“We are the same age,” I reminded her, snatching her phone out of her hand and pulling her head close to mine. It took us six tries, but we finally caught one that captured some red from The Eagle, our faces, and the Space Needle sprouting in a confident trajectory between us.
“Well, Miss Sophistication, you suck at selfies, too. So there.” Manda zipped her phone into a small pocket on the back of her shorts. “Let’s walk down to the water.” She led the way down a path that angled toward Puget Sound.
“You would have been a good collie,” I said when she put two sharp fingers on the small of my back to guide me around a sharp turn. “I feel very well herded.”
“Sorry,” she said with a short laugh. “I’m so used to accident prevention. I can’t believe how easy this is! This walking without a stroller, without a diaper bag, without a bag of snacks, without extra changes of clothes for four people.” She grinned at me and started pumping her arms. “It’s so easy! Let’s break a sweat!”
I groaned. “Let’s not. Let’s assume a leisurely pace.” I tossed my empty coffee cup in a public bin.
Manda screwed up her face in disapproval, but she slowed down. “What happened to a-thousand-push-ups-a-day-or-the-day-is-wasted? You’re the runner here, sis. I thought I’d be the one begging for mercy.”
I shook my head. “I haven’t gone running in weeks. In fact, I still haven’t been on any of the trails I was so excited about when I read about them in New York. The closest I’ve come to an accelerated heart rate is when we have a packed house and I’m hustling between ovens and the walk-in.”
“I wouldn’t say that’s the only time you’ve had a reason for your heart to race.” I had to hand it to my best friend. She had waited an entire seven minutes to bring up the subject of my love life.
I felt my sullen mouth break into the start of a smile. “I’m so impressed with your restraint. I thought you’d holler, ‘Does he use too much tongue?’ when you saw me approaching The Eagle.”
She laughed. “I don’t even need to ask that question. Kai does not strike me as a sloppy kisser.” She waited, and when I didn’t rise to her bait, she said, “And this is the part when you tell me what kind of kisser he really is.”
“He’s perfect,” I said, not even trying to hide the information because one of the many merits of best friendship is that there are no limits on honesty, tears, insecure lines of questioning, or bad karaoke.
“I’m not surprised,” she said and did a little hop of joy. “He seems like he was made for you. I’m so excited!”
“He’s smart, he’s funny, he’s incredibly good-looking, he loves his family, he loves good food …”
“He doesn’t break up with you when you can’t ever see him and when you call him in the middle of the night and wake him up.” She arched an eyebrow in my direction.
“How do you know these things?” I demanded. “Are you two dishing about me?”
“We are totally dishing about you.” Manda rolled her eyes. “And I absolutely saw him this morning when he was taking out his trash and I absolutely interrogated him until he was so uncomfortable, he pretended he had something burning in the oven.” She made a face. “Amateur excuse. He left for work two minutes later, so there was definitely nothing in his oven.”
“You are unstoppable,” I said, starting to breathe heavily with all the exercise. “I hope he doesn’t think I’m a total freak.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. He seems to have jumped that hurdle and stuck around anyway.”
I shoved her to the other side of the path. “I did wake him up. I really wanted to hear his voice. But the bummer is that I couldn’t actually tell him anything.”
Manda tsked. “I hope you appreciate how much I love you. Every fiber in my being wants to pepper you with questions about that show. We have never had secrets before, you know.”
I sighed. “I really, really wish I could spill it all. It almost doesn’t seem real since I can’t talk about it with you.”
Manda nudged us over to a bench that faced the water. We dropped onto the seat and watched in silence as a stately container ship moved seamlessly through the distant waves.
“Kai reminds me of Jack in some ways,” Manda said, eyes still on the water.
I waited for her to elaborate.
“He knows himself,” she said. “He’s good. He’s true. I’d be surprised if the boy could tell a lie without his head exploding.”
I smiled, knowing she was right.