I nearly jump because I didn’t hear Cleo come in. She really can be as silent as a ghost when she wants to be.

“You’re an ancient Roman statue of freaking beauty.”

“Old habits die hard,” I sigh, very much wanting to get the focus off me. “Hey, you sure you’re cool being in here?”

Cleo takes her turn to sigh back at me.

“Before this road trip, I made peace with the fact we’d probably encounter very few gender-neutral bathrooms. I figured, while I’m sorting stuff out and sticking with female pronouns, I might as well use the women’s stalls, too. Besides, no part of my potentially nonbinary self is ready to learn what men’s restrooms smell like.”

I smile at Cleo. She may be uncomfortable in this predefined space, but no amount of bad lighting could make her cheekbones any less high, her skin any less flawless, or her short black hair any less glossy. How could she ever feel uncomfortable looking like that? Then I remind myself, we all have our own stuff, and my surface struggles have nothing to do with Cleo’s internal ones.

“Hey, I’ll still guard the bathroom door for you whenever you want, just like when we were kids,” I say.

Cleo laughs.

“Yes, we Yamashiro-Gustins were born with a deep fear of pooping. My sister still can only go in our own bathroom with the white noise machine cranked up to ten. I may take you up on that generous offer in the future, but I actually braved the bathroom to make sure you’re okay. Things got weirdly heated back there.”

“Yeah. Blame it on the mysterious excitement. And lack of sleep.”

“And the amount of sugar consumed. Do not forget the sugar consumed.”

“Quite right, quite right,” I say. “But sugar rushes aside, I’m jealous you can stay tuned out of this tarot stuff. It just means so much to me. Maybe too much?”

“There’s no such thing as caring too much,” Cleo replies. “And it’s not that I’m tuned out. It’s just, most spiritual systems don’t make space for people like me, so I don’t make space for them. But still, spirituality is really just trying to make sense of the questions we can’t answer yet. So I figure, for all we know, that means no one could be right, or everyone could be right? If you look at it that way, deciding what to believe only really matters because it drives our actions. So, then, what Logan believes really only matters for him, right? It doesn’t have to affect what you believe, or how it makes you act.”

Cleo shrugs her shoulders and stares back at me like she was just telling me about her day, not delivering a whopping dollop of wisdom. I could physically crush her with the hug I want to give her.