There was a rustling sound, followed by silence. A few seconds later, Yun was back. “I gotta run,” she whispered. “I’m supposed to be in the prep room, and I just got the stare-down from Godzilla Lady. Meet me at High Grove when you get off, okay?”

Gabe agreed—to no idea what—and hung up. Before calling Olivia to confirm she was fine switching things up for a bit to start out their night, he spent a minute searching for ball emojis and sent off a quick parade of tennis balls, basketballs, and a round, furry purple gremlin emoji to Yun. When she didn’t respond, he figured she already had her hands full.

Whatever it was his friend had in mind for tonight, he had a strange feeling that it was going to turn out to be something good.

* * *

“I’m starting to think about switching careers.” Olivia transferred her phone to the other hand to adjust Samson’s leash.

“Seriously?” Ava asked on the other end of the line, clearly too immersed in packing her stuff to pick up on the sarcasm in Olivia’s tone. “You’ve only been a teacher for a year.” Her words were nearly drowned out by the high-pitched, sticky sound of packing tape being unrolled across a box.

“I’m thinking I might make it as a lady-in-waiting, since that’s all I seem to be doing anymore.”

“Oh, that was sarcasm, I see. Have you really got grounds to complain? You’ve just hooked up with the perfect guy.”

“This isn’t about a guy.”

After she finished prepping for tomorrow’s classes at the end of the school day and still had time to kill before meeting Gabe, Olivia had texted him that she’d be happy to take Samson for a walk. He’d given her the door code on their second date, but it was still something she wouldn’t have done without his permission. Luckily, he hadn’t been in surgery and had texted back that doing so would be great.

Since she still had a half hour before she needed to leave to meet Gabe and Yun at the shelter for who knew what, she headed with Samson toward Tower Grove Park.

“It’d be weird if it was, considering it’s obvious you’re crazy about him. I mean, you’re even walking his dog before a date.”

“That’s because I happen to be crazy about his dog too.”

“So, what’s this lady-in-waiting thing about then?”

“I can’t stand not knowing if I have a chance at a position next year. Principal Garcia told the few of us who aren’t guaranteed to return that she’d let us know by last Friday. Now it’s Tuesday and still no word. Then on top of that, there’s Aunt Becky. I asked her about keeping Morgan there till I figure things out, and apparently she’s thinking about it.”