Page 27 of Kiss Me, Maybe

@Stephanie:How do you feel about asking her yourself?

Krystal and I make plans to meet on Wednesday during my lunch hour. I spend nearly two hours getting ready, throwing aside articles of clothing until I finally land on a pair of black slacks and a white T-shirt with the library logo above my left breast. After pulling up my hair in a bun, I’m all set.

Marcela laments over her three back-to-back meetings and the fact that we haven’t been able to get lunch together for over a week. On the bright side, our lack of socializing at work means I’ve had some extra time to catch up on class assignments. I’m weeks ahead on coursework without even meaning to be. I faux cry with her but am secretly glad I don’t have to explain that I wouldn’t be able to get lunch with her anyway because I’m meeting Krystal. Knowing my best friend, she’ll press for details and I would have to tell her Krystal is only helping me with the scavenger hunt, and nothing more.

We decide to meet at a taqueria a couple streets down from work. When I arrive, she’s already seated inside, head bent over her phone, bright blue nails tapping on the table. When she spots me, she rises from her chair and wraps her arms around me in a hug, careful with my injury.

“How’s your shoulder?” is the first thing she asks me as we line up to order.

“Basically fine.” I wave her off. “Same for my knee.”

“I hope you’re not lying so I’ll stop worrying.” She gives me a stern look before turning to order. “Thanks again for buying me lunch,” she says once we’re both done. We take seats across from each other at a table by the window. “Even though I’mnot sure how much more help I can be. What are you gonna do about the scavenger hunt?”

“I have some options.”

As bummed as I am about the mural being washed away, I was far more bummed about disappointing the internet. Or at least, this small community of people I’ve cultivated on my TikTok page. I didn’t give many details in my last update, just that there was an unforeseen setback along with a clip I managed to catch of the mural being power-washed off the building.

“A couple hours after posting the video, I got a DM from someone who recognized the mural and claimed to know the artist personally. We don’t have any concrete plans to meet yet, but I’m hopeful we’ll figure out something soon.”

Krystal looks at me curiously. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t want to jinx it. Either way, I’m not giving up yet,” I say. “If I have to go back to square one, then that’s what I’ll do.”

“You’re awfully determined.” Krystal’s eyes settle over me in an assessing gaze.

“You said you’d been following Natalia for a couple of years.” She raises a brow at my rerouting the conversation, but nods nonetheless. “Have you ever talked to her?”

“Yeah. I bought a piece of hers last year. Well, I tried to anyway,” Krystal says. “She’s a bit eccentric.”

“Wait, you’vemether? In person?”

“When she was still commissioning work, you could pick up orders at her studio if you lived in town. There was a mix-up with the art piece I commissioned from her. She never got around to finding mine, so she refunded me.”

“Oh.” I deflate. “That’s a bummer.”

“It seemed like she was going through something. I didn’t take it badly.” After a pause, she asks, “My turn to ask you a question?” When I nod, she goes on. “Why now, if you don’t mind me asking? Why haven’t you dated anyone until now?”

“I’m hardly dating,” I grumble, sinking low in my seat. Her expression doesn’t change. “I guess it’s partly because I didn’t know how my parents would react to having a queer daughter until last year. The other part was being too scared to evaluate what it is I really want.”

“And now you’ve done some evaluating?”

“Evaluating, soul-searching.” I smirk. “Pish, posh.”

“I get that. It took me a long time to realize I was attracted to women, though I’m not sure it was entirely my fault. There are way too many articles on the internet dedicated to explaining away same-sex attraction, and I was a dedicated Googler in high school.”

“We’d tell ourselves anything to explain it away too,” I say. “Anything to keep us normal, right? Otherwise people might catch on and give you hell for it.”

“Who gave you hell?” Her brows crease as the fillings of her taco start to fall out the other end from how tightly she’s gripping it. “You know I’ll give them hell right back.”

“My cousins,” I admit, taking a beat to consider if this is a story I really want to tell her. “They used to bully me a lot because I hadn’t had my first kiss. The rumor spread like wildfire at our high school and before I knew it, everyone knew. At one point, they started giving my number out to random guys I’d never talked to before. But they’re family, which meant I always had to forgive them no matter how far they went.”

“That’s awful,” she tells me. “Tell me about these cousins. More specifically, where I can find them and teach them a goddamn lesson.”

“You don’t need to defend my honor.” I smirk. “Your righteous anger on my behalf is plenty. Besides, I’d hate to see what you could do to them after watching you mangle that taco.”

“You didn’t deserve your fate,” she says, scooping up the last bit of filling off her plate with a tortilla and popping the last bite into her mouth before cleaning her hands with a napkin. Then she glances at me and her voice takes an ominous tone. “Your cousins, on the other hand…”

I smile and shake my head at her. I kind of like this protective side of Krystal, even if it comes at the expense of her lunch.

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