“Me too. I just wish she had better taste in men. She’s been trying to set me up lately to varying levels of failure.”

“Weren’t you going on a date with her son?” Kylie asked as she ambled into the room and tossed herself into the overstuffed armchair.

This was one of the many things that Mary loved about coming over to Tyler’s house these days. Used to be, in the past, his condo was homey but a little too quiet. It was one-note. Only influenced by Tyler and his presence and his choices. These days, though, since he’d gotten custody of his fourteen-year-old sister, Kylie’s backpack overflowed with textbooks in the corner, her sweatshirts hung on the coatrack. She looked utterly at home as she draped her feet over the opposite arm of the fluffy chair and shoved her face into her phone, barely waiting for the answer to the question she’d just asked.

Mary liked to see Kylie acting like a teenager. When she’d first come to Brooklyn around Thanksgiving, she’d been like a mini adult, all her corners tucked in and nothing-to-see-here-folks. But the other day, Kylie had even been five minutes late for work, and it had thrilled Mary to her core. Not that she rooted for her employees to be late, but that Kylie was comfortable enough to be a little late. That was real progress.

“What’s that?” Fin asked, bolting upright and smiling when Tyler tugged her back down into his side. “You went on a date with Estrella’s son?”

“Date is a relative term in this case.” Mary sighed. She hadn’t told anyone about her mishap with John, but she figured this was as receptive an audience as any. “I arrived at this super fancy restaurant in Greenpoint, he told me he’d hoped I’d be younger, I picked up my jaw off the floor and left. End of date. Not exactly a love story for the ages.”

“You’ve got to be freaking kidding me.” Tyler sat up, a rare anger burning in his eyes. “That’s the rudest freaking thing I’ve ever heard. Mary, I hope you shook it off immediately.”

Mary avoided Fin’s light gaze, knowing that her intuitive friend was going to see both what she did say and what she didn’t. “It got me down for a few days. But I’m back in the swing of things. Anyways, he came to the shop to apologize, and I think he really meant it.”

“Oh. That’s who that guy was?” Kylie asked, looking up from her phone. “The mean-looking one with Estrella?”

“Yup.”

“What is wrong with men these days?” Tyler groused. “If they aren’t hitting on women in the subways, they’re telling them they look old in fancy restaurants. Would it kill my species to have a little common decency?”