It was no surprise that I arrived early at the meeting place and yet Kenzie had beaten me there. She was at the table with her laptop, hair immaculate, and what looked like a set of two individual hair pins that were each one part of a heart, the heart split down the middle by a crack. She wore both halves, the pins set in her hair so the cracks meshed. I wasn’t sure if it was meant to be a ‘BFF’ style thing where each friend wore one, or if she was supposed to wear each pin on one side of her head. She wore a maroon dress with a pattern of black scribbled hearts, and black tights.

Her dad stood by. He wore a long peacoat, one side of the collar turned up against the wind. His hair had pulled away in strands that swayed with the wind.

The patio area was otherwise empty. The business it served was closed. There weren’t that many people on the street.

“Victoria is here,” he said.

Kenzie sat up to peer over the top of the screen, her eyes large.

“You’re early,” I said. I sat in the chair across from her, scooting it over so I could see past the laptop to her, and see Julien standing behind her. Considering we were nearly as close as we could get to the city center without being able to see the base of the portals, there weren’t many people around.

“I like seeing people arrive places. When they arrive and where they sit tells you things.”

“Does it?”

“Yep. People sit closer to people they have an affinity with. It’s not always people they like, but it’s usually people they relate to. And whether you’re a boy or girl matters. Girls tend to sit next to others or across from others, but guys sit diagonally across. Once you start noticing it, you’ll see it all over the place. It’s a puzzle.”

“You like that kind of thing, huh?”

She nodded.

I leaned back into the back corner of my chair, the armrest and the wall beside me supporting me as much as the chair back did.

“How’s your arm?” she asked. She closed her laptop and turned it over, pressing her hands down on the warm underside.

“Doctor said it’s healing well. I’ll spare you the gorier details. Physio started today.”

“What happened?” Julien asked.

“I told you this stuff, Dad,” Kenzie said.

“When you tell me things it comes in a stream. I pick out what I can.”

“I got shot,” I said. “In and out. I had to have two fragments of bone removed.”

“I’ve been shot,” Julien said. “Twice. Except I didn’t get physio or doctor’s appointments after.”

“I only know about the once,” Kenzie said.