Page 19 of Finally Loved

“Indeed.” Alba sniffed. She slightly resented the fact that she wanted to talk about her smoothie, but, instead, they were stuck doing this.

As if this wasn’t her fault in the first place.

It took another long moment before Zainab lunged back in again. “Say, Alba?”

“Yes, Zainab?” Alba said again, this time tinged with a little more bitterness.

Zainab breathed a laugh. “Did Neve tell you about this place?”

Alba quirked her brows. She might not be winning the war, but this mini battle was hers. “She did not.”

The only sign that Zainab was surprised by the answer was the slight narrowing of her eyes. She really had expected that to be the end of it.

She sipped her coffee for a few minutes, considering. The whole while, Alba sat taller, sipping her smoothie and reveling in not being quite as predictable as Zainab imagined her to be. They’d known each other a long time, it was important to keep her on her toes sometimes.

Their food arrived and, as they unwrapped their cutlery from inside the napkins, all of the smugness Alba was feeling drained away at the look on Zainab’s face.

She sighed heavily, watching Alba across the table.

Alba put her cutlery down. She’d already been unable to talk about her smoothie, she had no interest in tasting her food and not being able to talk about it immediately, but, without the answers she was looking for, Zainab wouldn’t allow a change of subject, even one that wasn’t specifically designed to escape from their current conversation.

Alba would have been glad of the escape.

“Neve lives here,” Zainab said.

Alba shot her a look. “This is a café. I don’t think anyone lives here.”

Zainab scowled, sighing exaggeratedly. “Fine.”

The tone told Alba she’d actually irritated her friend, but it wasn’t the first time and it wouldn’t be the last. That was justhow they both were. They’d talked about it before, back in the earlier days of their friendship, and decided they liked it that way. Sometimes, the people closest to you annoyed you. That was a fact. What often hurt people, but didn’t need to for the two of them, was allowing the expression of all of their emotions. It wouldn’t work for everyone, but, for the two of them, they had no issue annoying the other, sharing their annoyance, and also, sometimes, purposefully winding each other up. That was also friendship, after all.

Maybe something more than friendship, something more like being siblings, but, either way, it worked for them and they had no plan to change it. Thus, while Zainab was annoyed with her, they both knew it wouldn’t last long, and was really just a passing annoyance at Alba’s unwillingness to provide a simple answer about Neve.

It was just more fun this way.

Zainab ate some of her food with deliberation before starting again. “You ran into someone who had just been dumped, drove them home, spotted this café while doing so, and thought it was a good idea to come loiter here in the hopes you’d run into her? And you decided to drag me along like some weird accomplice?”

“I believe if you aren’t in the know about a crime, they can’t really charge you as an accomplice,” Alba said lightly, not actually sure that was how it worked.

Zainab rolled her eyes. “You don’t think this whole thing is a little excessive? How many times have you been here this week?”

“Oh, this is the first,” Alba said, her eyes wide and honest.

After a moment of waiting to see if the sincerity dropped, Zainab relaxed, seeming to believe Alba. “Well, at least that, I suppose.” She shook her head. “But, really, don’t you think this whole thing is a little creepy?”

Alba laughed, the sound a little awkward. “I mean, maybe. A little bit.” Her insides squirmed in a way that indicated she felt more than a little uncomfortable with the whole thing. Maybe if they hadn’t actually run into Neve, it would be fine. But they had. And it was… odd. “I didn’tknowshe was going to be here.”

“Thank goodness for that. If you had, I’d be calling a doctor to come check you out.”

“Or check me in,” Alba said, pushing desperately away from the awkwardness of actually having run into Neve. Semi-stalking someone for friendship, it turned out, wasn’t less weird than stalking them for romantic reasons.

It’s almost as if stalking was always weird and bad.Alba rolled her eyes at herself.

“Hilarious,” Zainab said, knowing none of it was a joke. She nodded at Alba’s plate. “You might as well eat your food since we are here and have ordered. It’s good.”

“Well, I wanted to talk about it, but I figured you wouldn’t let me while you still wanted to talk about Neve.”

She shook her head. “Eat now. Talk about Neve later.”

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