Page 27 of Challenge Me

“Gate’s that way.”

“Right.” I stayed beside him this time but put a couple feet between us.

It was significantly louder on this side, with families piled in seating areas and people watching videos on their phones without headphones. Failure to use headphones in a public space was the most heinous crime, which should be punishable by death. Fly them over shark-infested waters, slash behind both of their knees, then give them a nudge. The screeching that came from someone’s phone as we passed affirmed my opinion. It might not even be harsh enough.

“You a coffee guy?” Amir asked, bringing me back to a less homicidal existence.

“Coffee comes from the gods.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, dumb question. Who doesn’t like coffee?”

“Oli doesn’t, but he’s the ideal version of humanity, untouchable by the claws of vice.”

“Who’s Oli?” he asked as he joined a line at Starbucks. Not my first pick, but they had a monopoly in places like this.

“My best friend. Is Travis McKinney yours?”

“No. We know each other from games, and since the World Series we’ve gotten closer, but I’d say we’re casual friends.”

“Who would you call your favorite person to be around? The one you’d die for? No, scratch that,” I said before he could respond. “Dying is easy. Who’s the one you would kill for? Like, if they called and asked you to help them clean up a pool of blood but told you not to ask any questions, who would you show up for?”

The old lady in front of us looked at me over her shoulder. I offered her a sweet smile until she turned her nosey ass back around.

“I don’t know,” Amir replied.

“Come on. There’s gotta be somebody.”

“A few years ago, I would’ve said Avery.” He looked around the coffee shop impassively.

“The ex-wife?” He nodded. “Sounds like a shitty deal, losing a wife and a friend all at once.”

“It happens.”

“What about—” I snapped my fingers a few times while I tried to think. “Mallory?”

“What’d you do, Google me?”

“Of course.”

“Right, well, I don’t want to talk about my daughter with you. Let’s just take that off the table.”

“What about if Clara or some other person with a camera has questions? If I don’t know anything about your spawn, they’ll be suspicious.”

“If I was dating you for real, I wouldn’t introduce you to her unless it was serious, so it’s not unbelievable.”

I stuck my lip out. “I don’t get to meet her?”

“Never.”

After we ordered, we moved on. There was a half hour before our plane would board, so we grabbed some seats by the window. I watched the planes entering and leaving the tarmac. Amir reached into his backpack and pulled out his notecards again.

“How long have you been in New Haven?” he asked with his gaze on the cards.

“Six months.”

“Where’d you move from?”

Narrowing my eyes, I leaned closer to peer at the cards. He didn’t try as hard to keep me back, so I got a good view of all the question marks on it. It struck something in me, lighting a flame deep in my gut.