“Oh, stop; we’re all grown up.”

“Doesn’t make you any less the Lily Thompson.”

It wasn’t until she’d loaded the groceries in the back seat and strapped herself into the front, her heart still pounding, that she realized she should’ve corrected him. She was Lily Harrison now. She hadn’t been Lily Thompson in a long time.

PEYOTE

I WENT A WEEK without talking to Cal, and things started to feel the way they had before I met her. Normal. Predictable. It felt good, having her out of my life. Like removing a splinter.

Then KQ called me into her office.

“Yo, Peyo!” she hollered when I knocked on her door, as if she hadn’t just summoned me.

“What’s up, boss?”

“Come in; sit down. I have a proposition for you.”

I closed the door and pulled out the chair across from her. She was excavating her mouth with a toothpick, and some unknowable mass from between her teeth hit me on the cheek. I winced.

“I’ve noticed the work you’ve been putting in, Pey. Slow but steady wins the race, right?” She laughed, and I managed to laugh with her. “No, but seriously, you’ve got a great record here. A mostly great record. A passable record, Mr. Trip.”

“Thanks, boss.”

“It’s time you take on more responsibility.”

KQ widened her jaw, reaching for her back molars. Her tongue curled and pushed against her teeth, undulating with every flick of her wrist like a blind creature from the deepest part of the ocean. I looked away.

“That sounds good.”

“Look, I know that we are not known for our teamwork here. But the truth is, our success is judged by our whole floor. If we don’t succeed as a team, we don’t succeed at all.” She threw the toothpick at the garbage next to her desk. It landed on the floor.

“Sure,” I said.

“So I want you to be a coach. And I don’t mean Little League; I mean ice-skating. The ones who take sad little girls and starve and torture them into fucking magical ice ballerinas.”

I stared at her. I even looked behind me, as if she were talking to someone else.

“You want me to . . . teach people?” I asked when I found the office door still closed and the two of us alone.

“Well, I would rather think of it as bullying people, but sure. Whatever gets results.”

I had absolutely no interest in taking time out of my day to teach anyone how to do anything. I had one goal and one goal only: to get my fifth Harrison and complete the set. Everyone else could burn, for all I cared.

“I don’t expect you to do this out of the goodness of your heart, Pey,” KQ said, as if reading my mind. “I’m willing to make you an offer to sweeten the pot.”

“What’s that?”