“Careful, Liv,” I said quietly, my pulse hammering. “Keep talking like that and I might actually start believing I’m allowed to want more than the grind.”
Her lips curved, soft but sure. “Maybe you are.”
I let out a slow breath, dragging my gaze to the tank if only to steady myself. “So … do we stick with Dory? Or do we give her a new name?”
Livvi bent her head to the side, considering. “Hmm. I don’t know. Dory fits, but …” Her eyes flicked to mine, a spark of playfulness breaking through the heaviness. “Maybe she deserves something that’s just ours.”
The wordourslodged in my mind, unexpected and hazardous in all the ways I didn’t want to think about.
“Okay.” I forced a grin to cover the way that word had impacted me. “But I reserve the right to veto anything too cutesy.”
Her lips twitched. “Like … Bubbles?”
I groaned. “Veto. Hard veto.”
“Okay, fine. What about Splash?”
“Liv, that sounds like a bad rollercoaster at a county fair.”
She laughed, eyes crinkling in a way that made my chest ache. “All right, Mr. Picky. What wouldyouname her?”
I pretended to think, stroking my chin. “Kraken.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Kraken?”
“Hey, it’s intimidating.”
“It’s a blue tang, Talon. She’s about as intimidating as a marshmallow.”
I chuckled, leaning against the counter, looking down at the fish. “Which makes the name ironic. Works on multiple levels.”
She shook her head, but her smile didn’t fade. “I don’t know. I think we should keep brainstorming. She deserves the perfect name.”
The wordwesettled deep inside me again, warming a part of me I hadn’t even realized was cold. Somehow, in a single evening, she’d gone from acquaintance to something I didn’t even have a name for.Friendsseemed too casual, but anything more than that felt almost reckless.
And yet, standing there with her beside me, watching the fish—ourfish—swim, I felt a little less empty than I had in a long time.
CHAPTER 16
LIVVI
By the time I got home, the smile still hadn’t left my face.
It felt silly, really, how something as small as setting up a fish tank could change the entire rhythm of my day. But Talon had laughed. Actually laughed. And for a few minutes, sitting cross-legged on his floor with a bag of gravel in my lap, I’d seen the tight lines in his face ease.
I changed into pajamas, made a cup of tea, and curled up on the couch with my laptop. Roxie wasn’t home, so the apartment was quiet, the kind of quiet that could feel heavy if I let it. Instead, I let myself linger in that lightness for just a few more minutes before clicking over toReadToLiv.
A message box popped up almost instantly.
TheWriteGuy
You have impeccable timing.
I grinned, setting my mug on the coffee table and typing back.
ReadToLiv
Good timing or bad timing?