register and draped herself over the back of Tammy’s chair, leaning in to look at her intently. “When did you get to the city?”
“Two weeks ago.” Tammy grinned. Her hesitance from earlier was long gone—if it had ever been there—and she seemed totally unfazed by all the attention focused on her. “Now here I am, surrounded by cool women working against Briggs. Should’ve run away years ago.”
There were more laughs around the table, but Becky didn’t join in.
“That was me a while back.” She slid into an empty chair next to Tammy. “Except I was running from small-town Utah. How are you holding up?”
“Not bad, thanks to Sharon and her family.” Tammy smiled again. She was talking about this as though it was nothing more than a funny story. When she’d told me what happened, she was in tears. What on earth was happening? “Her mom’s letting me crash, and I’m trying to save money while I figure out what to do next.”
“Are you in school?” Lisa frowned.
“I was. You should’ve seen my school down there. The textbooks are all thirty years old, but they get new Bibles every year. And we have to wear skirts that cover our knees, but the girls bring in straight pins and roll them up when the teachers aren’t looking.”
Everyone laughed again, and Tammy launched into the story of the pep rally she had to organize in support of Prop 6. She made that sound funny, too, doing an imitation of her uncle’s midprayer smoker’s cough that was so good, even I laughed.
This story had sounded entirely different—and entirely unfunny—when she’d written about it to me months ago. Having her here, physically here, was like getting to know her for the first time all over again.
By the time Evelyn disappeared into the back room and came out again with two six-packs, Tammy had already made plans to visit the SFAI darkroom with Alex so she could experiment with using photo paper in her collages, and traded running-away-from-conservative-family stories with both Becky and Lisa. When Evelyn finally shooed us all out so she could close up, Tammy and one of Lisa’s housemates were in the middle of an intense debate about whether Princess Leia qualified as a feminist, given that she was a princess who got rescued by a man.
As far as I could tell, Tammy might as well have been born in this bookstore.
I said goodbye to the others, but Tammy lingered to get Alex’s phone number so they could make darkroom plans. I stuffed my hands into my jacket pockets while I waited.
I shouldn’t have been surprised Tammy loved being there so much. I love it there, too. But the way she made instant friends with everyone…
I guess I was jealous. For so long, I’d thought of her as my friend. Now it was obvious everyone who met her liked her just as much as me.
It had even happened with Peter. He’d thanked me for helping Tammy. As if I’d done it for him.
“Thank God we’re out of there,” Tammy said when the others were finally out of earshot.
I turned, astonished. She met my gaze, and there was something different in her smile. A warm, crinkled note in her eyes that hadn’t been there when she smiled at the women in the bookstore.
“Oh, no, don’t get me wrong.” She brushed a chunk of thick blond hair out of her eyes. “Everyone was great, but that was kind of exhausting, you know? I kept thinking I had to be so cool all the time. I couldn’t relax for a second.”
I laughed, and the thick coil of tension in my chest loosened and floated off into the fog. “Come on, that wasn’t hard for you. You’re automatically cool.”
She laughed, too. “You’ve got to be kidding. You’re the one who fits in there perfectly. They treat you like part of the family.”
I blushed, turning away so she wouldn’t see, but she only laughed again. “You blush easily, don’t you?”
“Um.” I scratched my neck, blushing harder. “Yeah. Ever since I was a kid. It’s so embarrassing.”
“Don’t be embarrassed. It’s cool. You