Page 71 of Talk Birdie to Me

“Everything outside of work all right?”

“Yeah.”

That was mostly the truth. The rest of the truth wasn’t something she wanted to get into that afternoon.

Especially not that text she’d gotten an hour ago.

“You sure?” James asked. “You’ve been kind of weird lately.”

“Weird?”

“Yeah. I mean, not in a bad way. Just lost, I guess. In your head a lot. Is the divorce still a mess?”

The divorce. Geena wished it was as simple as that. That would be easy to focus her frustration on.

Instead, she was thinking about someone she most definitely should not be thinking about. And the invitation he’d sent.

A date.

Sunday.

A real one.

“Yes and no,” she said. “It’s still a mess, and he’s still a jerk dragging his feet on paperwork. But I’m not wasting my thoughts on him these days.”

And that was the whole truth on that topic. Despite the run-in with him last week, she’d been thinking more about her dinner companion that evening than her ex.

Ricky had called again last night to let her know he’d submitted his retirement account and benefits statements to the mediator, so she should stop emailing him about it.

He’d heard Gary in the background again and grilled Geena about why she suddenly had a bird. Ricky even recognized something Gary said and asked her who she’d gotten the bird from. Geena figured Ricky must have heard him before on a call with Gary’s previous owner.

But that conversation had slipped from her mind until just now. It was getting easier every day to forget that man existed.

Not so much for a certain zookeeper who had surprisingly turned out to be a pleasant dinner pal.

A pal who wanted to give her a zoo tour that weekend.

A pal who wanted that tour to be a date.

It was the zoo. She couldn’t believe she was even considering it. Surely, with all this rain, the smells would be worse than normal.

But with only brief consideration, she’d texted back that a zoo tour sounded nice.

That a date with him sounded nice.

“So, where’s your mind?”

Geena blinked away thoughts of Cody and returned her attention to her conversation with James.

“A parrot,” she said. “Anthony’s parrot. The one with the naughty vocabulary I told you about. The zoo couldn’t keep him with the other birds, so my sister and the other shelter workers are looking for a permanent home for him. Surprisingly, he’s kind of growing on me.”

“Oh, right. I completely forgot you have Tony’s bird.” James laughed again, a little longer this time. “I’ve heard enough of that thing in action on the phone to know you’ve got your hands full.”

Geena took a small sip from her mug and decided it was cool enough to drink.

“He’s not too bad,” she said. “Smart and well-trained. He’s a better roommate than Ricky ever was.”

“I’ll bet.” James brushed the crumbs from his hands and packed up his lunch bag. “Watch out. You’ll get attached to that thing.”

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