Page 50 of Summer Reading

I sipped my tea. Hot and honey-sweet. Perfection.

“Spill it,” Em said. She was lying down with her head on the armrest, and her eyes were shut.

“Spill what, my tea?” I asked.

“Yes, but not the tea in your mug,” she said. “The ‘T,’ as the kids say, meaning the gossip, the skinny, the dirt.”

“I wouldn’t call it gossip exactly,” I hedged. Stalling maneuver number 305.

“Right. Sam, I know you. You have no sense of personal boundaries, and if you want to say something, you usually just throw it out there.”

“That makes me sound so rude.”

Em opened one eye and swiveled her head in my direction. “I was there with you on the T when youasked the woman with the pet python about her relationship with the snake.”

I snorted. “In my defense, they were entwined quite passionately. It’s not my fault she viewed him as more of a child than a lover.”

“And the time we were walking around Boston Common and you asked the man in the superhero costume what his origin story was.”

“He had a pretty good one,” I said. “Compelling narrative, being birthed out of a giant squid and forced to live with mortals.”

Em laughed, then winced and put her hand on her neck. “Ouch.”

“Sorry.” I took another sip of my tea. “All right. I have two things on my mind. I’ll start with the one that is less important. To revisit our conversation yesterday, when Ben brought me the sandwich, he also asked me out.”

Her eyes popped open. “He brought you food, then asked you out? Oh, he’s definitely into you.”

I wanted to jump to my feet and do a fist pump. I didn’t.Slow your roll there, Gale. Technically, Ben and I were going on our first date tonight. It could turn out to be the stuff of nightmares, so it was best to check my expectations.

Em sat up and sipped her tea. She put it back on its coaster and sank into the sofa. “I think I’m going tofall asleep, so you’d better get on with asking me questions.”

“Okay, I need you to promise me that you really have no interest in him. I know you said no before, but just so we’re clear, I would absolutely cancel with him if you felt even a little something for him in that way, because I figure you have dibs, plus you’re my best friend, and sisters before misters and all that.”

“Dibs?” Em asked. “Like he’s the last ice cream sandwich in the freezer or something?”

“Did you just compare a man to an ice cream sandwich?” I asked.

“Yeah, you’re right,” she said. “That’s unfair to the ice cream sandwich.”

“Harsh.” I laughed.

She shrugged. “For the record, to be perfectly transparent so that you have no worries about my feelings toward my boss—oh, horror!—no, I am not now nor have I ever been interested in or attracted to Ben.”

“But he’s so hot,” I said.

“Meh,” she countered.

“How many pain pills did you take?” I asked. “After that assessment of Ben’s hotness, I’m actually concerned.”

She laughed and waved a hand at me. “I’m just teasing. He’s cute enough, I just... I don’t know... I want somethingmore.”

I thought about the guy who had brought me asandwich and read to me, whose blue-gray eyes reflected the sea, and whose kisses made me dizzy in the best possible way. If that guy was anymore, I’d melt into a useless puddle of goo.

She smiled at me. “Go out with him, Sam. It’s pretty clear you’re warm for his form.”

“I am no—” I cut off my own protest. “I am, totally, all of that.”

“And when’s the hot date?”

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