“Can do,” Kenzie said, before tossing the handful of crumbs into her mouth. “I always do, I think.”

“It’s a huge step forward that you’re giving what sounds like good relationship advice,” Tristan said.

Yeah. That was probably as diplomatically stated as it could be, considering. Chris would’ve been meaner about it. Maybe it would have been better to leave it unsaid, though.

“Thank you,” Kenzie said. “I know I’m a fuckup when it comes to relationships.”

“Not how I’d put it,” Tristan said.

“I am, though. I always was and now I’ve gone and fucked up my whole relationship with the new team, and they don’t want anything to do with me. When I saw them because I had to it was super awkward and stiff and…” she huffed out a breath, smiling. “Really, really sad, because of how awkward it was. I get why you’re afraid, Tristan. They say it’s better to have loved and lost and it really, really isn’t.”

“Isn’t it?” Sveta asked.

“Not when you put your everything into that love,” Kenzie said. “Not when it happens over and over. You can only lose everything so many times.”

I put my arm around her shoulders and hugged her closer. I could feel the vibrations through her head as she crunched down on bits of deep fried food that were still in her mouth. Given the force of the chew, the bits had probably deep-fried into chunks of pure carbon.

“I didn’t mean to rub a sore spot,” Tristan said.

“You didn’t. I’m just sore in general. So you need to go find your romance so I can live vicariously through you, okay? Or try. But make the call.”

“Okay,” Tristan said. “Later. I can’t do it from here.”

“Vicarious romance, Kenz?” Sveta asked. “Is this a new interest?”

“No,” Kenzie said. “No, not really. I have some people I might like-like but I talked to Candy about it and Candy says I might be in love with the idea of being in love, which is different from infatuation, which is what Darlene has, which is different from love, which is what Parian and Foil have. I was already going to move super slow so I wouldn’t do anything dumb and ruin it all, but now I can’t and won’t do anything because they hate me.”

“Hate isn’t the right word,” I said. “You might be reading too much into this. It might be worth taking your own advice, and just… confronting them?”

“The difference is I don’t need to call to know. It’s like I picked up the phone and then I overheard something, and I got something more honest than if they said anything to my face.”

“A biased take.”