Joy says, “I love the smell of a barn in the morning.”

Fox raises an eyebrow.

“It’s a joke. It smells foul as hell, but the cows are adorable. I heard they like to be petted. I probably shouldn’t try.”

“Probably. You can’t exactly ask them for permission. Like how with a dog, you can put your hand out to let them decide. I don’t think that works with cows.”

“That’s an excellent point.” She stares at him, considering his response. “You’ve thought about that before, haven’t you?”

“I have,” he says with grave sincerity. “I wanted a cow when I was younger, but my parents wouldn’t go for it.”

Joy makes her way down the line of pigs, saying hello to each one. If they seem friendly and interested in her, she takes a picture with them. “Did you grow up on a farm?” she asks Fox, who’s trailing her.

He shakes his head. “We just had a lot of animals. Dogs, cats, chickens, a couple of goats.”

“And where was this? Hmm?” She snaps a photo with a bright pink potbellied pig who keeps sniffing her sweater.

“Virginia.”

“That’s where you’re from originally?”

“Yeah. My parents are still there. My sister moved here with me.”

“Is she the other girl on your RoT account? The one with the blue hair?”

He nods. “And yes, she’s gray too.”

“I wasn’t going to ask,” she lies. “What’s her name?”

“Fiona.”

“So Fox and Fiona from Virginia move to California for college? Work?”

“College.”

“And loved it so much, they decided to stay.”

“Something like that.”

Moving on, the cows are also friendly and surprisingly do want to be touched. A reddish-brown cow who likes to have her ears rubbed ends up voluntarily resting her head in Joy’s arms. “Take a video,” she whispers near tears. “Quickly. Please.”

The rabbits and other small animals are next. Off to the side, in a room with open windows, their large pens are lined up in neat rows. All their ribbons are proudly pinned next to their name tags. There’s a large sign that says: Please do not open the cages or interact with the animals unsupervised!

“They must have seen you coming,” Fox jokes.

“That sign can’t stop me if I don’t read it.” Joy turns her phone over and over in her hands, eyeing Fox. “You wouldn’t be interested in taking some pictures with me, would you?”

“You want me in your pictures?”

“I didn’t say that.” She looks into the cage of a gray rabbit with long floppy ears named Umji snacking on some sprouts. “It’s just I’m having a really shitty day and the past half-hour has been significantly less so. I’d like to capture the moment. Accurately.”