. That’s certainly a new take.” Aster liked looking at things another way. However, dog-earing was inherently wrong, but Brynn made it right. How?

“What can I say? I prefer my books to look read when I finish with them. I need to see my work on display.”

Aster turned this over as she used a bookmark to log her own progress, closing her book. “I’m not sure how I feel about that. Your explanation isn’t a bad one, but I have principles.”

“Mull it over. Can I come back? This was a nice break in my day.”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“See you soon, Al.”

“Al?” Aster paused, then grinned. “My initials?”

“You have good ones. Off to see a woman about an anxious schnauzer with an appetite for cardboard.”

Aster watched in complete fascination as Brynn headed off on foot through the center of town on her way back to the clinic, walking with the slightest sashay, hips back and forth in a swish. It had been a really nice way to spend the midday, doing something she loved in a low pressure social situation with Brynn, of all people, who demanded so little but offered quite a bit.

“Whoa,” was all she could murmur two days later when she stumbled upon good luck once again. She found Brynn already sitting on her bench, nose in her book. Aster paused feet away. “I don’t know whether to say hi or glare in accusation at my bench competition.” Shetried to add a smile to let Brynn know she was kidding. In honesty, she’d been hit with a rather warm sensation when she’d spotted Brynn there, and it hadn’t left her yet.

“You shouldn’t have sold it so effectively. Hi, Aster.”

“Hi, Brynn.”

There was a new book cracked open this time. Brynn held it up. “Poisonwood Bible. I’m told it’s a different side of Kingsolver.”

“It is.” Aster took a seat. “As someone with three siblings, she captures a certain dynamic that resonated.”