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Ruby frowned. "What's Hollywood Spreadsheet Bingo?"

Angelica sighed with well-earned weariness. Her career had become a running joke among her closest friends. "It's when Code Drakos puts you and seven other high-profile types on a spreadsheet, and schedules you to either hook-up or break-up according to the calendar, and don’t forget the make-ups and the fake brawls.”

“Huh?"

“There were eight of us who got so sick of the paparazzi invading our lives and making up shit about us all the time, and not being able to live ordinary lives, that Code got the idea of all of us pretending to get-together and/or break-up at different times, just to keep the paparazzi off the scent of our real lives. There’s an actual calendar that he’s made up, that we all follow. It’s been working like a dream. I pop up in places like Hollywood, Manhattan, Cannes, or Aspen with one of the guys on the list every so often, get everybody following that trail, and then I can come here and kick back.”

“That’s brilliant,” Ruby breathed.

“That’s my cousin.” Angelica lifted her latte in salute. “He’s brilliant.”

"When's the last time you went on a real date?" I asked.

"That's not the topic we're discussing."

"It could be."

"The topic," Angelica said firmly, "is how Adam Beckett is in bed, and you are going to tell us something."

"I'm going to tell you nothing." I stood up, picked up my latte. "And Ruby, after this level of harassment, you're comping my next three lattes." I pointed at her. "Don't think I won't remember."

Ruby waved a hand. "Already done. Go be disgustingly happy, it's good for business. People tip better when there's romance in the room."

I was still smiling when I pushed out the door into the cool morning air.

I called Adam before I'd made it half a block.

He picked up on the second ring, and just the sound of his voice saying my name rearranged something in my chest.

"Hi," I said.

"Hi yourself." I could hear the smile in it. "How's your morning?"

"Ruby and Angelica just spent fifteen minutes trying to get me to discuss our sex life."

A pause. "How'd that go?"

"I maintained my dignity. Mostly."

He laughed, low and easy, and I felt it all the way down to my toes.

He told me about James's morning, which had involved a detailed argument about whether a Triceratops could defeat an Ankylosaurus in a fair fight. I told him about Ruby’s look of incredulity when Angelica explained Hollywood Spreadsheet Bingo.

"James wants to know when there's going to be another sleepover," Adam said.

"Tell James not until I've practiced enough to beat him at Mario Kart."

"That could take years."

"Then he should've gone easier on me."

Adam laughed again. I was collecting the sound of it. I didn't examine that too closely.

We said goodbye at the corner of Main and Elm, and I walked the last block to Gathered feeling like the morning was doing me a personal favor.

I was in the process of unlocking the door, when a woman walked up beside me. It was a woman I recognized by face without being able to immediately place the name—mid-sixties, bright eyes, the kind of careful-nice clothes that said she'd gotten dressed with intention this morning.

"I was hoping if I got here early, I’d be able to see you," she said.