Page 87 of Derivation

“Please tell me that’s not something you’ve experienced yourself.”

“Thankfully, no. We didn’t get caught,” she joked.

“What? Gabi!”

“I’m kidding. I’ve never had sex in a car. Is it something I’m missing? I always thought it would be awkward and uncomfortable and not likely to be any good.”

“It’s not great, no,” Sarai said.

“Wait. You…”

“Once. College. We both had roommates who seemed to never leave the room. It wasn’t good. Legs went places. Arms were kind of everywhere. I think she faked it. I didn’t even bother pretending that she’d made me… well, you know. We basically gave up, went back to my room, and she went down on me with my roommate right under us on the bunk beds.”

“Checking car sex off my bucket list. Got it.”

“I don’t know. Maybe you’ll have better luck than I did.”

“So, you want me to go find someone to have car sex with?”

“What? No!” Sarai said loudly.

Gabi laughed. Then, she remembered that they were sitting on a swing, so she pressed her feet down into the ground and pushed them off.

“Whoa,” Sarai said.

“You don’t ever swing on this thing, do you?”

“No. I just sit here. I kind of forgot that it does this.”

“You forgot that a swing… swings?”

“I don’t come out here for the swing.”

“Why do you come out here then?” she asked, continuing to use her feet to keep them swaying slowly.

“That,” Sarai replied, pointing.

Gabi followed her finger but wasn’t sure what she was pointing at.

“The tree?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Is there something special about that tree?”

“It wasn’t here when we first moved in.”

“No?”

“The landlord had just bought this place, and he wanted to redo the landscaping. The work went on for a few months when we got here, and one day, they planted this tree. I don’t know why, but coming out here and staring at it helps me sometimes. I’ve been watching it grow for years now. The limbs used to snap in heavy winds, but now, they hold bird nests, squirrels, and I saw an owl in there one time, too.”

“That’s nice,” Gabi said.

“At some point, I started to see its growth and not my own, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“It has a whole family of squirrels living there. Multiple birds have had nests there, too. It’s like its own apartment complex or something.”