Page 87 of Bad Words

“So,” said Jacob, the syllable loaded with suggestion, over the rim of his coffee mug.

“Jacob,” I said, warning.

“No! Details!” Cassie demanded, brandishing a yogurt-covered spoon at me. “How did this happen? What happened?”

“Look. I ran into Parker at Juliette Liao’s event right before Christmas. Juliette insisted on treating us to dinner afterward, which was extremely uncomfortable, but I mentioned an article to Parker about a book we both like, then followed up with a link afterward.” I folded my arms. “We exchanged a couple of emails, and I realized he was alone on New Year’s, which seemed sad. That’s the entire story.”

Cassie scoffed. “Well, you left the party together, so it’s not the entire story.”

“He walked me to the train, Cassie.”

She and Jacob exchanged a skeptical glance.

“What’s with the skeptical glance,” I said.

“Oh, nothing,” said Jacob, lifting Lyra onto his lap.

Cassie heaped raspberries into a bowl. “The skeptical glance, Selina, is because it was cool to see you talking with someone who could keep up with you. Like, he didn’t do the rabbit-in-the-headlights face.”

“No,” I admitted.

“And I’m guessing he didn’t do the thing you hate where people close off a topic by saying ‘Fair.’”

“No. Sure. After drinking half our weight in alcohol we were able to carry a conversation. Amazing.”

Jacob bounced Lyra gently on his knee. “So … how many emails is ‘a couple of emails’?”

“Like—I don’t know, maybe—”

Cassie laughed. “Oh my God. Dude. You are so full of shit. It wasn’t a couple of emails.”

“What?” I said, but now I could feel it: My face had flushed. “Fine! Okay. We sent a number of emails. Because he was stranded in the city, Cassie, and everybody besides me was with their families at Christmas.”

“Right, so that’s why he was emailing you, supposedly. Why were you emailing him?”

I made an irritated sound and looked out the window, but Cassie wasn’t the one I was annoyed with.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “He thinks I’m a terrible person, remember?”

“Didn’t seem like it. Seemed like he was hanging on to everything you said.”

I flicked my hand. “He’s an author. Authors do outrageous things in the name of having experiences to repurpose later. They’re like magpies. Or weird neurotic squirrels. Anyway, since New Year’s, we’ve stopped speaking, which is exactly what I expected.”

Cassie sat beside Jacob and set the raspberries and yogurt in the center of the table, looking unconvinced. “What do you mean, ‘stopped speaking’?”

“I mean we—” I cast a despairing look upward. This was going to sound so adolescent. “I mean, Cassie, that I texted him, and he didn’t text me back.”

“Oh, so you’re texting now! Like normal people! Not just emailing!”

“I have literally just told you that we aren’t texting.”

She stuck out her hand. “Give me the phone.”

Jacob finally broke. “Yeah, okay, I’ve got to see this.”

My face burning, I opened our conversation and shoved my phone into Cassie’s hand. “There. Enjoy.”

Jacob, grinning, craned his neck to see the screen as Cassie muttered the messages aloud. “Offensive messages, our entire thing … Selina.”