Page 44 of Unlikely You

I was still skeptical.

Her behavior toward me at the marketplace wasn’t all that different, which I was grateful for. If she’d made a big deal out of everything, then everyone would have known. I did my best to limit my interactions with the other vendors to mostly polite nods and greetings, but there were always those certain people who just wanted us all to be coworkers or soldiers in the trenches together or comrades.

Most of the time I ignored them, but if they scented even a whiff of new gossip, they’d be up my ass and talking about me in voices that they thought weren’t loud but carried across the entire marketplace because of the high ceilings and concrete floors.

Something told me Honey wasn’t worried about that gossip, but that she didn’t want to give her family any ammunition, which was interesting. I’d caught her speaking to them in a hushed voice as they pretended not to be watching me and I pretended not to notice them watching me.

I’d caught her blushing a few times as well, which was so sweet that I had to bite my lips so I’d stop smiling.

Every now and then, though, when her family members were distracted, Honey would throw me a grin or a wink or an eye roll and my heart pulsed in my chest in a way that was both thrilling and disconcerting.

I couldn’t stop myself from smiling back at her.

She also sent me messages throughout the day. Sometimes they were questions likedo you think flowers have emotions?and sometimes they were silly relatable things that made me laugh. There were also more bee facts, but none of them were boring. Honey had a way of putting even the driest piece of information in an interesting or entertaining way. She could have been a teacher, and I guess she kind of was in a way.

On Saturday night I’d thought about going to Sapph again, but instead I ordered food and stayed in my apartment to read and talk to Honey.

She told me about growing up with her siblings and I’d never talked to someone who loved other people so much. She was brimming with it.

My parents asked me to help a little bit, but I always wanted to do more. My mom laughs that she never changed a diaper for Ellie because I always got there first. I took care of Ember and Archer too, but Ellie was MY baby.

I was surprised when she confided in me about her sister being trans and how scared she was for the world she was going to grow up in. I couldn’t imagine the stress of that myself.

I can’t change the world for her, but damn, I’m going to try.

Some of Honey’s messages were so intense I didn’t know what to say to them. That was one of them.

Honey Holloway was a force of nature. She was the sun, yes, but she was also fire. She was a hurricane and a tornado and a snowstorm. She was the kind of woman you didn’t recover from. The kind of woman I knew instinctively to avoid and yet, I hadn’t. Every other time I’d heeded those warning signals from my brain about a woman, but I hadn’t been able to resist Honey.

On Sunday I was dragging after spending so much time thinking about Honey, composing messages to her, and doing my best not to reveal how completely she’d infiltrated my life.

I was just fixing the bookmark display when someone tapped me on the shoulder.

I turned to find Honey standing there with an iced drink.

“I got you a matcha. You looked like you could use a pick-me-up and it’s my favorite. I snuck some of our honey in there too.”

Matcha had never been my thing, but if Honey Holloway handed me a cup of battery acid, I would have drunk it with a smile on my face.

“Uh, thank you,” I said, taking the cup from her. She’d thoughtfully gotten a cup sleeve so it didn’t get my hand all wet.

“Of course. I just… It feels weird to be talking so much and not actually hearing your voice, you know?” It was strange, but I’d been comfortable with it. Honey standing right in front of me was too much. All I could see were her lips and her cheeks and bright eyes. I could have spent hours fascinated by every single pore.

Pathetic. I was truly pathetic.

“How’s your weekend been?”

Oh I guess we were chatting now. Her parents were gone, and the only sibling around was her youngest sister who was handing out tea samples with the kind of enthusiasm you can only have when you’re young.

“Oh, it’s fine,” I said. “Same old, same old.” The days pretty much blurred together for me. My body and my mind went on autopilot and I didn’t come back to myself until I got home.

“Did you hear about the Johnsons?” she asked.

“Who?”

“You know, the couple who sell the cheese?” Oh, them. They were always having some drama or another. I did my best to avoid their table, even if their cheese was divine. It wasn’t worth the secondhand embarrassment of having to witness their marital squabbles. They never really yelled at each other, but the tension was as thick as their sharp cheddar and they were always hissing nasty comments back and forth to each other and trading dirty looks. It was hard to believe they didn’t realize that their behavior might affect their business.

“Oh god, what now?” I asked.

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