Page 12 of Talk Birdie to Me

Her phone buzzed beside her. She looked down to find a text from Taylor.

Heading home. You sure you don’t want to meet me and Austin for dinner?

Geena smiled at the invitation. Taylor was relentless. She had to give her sister that. The whole way back to the shelter, Taylor had peppered her with questions, digging for more information about Geena and Cody’s date.

Geena couldn’t have known the two of them had been friends in school. Actually, she could have known if she’d paid any attention to her little sister’s life back then. But she’d had her own packed life to deal with, and they’d never been particularly close. Not until the last few months.

The biggest surprise about her impending divorce was the realization of how much space Ricky had taken up in her life. Now that he was gone, she was reacquainting herself more with the things and people she’d grown apart from.

As different as they were, Geena had to admit she’d been enjoying her time with Taylor. Geena had always been annoyed by her sister when they were growing up. Taylor’s positivity was a sharp clash to Geena’s realistic nature. But working together at the shelter every weekend highlighted how good a team they made because of those differences.

Geena was even enjoying her photography subjects. She’d never been much of an animal person, but when she could play with them and leave the cleaning to someone else, she actually enjoyed hanging out with the cats and dogs at the shelter.

In the past, she’d mostly done more artistic or candid photography, long before Ricky had taken over her life, calling the hobby a frivolous waste of her time. But taking photos for the shelter had turned out to be immensely rewarding. The first time someone fell in love with an animal based on one of her photos—a particularly photogenic lab mix—Geena was hooked.

Nope. Rain check. Will edit the photos from today and send to Liz. Tell Austin I said hi.

Any other week, Geena might have been tempted to take her sister up on the offer. But she would see them both next weekend for her parents’ anniversary dinner. She was never sure why they insisted on having everyone over for their anniversary, but somewhere along the line, it became a thing. Their dad would grill in his outdoor kitchen and chat with their significant others, while their mom grilled them about their lives.

At least Geena had something interesting to talk about that wasn’t Ricky or her job. Her parents were proud of her, but accounting wasn’t exactly riveting dinner conversation. And Ricky, as a topic, was even more dull.

Geena was enjoying her time at the shelter on the weekends, and everyone liked to hear pet adoption anecdotes and stories of unruly photo subjects. Even if she didn’t know how long this volunteer gig would last, she was appreciating the joy it brought to her weekly routine.

Her sister sent one more text.

We still need to talk about Cody…

While she wasn’t entirely sure where her future was leading post-divorce, Geena was certain of one thing. She never would have gone out with Cody if she’d known who he was.

Dating her sister’s friend? Kind of cliché.

Plus, the guy was a mess. Literally and figuratively. Geena was soon-to-be-divorced, not desperate.

Although… she had to admit he was nice to look at in those zookeeper shorts.

Zookeeper shorts?

That was what turned her on these days?

Sheesh. Time to accept things were worse off than she’d realized.

She put her wineglass on the coffee table and grabbed her laptop. After connecting her camera and transferring the photos she’d taken earlier that day, she began narrowing down the best ones.

Geena laughed at the kitten in his lion pose. This one was a keeper.

After a bit of editing, she emailed the photos to Liz. Then she went back to the folder containing today’s batch of images and opened the first of the bird.

Gary the Grey popped up on her screen in all his puffed-up glory.

She smiled at the image, equally tickled with the bird’s stance as she had been with the kitten’s pose.

A quick look through the photos confirmed her previous suspicion that she’d need to do some editing to compensate for the crappy lighting in that room. But Gary was definitely a photogenic subject. Finding someone who could handle him would be difficult for the rescue, but they’d for sure get engagement on his posts.

Her phone dinged again, and it wasn’t Taylor this time. It was Ricky, responding to a question she’d sent two days ago.

Will send those as soon as I get to them.

Ugh.

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