A sight I’d never witness, judging by the unending well of disdain she held for the dirty gardener giving her lip at the flower shop. There weren’t many people I flat-out didn’t like—I got along with everybody and, other than my siblings, avoided conflict unless it was over a thing I had passion for. Lila Parker was my exact opposite. Where I was unruffled, Lila shook her tail feathers like a peacock. Where I’d rather have a beer together than argue, she seemed to argue as her primary mode of communication. And yet, here I sat, wondering over her, curious as to the fire that had forged her and the person who’d lit it.

But it was just as well. I didn’t need her priss in my life, and she didn’t need my filthy. Not for more than a night.

Though what a night that would be, I thought with a smile before burying the notion like a flower bulb in winter, not thinking how it might bloom come spring.

4

Tally-ho

LILA

Ivy gaped at me, hand still on the doorknob of her apartment.

The silence stretched, and when I realized she wasn’t going to respond, I asked, “So, can I come in?”

She blinked and stepped out of the way. “Of course.”

The plastic bodega bag, brimming with toiletries and stamped with a handful of Thank Yous, rustled against my dirty pants leg as I passed.

Ivy frowned. “Is that … dirt?”

“I fell in the flower bed at Longbourne,” I answered matter-of-factly, plunking my bag on the couch. “Can I borrow some pajamas?”

Ivy closed the door and waddled in. “Yeah, sure—as soon as you tell me what happened.”

“I told you—”

“I caught Brock fucking Natasha Felix, can I stay with you, is not an explanation. Now, sit. On the coffee table, please. I can’t vacuum anymore without needing a three-hour nap,” she said, hand on her burgeoning belly.

I did as she’d requested, sitting straight-backed, crossing one leg over the other, and clasping my hands on my knee. “What do you want to know?”

Ivy sank into the couch next to my bodega bag, her face softening, eyes wide. “Are you okay?”

“As okay as I can be. It did a lot for my ego when he tripped and fell trying to catch me with pants around his ankles just as the elevator doors closed. I hope he broke something. Can a dick break?”

“Penile fracture is a thing, though I don’t think he’d get it from falling.”

“Shame,” I lamented on a sigh.

Ivy’s lip slipped between her teeth, her eyes on me like I was a lost puppy.

“Don’t look at me like that. I’m fine. I mean it.”