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On the other hand, I feel like I’ve just been due when Millie’s photo—one she took and entered into rin while wearing lasses—pops up on the screen

I want to laugh Cat just blew ht, so of course now she’s calling

“Hey, Mills”

“Hey, Reidy” On the other end of the line, she sounds either sad or nervous In any case, she’s subdued enough to make me wonder whether she realizes that her postsex routine wasn’t great

In her beat of silence, I pull the slide off the microscope tray and file it back in the slide box “What’s up?”

“Would you come over?” she asks “For dinner? Or I can come to you?” Another unsure pause, and then, “To talk”

“Talk?” I ask Millie doesn’t ever ask to talk

“About us,” she says, clearing her throat “The other night I ht All of it”

Wow I feel thunderstruck “Sure I’ll be there in twenty”

She lets out a shaky laugh “Take your tiet a little drunk first”

I pause, quietly annoyed, and in the silence she goes still, too, and then she groans

“I’,” she says “God, I a is creeping into Santa Barbara arers after sundown, and even insidevines outside Millie’s town house makes my head feel full and claustrophobic

At the curb, I pull out my phone and look at Catherine’s profile Honestly, I’ I wanted that level of connection with so just friends Maybe Catherine was it for one inactive—I can’t click through to her pages anymore There’s only the photo she’s always had: that turned-away jawline, the bare shoulder, the tiny scar Over ti of herself up front but seees

“Well,” I say into the quiet car, “I guess that’s it”

With my thumb pressed to the IRL icon on the screen, I wait until the app goes wobbly, and then delete it

Looking up, I see Millie is waiting for htly Everything about this scene feels strange: she’s out here waiting for me, she wants to talk, she looks anxious, she breaks into a huge grin when she seesweird,” I say when I hit the first step up to her porch

“I know I know” She wipes her hands on her jeans, and , sht now”

And as soon as she walks towardin relief I’m bummed about Cat I’m worried about me and Millie I’m disappointed that Daisy was such a bust And the reality that I’ht now makes me want to melt in front of Millie’s door

She steps into, some weird trip of déjà vu in hter It’s the kind of hug that co tiiant exhale into the soft skin of her neck, her shoulder, where I press ainst her faint scar

Her scar

My heart shoves against ful pulse I ed tomyself

The same stupid tit typo that Millie alwaysthe heels of ht