Page 112 of One Touch

“Don’t sweat it,” I said. “I’m on your side. Anyway, I scared him off.”

“After you told him about us?”

“Like I said, it just came out.”

“How?” She sucked her milkshake up through her straw with the most innocent expression imaginable. “How did it come up?”

“He was talking shit about you. I wasn’t having it.”

Her face crumpled slightly. “What was he saying?”

I gritted my teeth. “Just shitty, angry, hurt-feelingsy stuff.”

“You can tell me.”

“I think he was jealous of your book boyfriends.”

She let out an amused snort. “Well, I guess you and him have that in common.”

“I was only joking around. I think he was serious. He was trying to say that he was worried you were going to cheat on him, so he made you have an open relationship. Talk about delusional.” I shook my head. “I think he sees you as some kind of relationship addict, always going from one guy to the next in pursuit of perfection.”

Lily laughed. “That kind of is me.”

“Really?”

She thought for a moment. “Yes and no. I mean, I only did that because all the guys I dated were so shitty. I convinced myself for five minutes they were Mr. Right and each and every time, they revealed themselves to be Mr. Wrong. I guess I’m not a good judge of character.”

I was a little surprised by her answer. Had she convinced herself that I was Mr. Right, when in fact, as Vlad had made so abundantly clear to me, I was Mr. Wrong? After all, I was no fantasy man. Just a boring, middle-aged dad with a kid and a garage to run.

“Feels a bit weird that he knows about us before Ava does,” Lily said, looking over at Ava, who was currently making Pac-Man eat his way through a maze of dots with the intense concentration only an 8-year-old battling digital ghosts could muster.

“Yeah. It sucks,” I said. “About that, I’ve been thinking—”

“There’s actually something I need to tell you.”

“Oh?”

Lily took a deep breath as if steeling herself. “I’m going to have a video interview. With that literary agency in New York. Remember the one I told you about?”

My blood ran cold. Was she actually going to leave?

“I remember.”

“It would be working with my friend Mary-Beth, which would be great. And the salary is . . . better than good.”

I couldn’t believe it. She was being so casual about it, too.

“So, you’re moving to New York?” I managed, my voice sounding strained even to my own ears.

Her eyes widened. “Oh my goodness, no! Although I totally get why you thought that. No, not at all.” Lily shook her head vehemently. “It would mostly be remote work. I’d only need to pop into the city occasionally to check in. Like, one or two days a month, maybe. There might be more to begin with until I was up and running, but it would die down.”

Slowly, I nodded. “Okay. If . . . if this is what you want, then I support you. One hundred percent.”

“Thank you. It doesn’t change anything between us.”

“I hope it doesn’t.” I looked around at Ava, then when I saw she was still engrossed in the arcade game, I reached out my hand. “Just taking my chance to have a non-sexual touch.”

Lily glanced over at Ida, who was busy wiping a table with her back to us. “Of course,” she said slowly, “we both know that our arrangement isn’t forever, so at some point I might move away.”

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