Page 22

She hated this time of year. She knew she was supposed to love fall and cozy sweaters and pumpkin spice lattes and getting lowlights done in her hair, but it was hard to enjoy anything when it was dark before dinner, and there was snow more often than not in Wisconsin, and one didn’t have anyone to cozy up with .

“Your last appointment canceled.” spun around in her chair. Tressa Fay was cleaning her already spotless work station.

“Nice.” She did a little dance. It was pretty affecting, given she was wearing only black tights, Doc Martens, and a cropped sweatshirt that peekabooed her black bra every time she raised her arms up, which was all the time, all day long, because Tressa Fay cut hair. “I can go home early and put soup on, turn the music up, and snuggle my cat in a big ol’ sweater.”

Ugh.

looked out the window in the front of the shop. The bars and restaurants were starting to get busy, their lights spilling out into the street, people meeting each other on the sidewalk and going inside for drinks and dinner.

Light. People. Drinks.

’s vision pulled back from the street, and now she saw the reflection of herself in the dark window, sitting at the reception desk, with flat hair and a sad face.

She stood up and walked over to Tressa Fay’s station, grabbed her spray bottle, and started wetting down her hair.

“What are you doing?” Tressa Fay narrowed her eyes at . “Because it looks like you’re getting ready for a cut, and you already said I was done for the day. I’m going to assume you are merely restyling.”

“I said that your last appointment canceled for the day. I didn’t say you were done.”

Tressa Fay started unbuckling her thigh holster. “Oh, but I am. It’s quittin’ time. Epinephrine and I have a date with a pot of cheese-tortellini soup. I’m thinking of taking some thirst traps for the ’gram.”

winced. “Just some layers on top.”

Tressa Fay shook her head. “Nope. Write yourself in tomorrow. I can already smell my new scented candles.”

clasped her hands together. “Please? Please, please, please? It’s so dark. And I’m so sad. Hair volume would make me feel better, and I’m going out. You should go out with me, but I’m not holding my breath. At least give me big hair to go with the false lashes I’m going to put on with something too low-cut. Pleeeeease.” made direct eye contact with Tressa Fay.

“God. Fine. You don’t have to Bambi me—it makes my heart hurt. But you’re cleaning up after, because as soon as your hair is touching the angels, I’m out of here.”

did feel much better on her way home, with fluffy hair and confirmed yeses to go out from Linds, Guy, and Michael. She wanted Tressa Fay out with them, too. The business with Amy had been an absolute grief banquet, and while understood that Tressa Fay shared some responsibility for the end of that relationship, Tressa Fay hadn’t had a big fat secret affair for Amy to stumble in on after spending thousands on an engagement ring. It had been brutal for Tressa Fay to heal from. Now, though, she was healed, only shy about going on the apps or flirting in bars. She wanted, if not romance, a moment . A beginning to a relationship that stopped time, at least a little.

had been working on it.

She met her friends at the taproom, which was, first, queer-friendly, and, second, an elusive combination of exciting and inclusive. The music was good but not too loud. There were lots of places to sit and talk and be comfortable, and it wasn’t hard to hear a conversation. The bar didn’t overserve, and it had delicious drinks and snacks. The bathrooms were any-gender and clean.

They had scored a big, long table, which kept them all together but left room for new, fun people to join. was wiggling in her seat, sending her feelers out for time-stopping moments.

It was early when they arrived, so the buzz was very mature, and lots of appetizers were coming out on trays. Guy and Michael played their part by setting bait with their hot mini-makeout sessions, and Linds looked amazing and had flirted with at least three people. was focused on big Your New Best Friend energy in the hopes of snuggling up to a girl who would turn Tressa Fay’s head and maybe be open to an introduction.

Then she saw him.

Smooth brown skin, expressive eyes that swept over the room with sexy interest, inky, wavy hair. He wore a soft-looking sweater and good jeans and was a man could one hundred percent imagine herself not complaining about staying inside with on a cold night.

But she wasn’t here for men. Besides, he had a gorgeous, curvy redhead with him.

She turned to Linds to distract herself from the jolt that was still bonging through her body from looking at that man and caught Linds winking at someone across the room. But it was only a guy Linds had played Dungeons & Dragons with for years who was firmly a friend.

“Invite him to sit with us,” said.

“He’s with a date. Besides”—Linds looked up—“we’re getting some very fire company right now.”

turned and accidentally met the eyes of the man she’d spotted when he came in, currently sitting down in two open seats across from her with his date. As he sat, he pushed up the sleeves of his sweater, causing to have some very intense feelings about his forearms.

“Okay if we sit?” He didn’t look away from .

“More than,” she said. “I’m , this is my friend Linds, and those two huddled together at the end of the table, completely ignoring the world, are Guy and Michael.”

He smiled, and ’s heart sped up. God. When was the last time she’d had a reaction like this? She couldn’t remember. She was more the type to feel lightning after a warm-up period of getting-to-know-you, and she’d never really believed those stories people told about their partners that started with I just knew .

But she had barely touched her hard cider, and she didn’t partake of substances, so whatever she was feeling right now was being generated from her unadulterated body or the cosmos or something.

“I’m James.”

God.

“And this is my friend Meryl.” He put enough emphasis on the word friend that Meryl turned to him and raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t see, because he was looking at .

He was looking at .

She got stern with herself. Beautiful James was not the person she was here for. She wanted to get Tressa Fay out tonight. It felt a little urgent. It felt a lot like tonight was the night. She smiled at James—her best smile, yes—but then she briskly turned to Meryl to offer her a smile just as good.

And there it was. The potential for a moment .

had already noticed this Meryl woman was gorgeous from across the room, but at their table, close-up, she could see Meryl’s red hair and freckles and matching red eyebrows and pretty grin and, most of all, her T-shirt, which was a red Mathlete Champion T-shirt, and so then spotted Meryl’s tidy bag, hooked over the back of her chair, with little square pockets to organize her things, and her perfect, pill-free cardigan, and her glasses, and how her hair, beautiful and curly though it was, hung in one length to her elbows like she was someone who was occupied by other things.

Smart girl things.

Oh, oh, oh. had a feeling. She peeked at her phone on the table. It was still early. If she could get enough intel, maybe she could make it happen. She squared her shoulders and focused.

“Meryl! It’s nice to meet you. What do you do?”

“I’m a stormwater engineer for the city.”

Engineer.

“Wow. Interesting. You must have to be super smart to do that kind of thing.”

“So smart,” James cut in. “I have Meryl come to the college all the time to talk to students about career paths with STEM. I work in student services admin at the university.”

Oh, James, if I only had time for you, because there you are, piggybacking so I will pay you some attention. I will get to you, I promise.

“Wow.” inched her phone closer to herself. “I guess the math shirt is real, then.”

Meryl laughed, such a good laugh. “It’s very real. I have three matching ones at home. One for every year of high school.”

Ding, ding, ding. “I’m so sorry, could you excuse me for a minute? I forgot I had to make a call.” She turned to Linds. “My friend Linds works at the university, too! Linds, let’s order these cute people a round.” She lasered a telepathic message into Linds’s mind with her eyes. Do not let them leave, even if you have to make it weird.

“I do work there! Where’s your office?” Linds leaned over to talk to James and Meryl, and got up and boxed her way through the crowd to the quiet vestibule by the bathrooms.

“Tressa Fay!” was glad she’d picked up on the first ring.

“I can hear a lot of people in the background, , but I’m already practically naked and have ladled myself a bowl of soup.”

“This is an emergency. I’ve got a hot engineer on the line.”

“What?”

“Meryl. She has red hair. She has a messenger bag with organizer pockets. Freckles. Engineer. Tressa Fay, she is wearing a Mathlete Champion T-shirt from high school, and let’s just say her figure has blossomed since that time.”

There was a long enough pause that crossed her fingers and toes.

“Look, I—”

“And a cardigan. Did I mention the cardigan? And that she’s gorgeous? Red hair? Has a good laugh?”

“Where are you?”

Thank you, thank you, thank you. “The taproom. It’s very low-key. In the key of low. Only dogs can hear, it’s so low. Dogs and extremely good-looking people. Come on. I have a feeling about this.”

Maybe that was too much. Tressa Fay was not a particularly metaphysical person. Opposite. heard her sigh. “You don’t know if she’s queer.”

didn’t, but also, she did. She did . “Tressa Fay, the whole world is queer. The whole universe is queer. It always has been. It always will be.”

There was a long pause. “I’ll be there in ten.”

“Yay!”

skipped from the vestibule and ran right into a tall woman who smelled like vanilla cookies made in heaven.

“Oops! Sorry,” the woman said.

was about to apologize and run, but then her mouth was hanging open. What was it with the super-hot people at the taproom tonight? This woman looked like a silent film star, pale, dark-eyed, bow-lipped, and—yes. Wearing a pan flag necklace. All of the matchmaking gifts had inherited from her ancestors were golden tonight.

“No problem!” she said. “Sorry. I’m , and I don’t pay attention to where I’m going.”

The woman laughed. “I’m Brooklynn, and I can’t find a table.”

“Brooklynn. Do I have news for you.”

The best part of the night wasn’t that Brooklynn read Linds’s palm all the way up to her mouth, or that James noticed when shivered and then pulled off his soft sweater for her to wear, wrapped up in amber-smelling wool while she looked at him in his tight undershirt and he played with her fingers.

It was when Tressa Fay came in, wearing her lucky jeans, and, when she looked over the crowd, she and Meryl caught each other’s eye at the same time.

was there for it. Of all the places in the entire universe she could’ve been, she was there to see it.

The moment.