Page 53 of Let's Talk About Love

He finished chewing before saying, “Not really.”

(She made a mental note to stop talking with food stuffed in her cheeks.)

(It was unlikely, but she’d give it a go.)

(At least she didn’t chew with her mouth open.)

“I tried.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I love her a lot. She was really looking forward to meeting you. I think she’s mad about that, too.”

“When you talk to them, remember that the worst thing that can happen is the three of you could stop being friends. If you don’t wantto get to that point, everything else will seem easier to get through. But, in the meantime, if you want to stay at my place you can. I have an extra room with a futon if you really don’t want to go home.”

She blinked at him, pausing to figure out if he was serious. “You’d let me live with you?”

“I’ll let you crash. Temporarily.” He grinned. “I never lived with my best friends, but I know what it’s like when they start dating and suddenly, everything feels like them versus you and they’re all you have. You don’t have to slink around feeling terrible. If you need space, I have space.”

She wanted to kiss his cheek.

Kiss. His. Cheek.

She eyed the table, surprised by the sudden feeling. “That’s awfully kind. For all you know I could snore like a chain saw.”

Takumi laughed, but asked, “Um, you don’t, though? Right?”

“How should I know? I don’t have to hear it.”

“Crap,” he mumbled under his breath. They laughed together, and for the first time in days, Alice felt like Alice again.

“Are you busy tonight?” she asked. “I don’t need to sleep over or anything, but it’s better if I can go home around midnight. I know they’ll be asleep by then. My plan was to keep ordering coffee at a twenty-four-hour diner.”

“As long as you don’t mind kids,” he said. “I am apparently babysitting tonight and am on preschool carpool duty tomorrow before I go to work.”

“I love kids. Kids love me.”

***

HOW COULD HEabandon her like this?

“Mayumi! Put that down.” Alice hefted the four-year-old under her arm, who began to giggle with maniacal glee. “Give me my phone. That’s not yours.”

“Finders keepers!” She had reached that point of kid joyous laughter that made your heart melt in viral videos, but Dear Lord was it far, far more sinister in real life. “Finders keepers!”

“Alice, Alice, Alice! Look at me!” Megumi stood on the arm of Takumi’s couch. She lifted her arms in the air and somersaulted onto the cushions. “Did you watch me?”

Alice clutched her chest with her free hand. “Please don’t do that again.”

Mayumi wriggled out of her grasp—Alice had to set her down to keep from dropping her—and bolted across the room. She abandoned her prize with a casual toss and she hopped onto the couch. “Me too! Watch me!”

It took everything Alice had not to pick up her phone and call Takumi screaming,When are you coming back?

They wanted chicken nuggets for a bedtime snack, he said.

He had to go to the grocery store for chicken breasts because hehadto make them from scratch. Going to the McDonald’s around the corner was out of the question.

Twenty minutes, he said.

What kid needed chicken nuggets before bed? Wasn’t warm milk and a bedtime story the standard?

She checked her phone: