“Are you on Tinder?” Pearl asked Maya. “Or Hinge or Bumble or one of those new ones?”

“Yes,” Maya said, “but—”

“So don’t give me your ageist, double-standard bullshit.”

Maya handed back the phone. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“Why should Art be the only one in my age bracket getting any?”

“You’re right,” Maya said again. “I’m used to people of a certain vintage being kind of technologically inept. But clearly that isn’t the case with you.”

In addition to being a little old lady who made pies, Eve had learned that Pearl was a champion gamer. She’d reached Champion’s Road in Super Mario 3D World. Eve had no idea what that meant, but apparently it was impressive.

“But what about Dennis Bates?” Maya asked, winking at Eve.

Pearl made a frustrated, strangled noise. “Will everyone stop with Dennis Bates?”

“I don’t know,” Eve teased. “I have it on good authority that you were in the lift bridge with him.”

“I heard he’s going to be in the bachelor auction today,” Maya added.

“Well, good for him,” Pearl declared. “I hope someone who appreciates boredom and silence bids on him.” Eve noticed Pearl didn’t address her presence at the bridge. In fact, she turned to Eve and said, “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Are you going to bid on anyone?”

“No.” Eight hundred million times no. “There’s no point, really, in getting into something with someone. I’m only here for a year.”

“And given how smoothly this reno is going, maybe not even that long,” Maya said. “You could be back to Toronto early to wait out the remainder of the year.”

What? Eve hadn’t considered that. But it was true. There would be nothing keeping her here once the reno was done.

Wow. She needed a moment to adjust to that reality.

But Pearl wasn’t going to give her a moment. She narrowed her eyes and looked around. “Hmm. The reno is going remarkably quickly, isn’t it?” But then, seeming to change her mind about what she wanted to talk about, she said, “Did I mention I brought pie?”

“You told me I didn’t have to feed people,” Eve protested when they entered the kitchen to find Pearl’s signature pie boxes stacked two deep across the kitchen island.

The “problem” with how well the reno was going was that she hadn’t been able to get out of the Anti-Festival town sleepover thing. The main floor was almost done. When she’d cleared the furniture out for the floor refinishing, it had been “suggested”—aggressively and frequently—that if she held off on bringing it back, the big, empty space would be perfect for the sleepover. She’d tried to wiggle out of it, but resistance was futile when you were up against Pearl, Karl, Art, and Eiko.