“Sooo, things are going well with that guy?”

Shit, Olivia had forgotten that she’d told Jamila anything about Max, if only vaguely.

“It’s … complicated. But … yes, I guess so.”

Jamila laughed.

“That smile on your face as you looked at your phone was more than ‘I guess so.’ ”

Olivia covered her face with her hands. Apparently she had her answer about how she looked at Max.

“Okay, you got me. Yes, it’s going well, it’s just that …” She put her hands back down on the table and looked at Jamila. “When we first started—and actually, when I first told you about him—I thought it was going to be a casual thing and probably wouldn’t last very long. But …” She took a deep breath. “It’s possible I was wrong about that. And I wasn’t really prepared for something like this.” She laughed. “I don’t know why I say that in the past tense; I’m not really prepared for something like this.”

Jamila looked at her like she was a brand-new species.

“What do you have to prepare for? Can’t you just keep dating?”

It sounded so easy when Jamila said it like that.

“That’s sort of what we’ve been doing, but …” It was too early—both in her friendship with Jamila and her relationship with Max—to tell Jamila who Max was, so she couldn’t tell her the whole story, even though she desperately wanted to. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed this about me, but I’m not that much of a ‘go with the flow’ kind of person.”

Jamila laughed at her again.

“Oh, really, the woman who took two months to buy a car isn’t a ‘go with the flow’ kind of person? I never would have guessed.”

Olivia couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’m just saying,” Jamila said as she picked up a chip, “any guy who makes you smile like that is worth getting out of your comfort zone a little.”

Her other friends, or her sister, would tell her she wasn’t acting like herself, that they hadn’t seen her so into a guy in a long time, and blah blah blah. But Jamila didn’t know her well enough for that, so she just cheered her on. It was kind of nice to have a new friend.

“You might be right,” she finally said.

She texted Max back as soon as she got into her car.

Can’t wait to show you the car in person this weekend! That hike you mentioned sounds good, but please remember that I’ve spent the last ten years living in New York, where there are no hills, and be gentle on me. See you Saturday.

She looked down at her phone and smiled.