Page 79

Friends.

We said we would be just friends. I’m the one who said it.

By three-thirty we’ve been dispatched to a few more slow calls and I’m back to staring at the ceiling. Things have slowed back down again, so I pull out my phone and text the person I can’t get off my mind.

Luke

How was church?

She answers fast.

Olivia

Great! I met some of your friends.

Luke

My friends?

Olivia

Ya, in the life group.

Luke

Let me guess. Dottie walked you right up to it and told you it was the best one.

Olivia

She may have winked.

Luke

Of course she did. Subtlety has never been that woman’s strong suit.

That’s my favorite group of people, though. Genuinely. I’m not even mad she ambushed you into it.

Olivia

Well, they told me to make sure I bring you next time.

Apparently there’s no class next weekend, though. The church is doing some fall fest.

Luke

Oh yeah. Bo’s been counting down to that for weeks.

But the first Sunday I’m off, I’ll be right there in that room with you.

Olivia

Then I went to lunch with Dottie and Bo.

Oh and Dottie invited me to bingo on Thursday. you in?

I laugh out loud. Some of the men glance over. I ignore them.

Dottie has gone to that hall for thirty years and has never once invited a woman I’ve dated, mostly because I’ve never dated a woman long enough for the offer to come up, but also because Dottie does not hand out her Thursdays. And now she’s handing one to Olivia like it’s nothing.