Page 44 of Fighting

Please help name us. We’re scared.

Ivy:

Carl & Alice.

Mateo:

Those are just names.

Ivy:

Carl Jung wrote about dreams and the invisible string.

Mateo:

Like Taylor Swift?

Ivy:

Like the story about yourself that you build on your whole life.

Mateo:

Cool, can I have one?

Ivy:

Mateo:

Okay, and Alice?

Ivy:

Mateo:

So she, like, stood up for kids who were abused?

Ivy:

More or less.

Mateo:

That’s dope.

This is when it hits me: I should be sending cute animal thirst traps.

I toss my shirt across the room, then prop the phone up and put the timer on.

A few minutes later,like déjà vu, she blows into my home like a tiny tornado, her ample chest heaving with her rapid breaths. In a trench coat that’s come loose and?—

I swallow thickly, taking her in. Is that a hint of something sheer and lacy?

eighteen

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