By the way, did you like having your wrists pinned above your head in the elevator?
Arden: I think you know the answer to that.
Gabe: I think I do. And I hope you know the answer to the corollary.
Arden: The corollary being whether you liked it?
Gabe: Yes.
Arden: I do know the answer. You liked it.
Gabe: No, I fucking loved it.
Arden: Me too.
I form another word, using the S in wrist.
Gabe: STRIP.
Arden: Are you trying to tell me something?
Gabe: I believe I am.
Yep. I’m not following my dad’s advice at all. I’m not being friendly in the least. But then again, I want her to see me as more than a friend. And she’s clearly playing along.
She takes her turn, playing off the T in STRIP.
Arden: TEA.
As I stare at her letters, another note from her pops up.
Arden: I don’t have an S or an E. But I think you get my meaning. The word I want to form is TEASE.
Gabe: I do get your meaning. And I like your meaning. Are you still game for it?
Arden: Yes, and I promised you dinner and coconut bars.
I want the dinner, I want the coconut bars, I want the apron, I want the striptease, and I want her. All of her. At the end of her research project, I don’t want to be in the friend zone anymore. I want to be in the everything zone, and perhaps I’ll find my way there when her clothes come off.
Gabe: Name the time and place, and what I can bring to the dinner.
Arden: Are you off tomorrow night?
Gabe: Till midnight. Graveyard shift calls my name.
Arden: Can you be here at seven?
Gabe: What should I bring?
Arden: You.
It’s only a text. I can’t read any emotion into it. But I swear the way she writes that one word lights a fire inside me.
30
Arden
Vanessa implores me with Puss-in-Boots eyes as we stand outside Happy Days. “Promise me something, Arden.”
“What is it?”
She grabs my hands, grips my fingers tight. “Whatever I say in there, whatever I do, don’t let me buy anything.”
Laughing, I answer, “I promise.”
She issues a command. “Solemnly swear.”
Letting go of hers, I raise my right hand. “I swear I will hold you back, just as I swear the book is always better than the movie, no matter what.”
“Bless you. You’re a true friend.” She swings open the door to her favorite vintage shop in neighboring Hope Falls, where we’ve slipped away for a quick lunchtime shopping break. “This store has the best stuff. I snagged this dress last week on sale.” She sways her hips, showing off the white swing dress with its peach pattern. The ensemble is capped with sparkly orange shoes.
“Wherever did you get those there’s-no-place-like-home heels?”
“They’re my if-the-Wicked-Witch-of-the-East-liked-orange-instead-of-red ruby slippers.” She gestures to the heels. “Also, I found them online after an hour of bargain hunting for incredible shoes.”
That’s her favorite pastime, and she excels at it.
We head into the shop, and I’m swimming in a sea of retro style. Tea-length dresses, flouncy skirts, twinsets, and so many patterns: light-blue dresses bursting with cherry designs; rockabilly skirts made of pink-and-white gingham; and blouses with flamingo designs, checked prints, and embroidered pineapples.
“Gah, I want it all,” Vanessa whispers, making grabby hands at the clothing treasures.
I clasp her wrists. “Shhh. It’s going to be okay. We mustn’t let you short circuit.”
She wriggles away, her arms shooting out robotically as she walks, trance-like, to a mint-green dress with a typewriter-key pattern across the bodice. Next to it is a skirt with cartoonish images of books on it.
I yank her over to me, spinning her around. “You made me promise to make you resist.”
“Resistance is futile. I can’t do it.” She throws one hand on her forehead as if she’s fainting.
I relent, since I know the trick to keeping her on track. “Fine, get the dress.”
She snaps me a look. “You’re an enabler.”
I gesture to my face. “Then enable me instead.”
She nods crisply, snapping out of it, refocusing on her shopping mission. “You’re right. I’m a personal shopper today,” she says, as if it’s a mantra she needs to remind herself of. Mission accomplished. “Do you want that green skirt?”
I laugh. “It’s adorable, but today we are here for an apron.”
“Right. Let me find you a sexy apron, then.”
We head to a rack near the dressing rooms, where Vanessa sorts through short aprons and cute aprons and boob-boosting aprons.
I touch a satiny red one then the air, making a sizzling sound. “Hot damn.”
“Aprons are the new lingerie.”
“You’re telling