Page 117 of The Perfect Love

Robbie snorts at that. “Oof. If I have to listen to love-drunk ramblings, I need coffee. Want any?”

“No thanks. I’m meeting up with the girls at the coffee place downtown after this.”

He stops halfway to the coffeemaker and smiles at me.

“What?”

“Nothing. Just happy for you. I like seeing you find your people.”

I smile too. Over the last few weeks, my friendship with the girls has only deepened. I spent more time with them at Rae and Aaron’s wedding. Including getting ready with the girls—and Rae and Sarah’s mom and other female family members. It was beautiful. The whole day was absolutely perfect, and I’ll remember dancing in Trevor’s arms like that forever.

I’ve also spent a little more time with the girls in smaller groups, including hanging out alone with Sarah and then with Mackie and Amanda, all while Rae was on her honeymoon. They all make it a point to include me in their lives and seek me out.Until I had friends doing that for me, I didn’t realize I’d been missing it before from my high school and college friends.

“I’m happy too.”

“Good.” He returns with his cup of coffee. “I know how important that is. That reminds me, I talked to Nadine today, and she’s planning something that might interest you.”

I perk up at that. Part of the reason Robbie moved here—and away from the family campground—is because he went to college here and found his tribe. We may be the closest people to each other, but he has the queeries—his group of besties, all of whom fall on the LGBTQIA spectrum and met as students at SUNY FL. They’re called the queeries because one of the guys in the group—who is now a full-time author—was querying a manuscript, and one night when a few of them were high, another person said, ‘Whoa. Queries sounds like queer-ies. Like us. We should totally call ourselves the queeries.’ And since they were high, it sounded like a brilliant idea. The rest of the group will never let them live it down and kept the name as a punishment for their ridiculousness. The whole group is all snarky and hilarious and give each other shit—a lot like Rae and everyone else in the hive mind.

Nadine is the hippie free spirit of the group, but she’s also a badass feminist and considers herself a witch.

“You have my attention. What did Nadine say?”

“She’s organizing a women’s festival. It’s part hippie stuff but mostly feminist driven and she’s looking for help with planning and organizing it all. I mentioned you might be interested.”

“Might be? Uh, that sounds amazing. Plus, Nadine is the perfect person to do something like that. She’s both brilliant and so out of the box that I’m sure it’ll be amazing. How do I sign up?”

He laughs at my bouncy puppy energy, but I’m so in. It sounds like the kind of festival Gran would have taken me to as a kid. Helping to plan it? I’m so in.

He grabs his phone and fires off a text. “There’s her number. Just send her a text and she’ll give you all the info.”

“Perfect. Thank you.”

“Nadine will be lucky to have you and all your feminist passion. If only she knew she was getting Gran’s energy wrapped in a spicy, slightly feral, bat-boy-loving package.” He gives me a shit-eating grin.

“Wow. Just rude to me like that?” I glare at him, then casually reach for the container in front of him, but he swats at my hand.

“You’re really pretty. That’s all I said.”

“Mhm. See if I ever bring you breakfast again.”

He makes a heart with his hands. “You’re the best.”

“Yeah, yeah. Eat up.”

But as he dives back into his breakfast sandwich with a happy groan, I can’t help but smile.

I finally feel like I’ve emerged from the darkness.

Who knew sunlight was kinda great?

The bell above the door chimes as I hurry inside Buzzing Brews and toward the table where the girls are sitting.

“Sorry I’m late.” I slide into the empty chair at the end of the table. “I got caught up talking with one of Robbie’s friends who’s organizing a women’s festival at the college camp in the spring.”

“Ooh, that sounds awesome,” Amanda says. “Are you helping plan it? Because that’s totally your jam. Love your shirt, by the way.”

I look down because I don’t even remember which one I put on this morning. It has silhouettes of women of all body shapes and sizes, and says,all bodies are beautiful.

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