Page 3 of Dev Girl

Maddox made a show of chewing, then swallowing loudly. “That’s what he said.”

Dork.

“What did you say?” Alys asked.

Maddox repeated the mumbled, unintelligible words, this time with an empty mouth, and stuck his tongue out at us.

Okay. Whatever. I gave Alys my attention instead. “When did you have time to write Gage an ordering app?”

“I was waiting on QA feedback and didn’t have anything else I could do.”

Alys was one of those people who never stopped. She was a developer at AcesPlayed, a drummer for a local band, Plaid Peanut Butter—Maddox was their bassist—and her writing ordering apps for people seemed like her latest distraction.

Her need to never stop was at least partly driven by her upbringing. Her mother was forever on the go. But for Alys, things had gotten more severe over the past few months. She brushed off all my questions and told me she was fine. Over and over. I’m fine in the kind of way someone only repeats when they’re really not.

I nudged her occasionally, but for now it was her secret.

I was just glad they were here today. The three of us had been best friends for years. Maddox came into the shop for the first time ten years ago. He needed help with some scavenger hunt for the radio station. Alys and I had helped him, and since then we’d been The Wonderland Crew year round, and competed in the hunt every year.

Which was what we were prepping for now. Soon we’d have the news on how to qualify for this year’s contest. Once we had that information, we’d have until Friday to turn in our entries, a couple of days to see if we made it in, and then two weeks after that to compete. I was excited about stealing most of Alys’s and Maddox’s time.

They knew and loved music as much as I did, and this would be one hell of a last ride.

Walking away from them would be hard, but I wasn’t going far, and I suspected I’d still see them. It would just be once every couple months instead of…

Once every couple of months.

This is what I came back to every time I started to question my decision to leave—they were already gone, and it was time for me to move on too.

I shoved the thoughts aside and let myself enjoy the banter and food instead, until my phone rang. “I need to get this, be right back.” I wandered away from the table. It was Jericho, the man I was buying a new store from in Arizona.

Not a conversation I was ready to have in front of Alys and Maddox.

“Hello,” I answered when I was far enough away to avoid being overheard.

“Hey. How’s it going, man?” Jericho was friendly.

He always had been. I’d bought, sold, and traded with him for years. Any time one of us had something rare come through that the other might enjoy. I’d been to his shop several times, for the same reason. About two years ago, when he mentioned retirement, asked if I might be interested in taking his place to the next level, I’d had to think long and hard about the possibility.

“Same old stuff,” I said. As much as I would love to talk music with him, now wasn’t the greatest time to dive into any sort of conversation. “What can I do for you?”

“We’ve got a music festival coming up in a couple of months—end of August. I always have a big presence there, and I was thinking if you’re interested, it’d be a good time to let everyone know about the changeover.”

He had been fine with keeping the entire transaction a secret up to this point, because he hadn’t been ready to tell his employees or customers either.

A lump formed in my chest at the thought of making the news public. This was it, it was really happening. I’d planned to tell Alys and Maddox soon—since my sale here would go through in the next month I couldn’t put it off much longer—but this drove home that the moment was here. “That sounds great.” I kept my tone bright. Friendly.

“Fantastic. I’ll send you the details of the festival, and we’ll figure things out.”

We chatted for another minute or two, with me casting frequent glances in Alys and Maddox’s direction.

I disconnected and headed back to the table. This was going to suck. It was exciting. It was an incredible opportunity, but telling my friends I was leaving…

Alys and Maddox had moved on to talking about the movie that was filmed here a few months ago.

“You just want to watch it because the guy made porn before this,” Alys teased.

Maddox raised an eyebrow. “Not all of us have to pay for it.” He was cute, geeky in that accessible kind of way, sweet, and he was in a band. Oh, and bisexual. Maddox had no problems getting laid. Hell, I frequently wondered why he and I had never… “Besides, my brother knows him—Andrew Newton—he’s not that big a deal.”

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