Page 36 of Poinsettia Lane

They’re little more than halfway done with the planting and it’s starting to come together. The plants she and Asim picked out work well together, and Everly is pleasantly surprised by the colorful picture it’s creating in her backyard. Asim left with Moose a few hours ago, and she’s since showered and changed. Standing in the living room with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the backyard, she continues to admire their work, and her thoughts soon turn to their date.

Now Everly has to wrap her head around the reality of going out on a date. She hasn’t dated in ages, and the idea of going out with someone, in public, is a little intimidating. If it was with anyone else, she knows she’d be freaking out right now. Everly can’t stop marveling at her responses to Asim though, and the way her mind has started to quiet and calm when they’re together. Anytime she’s accepted a date in the last few years, her nerves would take over and she’d debate various back-out strategies until the last second. She’s never really had a good experience with dating, truth be told—it’s been lessthan stellar since the beginning.

When Everly was 16, finally feeling as though she fits into her body and flooded with hormones, she had her first real kiss with her first ever love.

She didn’t even see it coming.

He kissed her with groping hands and too much tongue in his friend’s stale basement at the tail end of a party, and when she didn’t want to go further, he slid off the dingy couch in a cloud of dust motes and retreated to the bathroom. She spent the next few minutes trying to keep her eyes to herself as the few other couples were all messily making out and looking like they didn’t have plans to stop. She inspected the worn, white ceiling and counted the speckles on each tile, she looked at the diluted green and brown stripes of the unraveling rug under her feet, she traced her fingers along the cracks in the dull couch cushion, and she tried her best not to bounce her knee or otherwise give in to the nervous apprehension lining her gut.

When he finally returned to her, he held out his hand and pulled her up with a smile she couldn’t quite decipher. Relieved to have him back, Everly didn’t question it. He walked her to his car, opened her door for her, then drove her home. She didn’t entirely realize anything was off until he sat silently in the drivers seat in her driveway. He didn’t speak, didn’t get out, didn’t move a single muscle, both hands white knuckling the steering wheel. He didn’t even glance in her direction; instead, his eyes were hard and focused straight ahead through the windshield.

Heart in her throat and stomach full of lead, Everly murmured a soft “goodnight” as she opened the door and stepped out. She never heard from him again. He ignored her at school the next day, and every day after that. His friends snickered when she walked by. He had completely ghosted her, left the few messages she sent on read, and at times she almost wondered if she had made up the entire night in her head.

That was Everly’s first experience with heartbreak.

Since then, it’s been a string of short, disappointingrelationships interspersed with long periods of being single. It got even worse after her parents died. The loneliness became so entrenched she didn’t know if she’d ever escape it. Spending time with Asim feels different, though.

Everly wonders if he could be the exception. Maybe this time, it will stick. She’s afraid to let herself hope, afraid to let herself truly feel, but the cracks in her armor are expanding and it’s only a matter of time before her walls come crumbling down.

~~~

As usual, she can’t stay away from Roasted for too long, and Everly’s back there again today. She inhales the cozy scent of fresh-brewed coffee and sun-warmed wood, trailing her fingers along the back of a worn leather couch as she meanders her way to her favorite seat in the back. There are a few other patrons inside, and although she tends to avoid interacting with others as much as possible, she’s feeling good today. Optimistic, even. She meets their smiles and her heart warms at their nods of greeting. Although she recognizes most, she doesn’t know their names, which she acknowledges is unusual in a town this size, and she vows to fix it at some point.

Eventually.

When she’s done fixing herself.

She’s been spending so much of her free time with Asim, it feels like she hasn’t seen Frankie in weeks. Realistically, it’s only been a few days, but that’s longer than they normally go without spending time together, and they’re both feeling it.

Frankie wraps her up in a bear hug the moment they see her, and Everly clings to the familiar comfort of her friend. They smell like the coffee shop, warm and homey with a hint of bitterness from the fresh beans they grind each day. Pulling back, Frankie eyes her up and down, then grins one of those big, mischievous grins.

“Spill it, girl.” Never one to dance around a topic, that’s for sure.

Everly is already smiling back, and Frankie’s eyes get bigger when they see the obvious joy on her face.

“Uh, yeah. I am here for whatever this is.” Frankie swirls their hand around in front of Everly’s face, demanding answers to all their unasked questions.

Everly relents, no longer wanting to keep her feelings a fragile secret, giving in to the excited happiness filling her voice as she tells them about her time with Asim. It must be infectious, because Frankie hasn’t stopped smiling either. Everly gushes about the kiss, of course, and all the little touches, and how desperate she feels for more. Somehow, things are moving too fast and too slow at the same time. Her feelings have skyrocketed, and she’s been avoiding fully acknowledging them. They’re quickly bubbling up to the surface though, and she knows it’s only a matter of time until she’s forced to face the full brunt of her emotions.

“I have to meet him, for real," Frankie says. “I’m your only friend—”

“Hey!” Everly interrupts, but Frankie keeps going, barreling right over her.

“—and anyone who makes you this freaking happy deserves some free coffee or a high five orsomething.” They almost sound exasperated, as though making Everly happy is difficult to achieve.

“What does being my only friend have anything to do with it?” Everly is trying not to pout, because while true, she doesn’t see how it’s relevant to the conversation. Her grumpy face is definitely about to make an appearance.

“Anyone who is important to you is important to me," Frankie says this like it should be obvious, with a silentduhat the end. “You’ve only got me in your corner right now, so it falls to me to vet and welcome anyone else who wants to join me over here on Team Everly.”

Everly’s eyes start to feel glassy and she blinks to clear them, pulling Frankie into a fierce hug again. What a rollercoaster of emotions she’s going through today. It almost feels safer to just stick to her realm of anxiety.

“You’re the best. I think you’ll like him, he’s so nice and chill and knowledgeable about everything. Plus, he has thecutestdog.”

Frankie perks up at that. “Dog? Do you have a picture?”

“No, I should though. His name is Moose and he’s thisreally sweet mutt, he looks like a black lab mix, and just such a lover. This one time, all I did was look at him and his tail started wagging. It was so cute, and he’s obsessed with Asim, not that I blame him. Oh my gosh, and the way Asim plays with him and talks to him…” Everly restrains herself from rambling about Asim again. “I do have to keep stopping myself from freaking out though whenever I think about how perfect he is.”

One minute she stresses because he seems too perfect, and the next she’s feeling overjoyed at how perfect he is. Her brain can’t decide which to land on, so for now it seems both are equally true.

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