Page 29 of Like First Love, Again

Clinking their glasses together, Mia held Tori in her gaze when she pressed the glass to her lips. A single sip couldn’t make her drunk, but she was floating a foot above her body. Her mind altered when she couldn’t look away from Tori. Her heart was pounding an escape route out of her mouth when she asked, “And what did you want, Tori?”

Tori’s eyes widened. Her lips parted like she might answer. Mia couldn’t breathe while the moment trapped between past and present stretched between them.

“Are we hungry, ladies?” The bartender’s voice was a cold rush over Mia’s sweltering skin.

She didn’t look away from Tori when she smirked. Mia spoke in a borrowed voice when she replied, “Starving.”

Fifteen

Despite her dark sunglasses, the sun beamed directly into Tori’s retinas while she sat in grid-locked traffic. Lack of sleep and two bottles of champagne had left her with a dull headache and roiling stomach.

All but parked on the bridge connecting the mainland to Key Biscayne, Tori drifted into her memories, back to the night before. To drinking too much, laughing too hard, and being the last ones to leave the restaurant.

She couldn’t remember a single thing they’d said, but Tori’s chest was still buzzing with the lingering thrill. It sounded so stupid to compare Mia’s proximity to a drug, but she didn’t know how else to describe it. Couldn’t think of any other substances that were addictive and destructive but felt so good the risks burned away unheeded.

Inching forward, Tori bit back the ridiculous smile that kept trying to sputter to life on her face. Her skin was still a live wire everywhere Mia had casually touched her. Her hands, her arms, her legs, her shoulders. She wanted to close her eyes and indulge in the memory, but traffic crawled again.

God, she was so pathetic. And because the universe wanted to remind her just how much of a simp for Mia she was cursed to be, her phone rang. The sight of Mia’s name on her Jeep’s display resurrected the ridiculous smile.

“You’re the only person under seventy who justcallspeople, you know,” Tori said instead of hello.

“Yeah, yeah. Our generation is supposed to be terrified of the phone. How boring. I say let’s fear fascism and people who use speakerphone in public.”

Tori laughed, the pain in her head easing. “What?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been up since sunrise enclosed in the bathroom with bottles ofFabulosoandComet?—”

The thought of Mia having created a chemical bomb made Tori’s heart lurch. “Are you kidding? That’s toxic as hell! Open a window?—”

Mia’s chuckle stopped Tori’s worry spiral. “Are you fucking with me?”

“Or bringing you cheer. Where the hell are you? Your location has been on the bridge for like?—”

“Since when am I sharing my location with you?” Tori wanted to pick up her phone and check whether Mia was full of shit, but traffic was moving just enough that she didn’t risk sparing a glance.

“Umm, since you went to the bathroom last night and I shared it with myself. I shared mine too, so don’t be a weirdo about it,” she replied like she was already bored with the topic. “Don’t you want to know where I am? If I get kidnapped by aliens? Case in point, are you being held captive by rogue merfolk?”

“Merfolk?” Tori’s laugh was high pitched from surprise. “Are you okay? What other incredibly hazardous chemicals have you ingested?”

“I don’t know about hazardous. How much caffeine is in an entirecafeteraof espresso?”

“Good Lord,” Tori breathed. “You should be studied in a lab.”

“I’m very impressive,” Mia joked. “Are you going to tell me where the hell you’re going?”

Tori had never felt more awake in her life. Her quads twitched as if primed to run across the bridge. She could sprint a marathon and still be ready for more.

“I never consented to electronic surveillance,” she said, hands gripping the steering wheel and gaze darting to the rearview. “How did you even know my passcode?”

“Electronic surveillance,” Mia scoffed. “You’re so dramatic.” She chuckled. “Overbearing and suffocating is how we show love. Don’t be culturally insensitive to my people. And it’s not my fault you haven’t picked a new code in all these years.”

Tori’s untamable smile was going to be murder on her TMJ. She laughed. “Did you learn something from a DNA kit you haven’t told me? Otherwise, we come from the same Cuban people,Maria.”

“Oh my God,Victoria! Why won’t you answer this question? Do you moonlight as a mob boss? A confidential informant? What kind of real estate agent acts like they’re in witness protection?”

Tori’s chest unlocked. Her sternum cracked open, her lungs unfurling for the deepest breath she’d ever taken. She’d missed Mia for fourteen years and now she was somehow back and it was like they’d never missed a beat. Never been apart.

“I’m pretty sure I told you last night?—”

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