“Carnivorous plants? Oh hell yes, they would love the shit out of that. Middle schoolers are psychopathic monsters, just as a rule, so they love anything that’s fucked up!”

“Great,” Carys said and squeezed Greta’s side.

“If you’re looking for people to help with building a garden, I know this group. They’re pretty rad older people who’ve done a lot of volunteering with different communities,” Greta offered. “I could ask if they want to help?”

“Dude, if they wanna volunteer, I will abso-fucking-lutely take them up on that because we have no damn money.”

“Cool, Greta can ask them about helping with the garden, and she can do a thing about carnivorous plants,” Carys said.

“Hell yes! I’ll get your number when we’re not, ya know, in a pool.”

“Okay, great, thank you.”

Greta’s head was abuzz with all the things she wanted to show the kids about the amazing world of carnivorous plants. First she’d have to get some here—it was much more interesting if she could demonstrate the way they consume and how they move. Surely there was a local plant store that had them in the city, given the climate.

Carys nuzzled her neck, and Greta turned into her embrace.

“Wow, thank you,” she said. “I never would’ve asked anything like that.”

“I know,” Carys said. “But sometimes you can’t wait around for someone to notice you’ve got something to offer. You’ve gotta offer it.”

Greta thought of all the times she’d hoped for opportunities to be presented to her. She’d worked hard to always seem responsible and dedicated. But she’d never been a squeaky wheel. She’d watched as other people were chosen for opportunities she would love to have and always figured it was because they were more qualified or more appealing than her.

Girls she’d wished would ask her out but that she’d never tried to ask out. Jobs she’d never been offered because she didn’t make her interest known.

Damn.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Carys backed her against the side of the pool and kissed her.

“Do you think I could…do that?”

“Of course you could, babe. Tana just invited you.”

“I guess I mean really do it. Like…when I was hanging out with Veronica the other day, with the bees, I was imagining what if I did live here and I grew lavender to scent her and Helen’s candles, and it seems like such a dream. But…”

She could picture how it would go. Her parents, devastated that she wanted to be so far away from them, feeling awful because she didn’t want to join the business. Adelaide, feeling abandoned. Ash, her best friend who needed someone to have fun with, to vent to, as his mom slipped further and further away.

“I don’t want to let everybody down,” she finished.