takes in my words, and she throws back the entire drink, eyeing up Ben. “On it.”
I walk back to Vada, and we watch Ben’s face flame behind his beard as Kami holds out a hand. He passes her his phone with zero hesitation, and she types in her number with a gooey smile before hopping off her stool and strutting away. Ben watches her before reaching for his phone and asking us for a minute away.
Vada waves him off, her lips twitching, as Kami’s friend Liz walks back in. She pulls a twenty out of her wallet and holds it up in front of me.
“This is for you. Thank you. Finally! Now maybe I can stop sitting here every Sunday afternoon while they lust.”
I accept it with a sheepish grin. “Glad to help.”
Liz leaves, and I pocket my bill before settling back against the chest. Vada shakes her head. “You are full of surprises, Greenly.”
“Hey, you dreamed up the thing. I just moved it along.”
“We make a decent team,” she says, nudging my shoulder.
I bite down on the inside of my cheek to keep from grinning. I want to say something smooth like, “We should team up more often. Like, on Friday night. On a date. Where we make out.” But then I remember I’m not smooth, and what if I am reading this all wrong and she meant team only as a super-platonic team metaphor and then I’ll feel like an idiot, so instead I say, “I guess we do.”
“Speaking of, I heard you might be coming to class to observe us dancing again this week for the showcase.” Vada frowns, wrinkling up her nose so her freckles scrunch together.
“We are. But if you’d rather I not come, I don’t have to. I have plenty of material.”
“Material?” she asks lightly, her freckles spreading.
“You know what I mean.”
She nods. “It’s not that I don’t want you to watch, obviously, but dance class is sort of sacred to me. It’s where I go to work out my issues.”
“Fair.”
“Are you sure?” she checks.
“Absolutely.”
“I like you, Luke.”
I bite my tongue, chasing away a thousand responses before settling on a casual, “Likewise, Vada.”
14
VADA
LUKE
YouTube: Nirvana “Heart-Shaped Box”
VADA
Ugh. We’re fighting.
LUKE
What? Why? You can’t censor me.
VADA
Kurt Cobain? Really? Where’s the creativity?
LUKE
Oh, so sending a link for a song that’s over twenty-five years old is “lacking creativity”?
VADA
Nirvana is the pits, man. (With the exception of David Grohl, OBVIOUSLY.)
LUKE
Cobain was the pits. Nirvana holds up.
VADA
YouTube: Pearl Jam “Better Man”
LUKE
Pearl Jam is just as old and grungy, Vada.
VADA
Yet Eddie Vedder is still kicking it.
LUKE
Ah. So, that’s your issue.
VADA
Maybe.
LUKE
Interesting.
VADA
I can feel you psychoanalyzing me from across the room, Greenly.
LUKE
So, sit still, ffs. When you move around, you mess with my brain wave-reader.
VADA
Hilarious.
LUKE
Gotta go. Michigan leading at halftime means a whole lot of “shots all around” are about to happen.
VADA
YouTube: Bastille “World Gone Mad”
LUKE
…
LUKE
…
LUKE
Well played.
* * *
One of the very best perks of my job is when Phil is all, “Hey Vada, there’s this new band named (Not) Warren coming to town, and you need to check them out,” and he sends me for free.
And I get to write about it as if anyone cares what I think.
But according to the Behind the Music stats, a few thousand people do care. It’s mind-blowing.
Tonight, he sent Luke with me. I’m very, very chill about this, obviously. I had kind of hoped by working with Luke, and, by default, texting him, I would decide he was weird. That happens, you know? Like, you could low-key crush on a guy from afar because he has a hot accent and ruddy cheeks, but you get to know him and he doesn’t even know who the Smiths are or hasn’t heard of Amy Shark and then, magically, you couldn’t care less about how he looks like Christmas morning after carrying in a box of limes from the shed out behind the bar you both work at.
But Luke does know who the Smiths are and even sent me a link to “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want” the other night, causing me to swoon on the spot, startling Meg, who afterward kept checking me for a fever.
And he’s so damn likable. Ridiculously considerate and smart and always humming under his breath and, well, the Christmas cheeks thing and … I’m sunk.
(I haven’t asked him about Amy Shark. He’s probably president of her fan club, and I’d have to straight-up propose to him, and we’re too young for that nonsense.) (Also, college.)
So, here we are. So