She didn’t reply. But she ate water ice off that spoon with a self-satisfied smile.

“I thought being Dean’s Lady allowed me certain dessert privileges,” she said.

I tilted the bowl her way. She handed me her own. We swapped flavors, and I refused to scrutinize how fast my heart was racing.

“When will you find out if you get the job?” she asked.

“Harry didn’t say. But I got the impression things were happening fast.”

She hummed under her breath. “Wouldn’t it be funny if we both ended up at the airport together in a couple weeks?”

I didn’t know what it would be. And I hadn’t even begun to wrap my mind around what it would mean to leave the only home I’d ever known. My parents. Rowan. Eddie and Alice.

It must have shown on my face. Because Tabitha squeezed my arm and said, “I’m not saying you should definitely take this job or anything. But you should know they’d be making a huge mistake if they didn’t select you.”

She went back to her food, tapping her foot in time to the song coming from the block party.

“You like being far away from home though, right? Traveling all over?”

I caught a flicker of something across her eyes. She blinked and said, “I love it. There’s a bold, beautiful world out there. I feel lucky that I’ve gotten to see so much of it. If you decide to leave Philly, I think it’ll still be hard for you.” She cut her eyes to the ground. “I never told my family this, but I spent my first week of freshman year at UCLA sobbing into bowls of cereal in my dorm room. It’s not—” She paused. “It’s not that it’s easy to leave. But you have to make the right choice for you over what anyone else might want.”

That first night we’d bumped into each other, when I’d asked her if she missed home, there’d been a forced quality to her answer. I travel light, but it lets me go pretty far. It was at odds with how happy she seemed here. How comfortable.

“When you move to Austin, if you ever need a…a friend. You can call me, Tabitha.”

I was grateful for the dimming twilight. Could feel the heat in my face.