Chapter 85 (1/2)

And the way her lips tasted like candy and I wanted more.

I need to think about something else. Anything else.

Cakes. Big fluffy cakes with piles of purple ice cream and intricate little flowers.

Notthe icing that was smeared on her shirt. Cakes and cooking and nonsexy things, like her cooking.

I do enjoy Nora’s food. She’s a hell of a cook.

Thinking about her cooking reminds me of cakes, which reminds me of Ellen’s birthday tomorrow. I still have no idea what to get her. I was going to ask Dakota for help, but that’s obviously not in the cards now.

“Are you good at getting people gifts?” I blurt out.

Nora turns to me, her brows furrowed, and she cocks her head. “Huh?”

I cringe at my own awkwardness. “Like for birthdays and stuff.”

“Sort of. I mean, I haven’t bought anyone a gift in a while, but I can try to help. Who’s it for? Dakota? Maybe you can get her something dance-related, or a new yoga mat or something.”

I didn’t even know Dakota was into yoga. It’s a strange thought that Nora knows things about her that I don’t.

“It’s not for Dakota. It’s for this girl I know.”

Yikes, that sounded weird. Maybe I should explain it’s for this seventeen-year-old girl, so not really someone . . . no, wait, that sounds worse. And would it be even worse still if I now backtracked and explained that it was for a neighbor, like I was expecting Nora to care, like I was somehow hitting on Nora or something?

Ugh, I don’t understand these things.