Page 3 of Fluffed and Folded

“Don’t be jelly,” he returned.

“I can’t even with you, anymore,” Josie said, putting up her hands to block him from her vision. “Go away, we have grownup things to discuss.”

“Fine, but if Tristan asks, I tried to stop this,” Gabe said, pointing between his two friends before walking away.

“On a scale of one to ten, how scared is Gabe of your boyfriend?” Eli asked.

“The limit does not exist,” Josie said.

“How scared should I be?” Eli asked. Was there something wrong with him that he was only mildly threatened by Tristan’s size and stoic silences?

“The limit does not exist,” Josie repeated, but this time she was clearly joking. “He knows I’m having coffee with you,” she said, shaking her phone as she held it up. “He’s going to pop by in a bit, once we’ve had a chance to chat and plot strategy.”

“What sort of strategy?” Eli asked warily.

“Our strategy for finding you Ms. Right. Now that I’m matched, I want to similarly see all my friends well-settled and happy, like an Austen character. Call meEmma.”

“No.”

She clapped her hands together a few times and nodded, blinking rapidly.

“Oh, man. You are adorable-slash-terrifying when you plot,” Eli said, but he wasn’t altogether upset about it. Josie was his closest female friend, and the only one he could talk aboutonline dating with. It felt a little like everything was starting to come together—the gap in his teeth, his dating life.Everything is coming up Eli,he thought, followed quickly by,Never say that out loud.Not even with Josie could he be so corny and ridiculous.

They ordered their drinks and sat down to wait. “How is the mouth?” Josie asked, pointing to his face.

He winced with remembered pain and tenderly touched his finger to his lips. “Still bad but better. I had to have oatmeal for breakfast, but that’s a step up from the smoothie I had yesterday. Tomorrow I’m hoping for the sweet, sweet crunch of toasted cereal.” He gave her a sarcastic thumb’s up.

She laughed. “Dare to dream. Is that why you look tired? Is the pain keeping you up?”

It was weird to be friends with a girl because they were perceptive that way. Not one of his guy friends would notice his exhaustion. “No, it was…I don’t know exactly. I heard some weird sounds that woke me, and then I couldn’t get back to sleep.”

“What kind of weird sounds?” The barista deposited their drinks at the table and Josie took a sip of her frou-frou latte.

Eli had ordered an espresso, and he waited to down it before he answered. “Honestly, I have no idea. When I lived farther out, where we grew up, I had every one of the night sounds catalogued, you know? I knew what the neighbor’s dog sounded like, what a raccoon in the trash can sounded like. In the city, it’s so different. There are so many sounds. I don’t think I could figure them out, and I guess I haven’t acclimated yet. Stuff still wakes me up.” He frowned, not realizing until he said it how often he woke up.

“You’re a country boy,” Josie said fondly, and it was probably true. His uncle lived far outside the city, in what couldreasonably be called the country, and Eli had always loved it there.

“I guess so,” he said, shrugging.

“Why don’t you move farther out?” Josie enquired.

He shrugged. “I don’t want the hassle of the commute and, I don’t know, doesn’t it seem like we’re supposed to be here?” He spent a not-so-small portion of his paycheck to live in Adams Morgan, the neighborhood everyone deemed the go-to passport for single people in their twenties.

Josie thought about that before she answered. “I guess I think maybe the point is for us to figure out what we really want and aim for that, not what other people tell us we’re supposed to want.”

“Is it the latte that makes you smart and wise?” Eli asked.

“My brain runs on peppermint mocha,” Josie said solemnly. “Now you know my secret.”

Eli tossed back his espresso and had immediate regrets when Tristan slid silently into the seat beside Josie. He hiccupped and had to press his hand to his mouth to avoid spewing the espresso all over the front of them. How was he so quiet? One minute he wasn’t there, and the next he was; it was freakish, especially given his hulking size.

“Hey,” Josie said cheerfully, giving Tristan’s shoulders an affectionate squeeze, or as much of one as she could. The guy was massive. It was like watching a sugar glider sidle up to a silverback gorilla and latch on.

Tristan pressed an affectionate kiss to her lips and gave Eli a heads up nod of acknowledgement. Usually Eli spoke, but at the moment he was nursing his blistered tongue and espresso-bruised windpipe, so he returned the nod.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Josie announced.

Tristan’s brows rose slightly, which she must have taken as encouragement to continue because she did so undaunted.

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