Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 58874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
“I like this side of you, Julian,” she said. “You’re happy.”
He looked at Tor. “Yeah, I am.”
“This means I’m going to have to find a new date to the Party in the Garden.” She sighed. “It’s probably for the best. I want to have kids at some point, and I’d rather not do it alone, so I need to meet someone.”
“What about that one guy? The one who didn’t ask any questions on your first date. Did he get better?”
“I cannot even begin to tell you how much more specific you’re going to need to be. You’ve just described every man.” She groaned. “I suck at dating, but I’m telling myself that it’s like anything else. I wasn’t great at bio when I was in high school, and now, I’m a doctor. So, I have to believe that sucking at something is the first step to being good at something.”
“Sucking can definitely be the first step to—”
Tor laughed and kicked his leg from under the table.
“But you know what? I don’t think I’m the issue,” Lydia continued. “They’re the ones who suck. It’s not just that they don’t try to learn anything about me, which is annoying enough. The last time I dated someone long enough to invite him over, he insulted my plants.”
“What’s wrong with your plants?” Jule asked her. He flicked his gaze to Tor. “Lydia has a major green thumb. She can give us tips when we move into the house next week.”
“Sounds good. I haven’t done anything with the outside yet, but I’ll get to it.” He looked at Lydia. “What were you saying about anti-plant guy?”
“We went to the Desert Botanical Gardens to see the Chihuly exhibit. I wanted to stop at the gift shop on the way out to get a plant and he said I have too many of them and it’s a waste of money. As if it’s his money!”
“Fuck him,” Tor said.
“Exactly. Plants make me happy and I’m not letting anyone tell me that it’s wrong to spend fifteen dollars on something that makes me that happy. That fifty dollars will make me smile and that makes it five hundred dollars well spent.”
Jule laughed. “I like how you think.”
“I didn’t come up with that, I actually saw it on Instagram,” she admitted. “But it’s true! Also, when he takes his vitamins, he puts water in his mouth before the pill. That’s unhinged behavior.”
“We have a very different viewpoint on people being unhinged,” Tor said. “Speaking of, how was the sex?”
Jule coughed out a laugh.
Lydia’s cheeks reddened. That wasn’t a typical conversation topic for them and probably for Lydia in general. But Tor’d always had a way of making people feel comfortable saying and doing things that were usually outside their norm when he wanted to. It was his bone-deep calmness, an absence of judgment, and a safety he had exuded even when he’d been six years old. He had a way looking at you, really looking at you, that made you feel genuinely seen, understood. People always felt free to be themselves when Tor focused that gaze on them.
“It wasn’t good,” Lydia said, nose scrunching.
“That should have been the end of it,” Tor responded.
“I hoped it would get better.”
“Did it?” Tor asked.
She shook her head.
“It never does,” Jule said. “When it’s right, it’s fireworks from the start. And when it’s not, it’s gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free, flavor-free dessert forever.”
“Doesn’t sound like that’s something worth eating.” Tor looked at him in amusement.
“It’s not. Thank fuck that’s in the past. Oh, that reminds me.” He twisted to the side and smiled at Lydia. “We’re getting married.”
“Really? Oh my God!” She beamed at him. “That’s so exciting, Julian! Congratulations. Have you picked a date?”
“Sometime soon. Very, very soon. Dealing with the new house has already set us back longer than I wanted.”
“The good venues book out more than a year in advance,” she said. “I haven’t received a save-the-date card from you. I don’t think very, very soon is an option at this point.”
“And you won’t receive one.” He shuddered. “It’s not going to be that type of wedding. I’m deciding between going to the courthouse and having a ceremony, but even if we do, it’ll be super casual. I’ll text you details when I figure it out.”
“Text?” She blinked at him a few times. “That’s how you’re throwing a wedding? Barbara Sterling has to be losing her mind.”
“My mom offered to have a party planner handle it, but if that happens, I won’t want to go and Tor would make a run for it, so she’s not getting a say.”
“I can’t believe your mother is letting you get away with that. Mine would claw her pearls off if I tried it.”
“I told her Tor doesn’t have any say in it either. I think that took the edge off.”