Cosima’s response was cut off by the blaring of her phone. She raised an index finger and mouthed she would be back before disappearing into the kitchen to take the call. He sat on the couch, scrolling through his phone, stopping to listen to an adorable voice note Lorraine had Nia send where his daughter chatted excitedly about her first time in the ocean. Lorraine followed it up with a few photos of her playing at the beach, and Tristan couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across his face. There was nothing that made him happier than seeing his baby happy. He was still looking at the photos observing how Nia smiled so widely that her eyes narrowed into little slits when Cosima returned holding a package in her hand.

“This got delivered just before I was getting ready to leave today, and now my friend, Navi, is on the phone demanding that I open it right this moment,” she said, ripping the box open to pull out a smaller white package. Tristan was barely able to catch more than a flash of pink before Cosima was trying to shove it back into the larger brown box it was shipped in. She must have caught the confused look on his face because she instantly let out a nervous chuckle and said, “I don’t think Navaya expected me to have company when I opened it.”

“Oh?” he asked, smirking as he got up from the couch and crossed the space between them. He perched on the back of the armchair where she was sitting. “All that did was pique my interest, to be honest.”

For a few seconds, he thought she wouldn’t satisfy his curiosity, but eventually, she pulled the thing she’d been so desperate to hide out of the box and handed it to Tristan.

“Sex toys for everyone,” he read aloud, looking at the bright pink depiction of a U-shaped toy against the white box.

Cosima scrunched her nose. “Navaya has been threatening to buy me one of these for ages now since I showed a little bit too much interest in how often she and her husband use these in public, but she had to wait until I was single to actually do it.”

There was a lot to process in that sentence. Tristan handed her back the box and asked, “Run that by me again?”