The flowers were a useless feature, to be sure. They made the basket unusable for anything else. But the colorful bike probably sparked joy in everyone who saw it. Everyone save Victor.

How long had she been riding a bike home every day through one of the more dangerous neighborhoods in Providence? Icy fury replaced his confusion about her missing driver.

“Operation Good as New—that’s what we’ll call it. This new dynamic of ours,” she declared as she pulled the bike off the rack. “You’ll probably have to wait for me at the house. It usually takes me about an—”

He snatched the bike from her before she could finish that sentence and started walking toward his Audi.

“Okay, I guess we’re driving then,” she said with a wry chuckle, falling into step beside him. She whistled when she saw his car. “This one’s even more lux than Yaron’s. As Byron still says, noice! So you finally learned how to drive. That’s great!”

He opened the trunk and threw her bike in without answering.

But Dawn didn’t seem to need him to answer to keep going. “New York license plates. Does that mean you’re living there now? Is that the real reason you didn’t want me to do my internship or attend med school in New York like I originally planned?”

Again, Victor didn’t answer.

The car ride home was very tense. But only for Victor.

Dawn prattled on, catching him up on everything that happened over the last year. All of her new hobbies, her weight loss journey, her shocked reaction when Nitra Mello announced that she was leaving RSW: College Mic Drop after just one season.

She spoke to him like they were old friends all the way home. Which they weren’t.

After they arrived at the house he’d chosen as her prison, Dawn welcomed him inside like he was a long-awaited guest.

“So this is actually great timing,” she said as they walked through the door. “I just finished jarring up some homemade kimchi, so I can make my mom’s spicy garlic pork bulgogi tonight. Plus, I got this great bottle of Riesling that I picked up at the Newport Wine and Food Festival. It was kind of expensive, and I was saving it for a special occasion, but now you’re here. Serendipity!”

She dropped her purse on a side table and headed straight to the kitchen without waiting for his response.

Apparently, she expected him to follow her now. He did after a few baffled moments, slightly more curious than he was annoyed. When he entered the kitchen, he found her bent over a wine refrigerator stuffed with bottles.

Why did one person need that much alcohol?

“Found it!” She stood and held up a bottle of wine with an elegant white label on it. “Do you know this one?”