Page 60 of April

“Oh. Right,” Asher said and took a bite of her pancake, chewing it for a moment. “Sure. I can be there.”

“Cool,” she said. “How’s the pancake?”

“Delicious. Thank you,” Asher said with a smile.

“And the bacon?”

Asher picked up the bacon, made a point to chomp down on it ungracefully, and said, “Also delicious.”

“See?” Linden laughed. “Unhealthy food is amazing.”

“You’re a bad influence on me,” Asher replied as she finished the bacon.

“Probably,” she said with a shoulder shrug. “So, dinner tonight? We can order in. I’ll be boring with you.”

“Maybe. I don’t know.”

“Oh. Okay. If you really want to be alone…”

“It’s not that. I…” Asher sighed and added, “Can I just get back to you?”

“Sure,” Linden replied and took a drink of her orange juice before she decided to ask, “Do you think you might have a date tonight or something?”

“A date? No.”

“Oh. I thought maybe you’d decided to message someone.”

“No. I’ve been with you the whole time. When would I have done that?”

“You said you weren’t sure about the app.”

“I’m not.”

“But you didn’t say that you were deleting it, so it was a possibility that you’d message someone or that someone would message you.”

“Well, I haven’t messaged anyone.”

“Okay,” Linden said, and she was about to drop it, but she watched as Asher’s eyes moved away. “Someone messagedyou, though, didn’t they?”

“Yes,” Asher admitted.

Linden placed the juice glass down, picked up her fork and knife, sliced into her pancakes, and took a huge bite.

“She’s really cute too,” Asher added.

“Cute?” Linden asked while chewing, not caring about manners right now.

“Well, like, sexy cute.”

“Sexy cute?” The food was starting to not sit well with Linden all of a sudden, so she lifted her coffee to her lips and took a long drink to push it down.

“Yeah. She’s got short brown hair that she has slicked back a little in her profile pic and these hazel eyes.”

“I see,” Linden said, taking another bite of a pancake.

“And she’s only thirty. I’m surprised she reached out to me. But, Linden, she’s a model.”

Linden nearly choked but used her juice as a good cover.

---