Page 94 of Flirting Lessons

Taylor took a can out of the fridge and handed it to her.

“Everything okay?”

Avery nodded, then shrugged. “Yeah, of course.”

Taylor’s face must have shown that she didn’t believe that.

“Okay, everything’smostlyokay,” Avery said. “But, um. I’m just feeling a little anxious about tonight. This is all so new. For me, I mean. So, I guess I’m kind of jittery. It’s no big deal.”

Taylor took her hand, led her to the couch, and pulled Avery down next to her.

“I’m glad you told me, instead of being anxious and pretending everything was fine,” Taylor said. She couldn’t even count the number of times someone she’d been dating had done that, and every time sheknewthere was something wrong. But it wasn’t just other people; she’d done that, too, when she knew saying what she really felt would hurt someone’s feelings, or start a fight, when all she wanted was to have sex and go to sleep. She was glad that, at least so far, she and Avery weren’t doing that with each other.

“I, um, I’m trying to be better about stuff like that,” Avery said. “With you, I mean, but also in general. I have a habit of blowing off my own emotions, and that’s not good for me. I know this is…we’re just casual, it’s not like I think…but I want to practice saying how I feel. But it’s, um, hard to change bad habits.”

Taylor put her arm around Avery.

“Tell me about it,” she said. “My bad habits are probably far worse than yours, and yes, it’s been very hard to change them.”

Avery turned to face her.

“You have bad habits?”

Taylor laughed at the shocked tone of her voice.

“You’re kidding me, right? You can even ask that question, while you sit here in my messy apartment? I have a million bad habits. I’m disorganized, I’m bad with money, I’m terrible at commitment, I haven’t had a relationship longer than a few months in years, I’m barely a functioning adult. Meanwhile, look at you, queen of the spreadsheets, in an apartment you only moved into a few months ago that looks like it should be in a magazine, an upstanding member of society and everything. It’s kind of ridiculous that you’re spending so much time with someone like me, honestly.” Wow, she hadn’t quite meant to say all of that.

Avery rolled her eyes.

“Now it’s my turn to say, ‘You’re kidding me, right?’ Other than spreadsheets, which is not a thing that really matters, tell me one thing that I can do better than you.”

Taylor dropped her arm and turned to face her.

“I can list so many things, but how about we start with this one: You have your own business! And you’re not even thirty! Years younger than me! Only a few, but still. Then there’s me over here, who has had a dream of starting a business for years, but that’s all it is, a dream.”

Avery widened her eyes.

“You’ve had a dream of starting a business for years? Doing what?”

Damn. Shereallyhadn’t meant to say all of that. She’d justbeen blabbering away in an attempt to soothe Avery’s anxiety, and she’d accidentally confessed this big secret.

She must have shown that in her face, because Avery quickly held up a hand.

“If you don’t want to talk about this with me, I get it. That’s okay, my feelings won’t be hurt.”

“No, it’s not that.” Taylor sighed. “It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it with you. I just haven’t really talked to anyone other than Erica about this, and I’m kind of tender about it, I guess.” It felt scary to talk about this, though she didn’t want to say that to Avery. “My sort of grand, someday ambition is to open a little wine bar up here. One that focuses on local wines, obviously, where people can taste a few side by side without having to drive around to different wineries or buy a huge meal, a place people can drop in and have a glass or two and eat some snacks. I feel like the valley needs a place like that, something unpretentious, all about wine, but not in a snooty way, approachable for both locals and tourists.”

She could feel herself getting more excited as she talked about it and had to bring herself back to earth. She knew that practical, organized Avery would if she didn’t. Avery would probably point out all the problems with her plan, and how Taylor didn’t have the experience or expertise for this, and how much it would all cost, and how impossible it was. She knew that already; she didn’t need Avery to tell her.

“But don’t worry, I know that that’s something that goes right into the ‘dreams that won’t come true’ category,” she said. Hopefully that would be enough to forestall Avery from what Taylor knew she was going to say.

“But why?” Avery asked. “I love this idea! You’d be so great at that!”

Taylor turned to look at Avery. Her eyes were wide and excited.

“Just listening to you talk about it makes me want to go to your wine bar right away,” Avery said. “You’re so great at the customer service stuff, and you’re right, we do need a place like that. I can’t wait for this to happen.”

She hadn’t expected her to say that. She hadn’t expected Avery to be supportive of this idea that she’d had for a long time but thought of as impractical, unrealistic. She hadn’t expected Avery to believe in her this much.

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