Page 38 of Talk Birdie to Me

“It was a blind date.”

That was only a tiny lie. A fudging of the truth. A smidge off-center.

“It was not,” Taylor said. “They hooked up on an app.”

Their mother’s eyes widened, and her father screeched the carving knife across the tray.

“Could you not say hooked up?” Geena sighed. “It wasn’t one of those apps.”

“Okay, fine.” Taylor took a swig of seltzer, stalling to redraft her argument. “You picked each other on the app. Based on photos and messages. That is not a blind date.”

Technically, no. But couldn’t her sister for once let Geena off the hook?

“It doesn’t matter,” Geena said. “We weren’t a match in the real world, so that was the end of it.”

“Obviously, it wasn’t if you saw him again.” Their mother took a sip of her Shiraz. Geena and Taylor had both gotten that stalling tactic from her. “What does he do?”

“He’s a zookeeper.”

Her mother looked appalled. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m very serious. That’s why he brought Gary.”

“I don’t think that fully explains the bird,” their dad said, returning to carving the brisket.

“They couldn’t keep it at the zoo,” Taylor said. “And since we don’t have enough fosters lined up yet and I’ve got Tink, we asked Geena to hang on to it until we can find someone else to foster or adopt him.”

“And you’re okay with this arrangement?” Their mother eyed Geena with suspicion. “There must be something with this zookeeper if you’re willing to take in a whole parrot for him.”

“There’s nothing with the zookeeper,” Geena insisted.

Was there?

There hadn’t been at first, but now she wasn’t so sure. He’d been patient while he taught her how to care for Gary. And he’d been very considerate when he brought her pizza.

Her favorite pizza.

Of course, he hadn’t known it was her favorite, but surely there was some sort of intuition involved. Geena didn’t believe in connections in the universe and any of that woo-woo stuff, but she didn’t entirely believe in coincidences either. Coincidences happened, sure, but often there was some connecting piece of data that just wasn’t visible yet.

What was that data?

Her mind went to his calves in those khaki shorts, and she smiled against her own best interest.

No. Calves weren’t a data point.

Besides, intuition or coincidence didn’t matter. Cody had made it very clear he had no interest in anything long-term. She didn’t really have any interest in jumping into another serious relationship either, but then what would be the point of dating if it wouldn’t go anywhere?

She should never have agreed to sign up on that app in the first place, much less accepted a date request.

“So this zookeeper just showed up with a bird one day?” Her mother waved her wineglass in the air in confusion. “Why couldn’t the zoo keep it?”

“His name is Cody,” Geena said.

“The bird is named Cody?” her father asked over his shoulder.

“No, the bird is named Gary. Gary the Grey. The zookeeper is Cody.”

Her mother took another sip. Stalling once again to craft her argument. “If you aren’t dating this Cody the zoo guy, why should we learn his name?”

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