“Xfinity isn’t awful,” I said.
“So it’s a yes? You’d do it?”
“How much is this free Wi-Fi I’m getting?”
She bobbed her head. “Well, assuming you’re getting the premium plan for bequeathing them your firstborn—seventy-five, maybe a hundred dollars a month?”
“Over eighteen years that’s probably about twenty thousand dollars in savings. Yeah. I’d do it.”
She gawked at me. “You’d make your kid live their whole life with that name for twenty thousand dollars in savings? I’d pay twenty thousand dollars for my kid not to have that name.”
“What? It’s not like I named her CenturyLink. Xfinity’s a nice name.”
“If you’re a horse in a Disney movie.”
I twisted to look back at her and made my face serious. “There is nothing wrong with Xfinity pulling her weight around here. Childcare is expensive.”
“Wow. It is sad how easily bought you are. At least she’ll be able to Google therapists.”
“We could call her a nickname and she could legally change it once she turns eighteen.”
“What’s her nickname? Password?”
I grinned. “Well, what nickname would you give her?”
“Ava,” she said without even thinking about it.
“Why Ava?”
“Because I like that name. If I ever get a dog, I’m going to name her Ava.”
The cat slid out from under the sofa.
Briana blinked at it. “Well, I’ll be damned…”
Cooter sniffed me. Then sniffed Lieutenant Dan. Then the cat came back around and rubbed his head on my hand and let me pet him. “Hey, there.”
She shook her head. “How did you do that?” she asked, her mouth open. “He’s been hiding for weeks.”
“Move slowly, talk softly, and offer food,” I said, talking to the cat in a low voice.
She grabbed three fries, dipped them in ketchup, and bit the tops off. “I am impressed.”
I looked up at her and smiled, liking that I did something to impress her.
“So what’s your dream date?” she asked, taking another bite of a fry. “What kind of stuff are we doing in our pretend time together?”
I shrugged. “This.”
She looked at me. “Really? You like this? Just hanging out?”
“I love this.”
She nodded. “Me too. It’s so underrated. And hiking and camping.”
“Yes.”
“Nick never wanted to go with me,” she said. “I always had to go alone.”
“I’ll go with you,” I said, a little too quickly and immediately regretting it. She wasn’t asking me to join her.
“Oh my God, I would love that.”
The corners of my lips turned up. “There’s a lot of good trails up by the cabin.”
“All right, it’s a date. Oh! That reminds me. I should probably delete all my dating apps. I don’t want someone seeing me on Bumble or something and think I’m cheating on you.” She pulled out her phone. “You should delete yours too. In case you match with one of the nurses or something.”
“I don’t have any.”
She looked at me over her phone. “Really? None?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“Well, where’d you meet Amy?”
“At work. And my girlfriend before that too.”
“Wow. Spared the horrors of online dating,” she said. “Lucky you.”
“I don’t even know what they’re like. I’ve never been on one,” I said.
“Wanna see mine?”
“Sure,” I said, getting back up to sit next to her on the sofa. The cat followed me and jumped up on my lap.
Briana did a few swipes and then handed me her phone, open to her profile.
Her main picture was the one of her at Minnehaha Falls in the gray baseball hat and glasses.
Her info was sparse. Drinks socially, never smokes, no kids and don’t want any. Her bio read:
Looking for something casual. Someone to do fun things with. Must love tacos. And be advised I will be Googling you and I’m very good at it, so don’t bother if you’re not who you say you are. I don’t want anything serious and you’re not going to convert me, so don’t fall in love.
“You don’t want anything serious?” I asked, looking over at her.
“Nope.”
“Now? Or ever?”
“Ever.”
Oh.
Had her divorce been that bad? Amy hurt me too, but I wasn’t ready to give up. I wasn’t ready to date yet, but eventually.
I handed back her phone. “You lied on there.”
“Uh, about what?”
“You said you like tacos. Those are not real tacos you like.”
She made a fake indignant face. “Oh, stop.”
“How’s your stomach? Everything okay?” I asked, grinning at her with my hand on the cat’s back.
“Mind. Your. Business, Jacob. Cat whisperer. I’m taking you to Taco Bell with me one day and I’m gonna eat ten of those and you’re going to be impressed and not at all grossed out.”
I cracked up and she laughed with me.
God, this was easy.
I wondered if she saw how easy it was too. Or maybe for her all her friendships were like this. Mine weren’t. To have this kind of rapport with someone so early on was unusual for me.
Briana made me the best version of myself when I was with her somehow.
She stopped laughing and smiled at Cooter in my lap. “Why did you and your ex break up?” she asked, petting the cat.
I blew out a breath. “It’s hard to explain.”
She waited.
“It’s like…I was a prop.”
“A prop?”
“Yeah. Like she was the main character, and I was her sidekick. It was always about her. What she wanted to do, what she liked. I was there just to be there. And when I finally said something about it, she left.” I laughed a little dryly. “The funny thing is, Jeremiah really is her sidekick. And he likes it. They like all the same stuff and he’s perfectly happy just facilitating whatever it is she wants.”
“Oh, I totally get that. That’s what it’s like with my mom and Gil. He follows after her like a puppy dog. How did your brother and Amy meet?” she asked.
“They work together. They actually knew each other before we met. She’s a pediatrician and he’s a nurse practitioner in the pediatric department at Memorial West.”
“Is that why you left the hospital?”
“That is why I left.” I let out another long breath. “What about you?” I asked. “What happened with you and Nick?”
She pressed her lips together and looked at the cat instead of me. “Well. We were together for twelve years. Married for ten. And he spent two years of that having an affair with a friend of ours. So.”
I peered over at her. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. It was pretty messed up. Kelly and I hung out. She texted me almost every day, which just made the whole thing so much more disgusting. I’m pretty sure the emotional affair went on a lot longer than the physical one. I think he basically wished I was her for most of our marriage.” She laughed a little. “I’ve never said that out loud to anyone else but Alexis. It’s embarrassing.”
“No, it isn’t. It’s just poor taste on his part and poor character on hers.”