I nod. I can’t say the words out loud. Moving my senior year.

“I still don’t see what this has to do with Aiden.”

“My point—” She burps, a loud rumbling noise followed by a dainty laugh. “Is that this is your chance, Liv. A no-strings-attached, just-for-the-summer fling.”

Fling. The bottle is cool as I press it against my lips again. No-strings is so not my style. It’s my antithesis. I am basically one giant ball of strings and exposed nerves.

“You’re living summer by chance, right?” She points to the Magic 8-Ball, resting where I last left it on my desk. “Stop stressing. Let fate decide, and then roll with it.” She shakes and throws a pretend set of dice onto the carpet, and laughs. “It’s just for the summer, then you’ll be out of here. So if it turns out he’s a total douche-canoe … no big loss. You don’t even have to see him in a few months.”

“That’s true,” I say.

“Plus, I’ve never heard of Aiden having a girlfriend—I bet he’s down for a fling. Especially this summer.”

“Hm.”

“And how much more fun will your epic summer essay be, if it includes an epic summer love story?”

I shake my head like my cherry soda has gone bad. “No love.”

“Right, no love.” Her voice turns from serious to overly sultry. “Just kisses in stairwells and hot sex in … canoes.”

I almost spit my soda out. “Oh my god, stop. Canoe-sex is not on the table.” We both laugh, so hard we can barely breathe.

“Come on Liv, it’s like all of the fun, with none of the risk. Two months and you’re done.”

I hold my bottle up and she clinks it one more time. Two months and I’m done. With everything, apparently.

AIDEN

I was looking forward to seeing Liv at work, but when I get to the Depot my name isn’t on the assignment board. But I’m on the schedule, so I wander around looking for Ellis until Jaz points me toward the little office tucked away behind the corner of the gift shop that displays all of the t-shirts.

Even though the door is open it feels like I should knock, so I do. Ellis’s head pops forward.

“Hey. Where am I today?” I ask. “With Olivia on the docks?”

Ellis shakes his head. “Sorry, I meant to write it on the board. Your dad requested you today, said he needed some help at the Annex.”

“For how long?”

“All day?” Ellis shrugs. “I don’t know, he just asked me to send you over there.”