Page 58 of Talk Birdie to Me

Cody chuckled. “Well, at least I don’t feel like an idiot for not discovering an easy fix.”

“Oh no,” Geena said. “It’s a cute trick, but it doesn’t fix anything.”

He watched as she put a couple of blackberries in Gary’s bowl and shut the cage door behind him. She was moving with such confidence now after only caring for the bird for a few days.

And it became harder with every moment to deny he was truly beginning to care for her in that brief amount of time.

She brushed her short blonde hair away from her face and returned his curious stare. “What?”

“Nothing,” he said. “Just noticing how comfortable you are with him now. It’s only been… what? Five days?”

“Since Friday. So, yeah. Five days.”

“That’s pretty impressive.”

Geena shrugged. “He’s easier than I thought he would be. The fact that he’s well-trained already is a big help. At least with the messy and pesky stuff. The language doesn’t bother me.”

“I was worried it would.”

“That his vocabulary would bother me? Why?”

“I don’t know. At first, you seemed…” Cody thought of how to put this in a way that didn’t make him sound like a jerk. “You seemed like you like order in your universe.”

Thankfully, she didn’t look offended by that.

“I do like order,” she said. “But a few crass words aren’t disorderly. In fact, everything else about him is pretty darn orderly.”

Cody watched Gary gobble up the blackberries and pick at the rest of his food, hoping to find more treats hidden in there.

She was right, he supposed. The bird was fairly predictable, aside from his swearing vice. His tricks and habits did make it easy to adapt to him. But there was more to this situation.

Geena had seemed terrified of Gary at first, but within only a few days, it was as if Gary had been living with her instead of a convict for the past several years. And not just because Gary had grown comfortable with her. It was her unexpected comfort and confidence with him that was surprising.

Or maybe it shouldn’t surprise him.

She seemed like she could take charge of any situation she wanted to. He got the sense that nothing outside of him randomly showing up in the middle of the night with a parrot could fluster her.

Except maybe her divorce.

From the little he knew about it, he could sense the whole thing kind of unnerved her. Or maybe it was just the human on the other end of it that threw her off her game. Which made him want to have a lengthy chat with the man who had that effect on her.

His phone buzzed in his back pocket, and he checked if it was something important.

It wasn’t.

“Got a hot date tonight?” Geena’s tone was teasing, but she quickly deflated in horror at her own statement. “I’m sorry. Once again, that’s none of my business.”

Cody studied her face for a moment, trying to determine if she was just upset with her impulsive question or if she was maybe upset with the idea of him having a date.

“It’s fine,” he insisted. “And yeah, it’s someone I dated before, but not someone I’m dating now.”

Geena’s expression deflated even more. “Sorry. Is it Karen? No, wait.. Kayleigh? Crap, that’s really none of my business. Pretend I didn’t say anything.”

“It’s fine, I swear,” he said with a small laugh. Then he decided they’d spent enough time together to reveal a little more about himself. “And it’s a guy, actually.”

“A friend?” Then, as her brain caught up with her mouth, her eyes widened. “Oh. Ohhhh. A guy you dated.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I’m pansexual.”

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