Birding with Benefits

Chapter 19

“Just please ignore anything Maria says or does, okay?”

Celeste paused with her hand on the doorknob. She was in a white tunic fashioned from a sheet, her usual ponytail twisted into an elegant braid. Sprigs of gray-green leaves sprang from her plait—she’d arrived a few minutes late after stopping to pull some twigs from an olive tree in her neighborhood.

Unfortunately for John’s resolve to banish non-birding thoughts of Celeste from his brain, she looked magnificent. The white of the fabric played off the subtle tan of her skin, and the hairstyle left her long neck completely exposed.

He tore his eyes off her skin and tugged at the pleather jacket she’d shoved into his arms on the porch after thumbs-upping the rest of his getup: khaki pants, wrinkled button-down, and a brown fedora he’d borrowed from Chris. “What are you expecting?”

“She’s just excited to meet you. Probably too excited. Layla and Andrea really talked you up after bowling, and…” Celeste looked down and fiddled with the rope around her waist, leaving John to guess at whether Celeste had told Maria about the kiss.

Celeste cleared her throat and looked back at the door. “Anyway, you ready?” She took a breath, turned, and opened the door, revealing a large, open-plan living room and kitchen, half-full of people in all sorts of costumes. More than one superhero stood chatting, drink in hand, but John’s view of the room was quickly obscured by a woman with bronze skin and thick black curls. She was in all red, with yellow and red wristbands and a Wonder Woman tiara on her head. Her hands went straight to her hips as she assessed first Celeste, then John, from head to toe and back again.

“Heroes and villains, honey.” This was directed at Celeste, who adjusted one of the olive twigs in her braid. “Where’s the spandex?” Her eyes drifted back to John, and she smiled. “Hmm, the man himself. I’m Maria.”

He accepted the hand she offered for a shake and gave a nod in greeting. Maria stared openly at him for a minute, her eyes making another pass of his body.

Celeste cleared her throat. “How you doing, babe? Feeling okay about the party?”

Maria sighed, her shoulders slumping for just an instant before she straightened back up. “Yeah, it’s fun so far. Not like the other years, because I’m an exhausted shell of myself, but glad we’re doing it. Just do not go in my bedroom, because it holds every piece of laundry in the house right now.” She picked at the shoulder of Celeste’s tunic. “And you are…?”

Celeste gave a small spin, sending the fabric flaring at her knees. “An incredible heroine, of course—Hypatia of Alexandria! I’m surprised you don’t know about her,” Celeste said seriously. “She was a mathematician, you know, just like you. And an astronomer and philosopher. One of the great women thinkers of ancient Greece. She was a pagan who tried to remain neutral as tensions rose between Christians, Jews, and pagans, but eventually she was torn apart and dragged through the city.”

John chuckled. Celeste had sent him several links about Hypatia, but she seemed especially intrigued by her cause of death. “Some also consider her the last head librarian at the Library of Alexandria,” he chimed in.

Maria grinned. “Well, we love librarians around here. Especially the outdoorsy kind.” Something passed between the two women John couldn’t understand before Maria cleared her throat and looked back at John. “Waiting to see how Celeste warps the party theme is always a thrill. Last year was the eighties, and she came as an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary.”

“Which was published in eighteen eighty-four,” Celeste said earnestly. “You never specified the century.”

Maria invited them all the way inside as she narrowed her eyes at John. “I’m almost afraid to ask who you are.”

Celeste swept her long arm up and down in front of John. “Give it a minute. Take in the whole look.”

John squirmed as both women stared at him, forcing himself to keep his chin up. He’d done his best to look the part, even wrinkling his button-down before putting it on. Finally, he cleared his throat. “Just imagine me with a whip.”

Maria’s eyes went wide. “Oh, I don’t think I will.” After another moment, she turned to Celeste with a raised eyebrow. “If you’re a hero, he’s supposed to be a villain. That’s how the whole thing works.”

“Indiana Jones was one hundred percent a villain,” Celeste said emphatically. “I watched this whole set of videos about it the other night. Think about it. The guy is plundering Indigenous sites all over the world and stealing their stuff!”

“But he was a professor!” someone holding a Captain America shield interrupted. “Didn’t he work for a museum?”

“The history of museum acquisitions in the West is very closely tied to imperialism,” John rebutted. “Most museum collections are fairly problematic.”

That earned a smack on his shoulder from Celeste. “Exactly! Problematic is right; listen to my date.”

When he’d suggested his villain costume, Celeste had responded with an outrageous stream of excited emojis, making him oddly proud. They’d texted consistently since their photo hunt in the park, planning costumes and chitchatting with remarkable ease. She’d congratulated him on getting the contest photos up on his Instagram profile, complete with the correct tags, and he’d recommended some resources for a unit she was planning on literature set in southern Arizona. And while every notification on his phone made his breath hitch, texting seemed safe. Distant.

But now she was right next to him, lecturing Captain America about the military-industrial complex while her fingers toyed with her belt. He flexed his hands at his sides, imagining the twist of rope in his palm.

He was saved by the appearance of a white man with spiky blond hair and a baby held tight to his chest in a woven purple wrap. One hand rubbed circles on the baby’s back as the man wedged himself next to Maria. “Babe, I cannot find the little croissant things.” His mouth lifted into a smile at the sight of Celeste. “Hey, Cel. Glad you’re here. But I need Maria. I really can’t find—”

“The croissant things, I get it.” Celeste smiled and brushed the top of the baby’s head with her fingers.

Maria nodded toward the party in progress. “Go forth, you two. Drinks are in the cooler by the couch. Andrea and Layla are already here, and some other folks from school, too. Games start in a few minutes!”

She wrapped a hand around her partner’s waist and laid a soft kiss on the baby’s head as they went to find the croissant things.

Celeste tugged at her hair as she looked across the room. “Okay, I guess we should—” She motioned toward the crowd, where John recognized a few of her coworkers from the bowling alley. Andrea was moving toward them fast, an ankle-length fur coat swishing around her legs. Celeste kept her eyes on John, looking uncertain. They hadn’t discussed their ground rules again since enthusiastically breaking them.

His fingers brushed hers as he leaned in closer. “Boyfriend reporting for duty?”

Celeste’s teeth closed over her bottom lip as she avoided eye contact. But as Andrea paraded toward them, her fingers tangled with his.

Soon Andrea was upon them, primping a black-and-white wig. “Well, if it isn’t two of my favorite bowlers. So nice to see you again, John.”

“Nice costume, Andrea,” Celeste said. “Is Bridgette here, too?”

Andrea beamed toward a willowy figure near a bookshelf, sporting a headband of furry black-and-white dog ears and a lot of polka-dotted spandex. “Doesn’t she look amazing? Our costumes were her idea. And you two look… cute, even if I don’t know what you are.”

John tipped his fedora. He’d watched a couple of YouTube clips to get the gesture just right. “I’m Indiana Jones. Celeste is Hypatia, an ancient Greek scholar.”

Andrea rubbed at the faux fur along her collar. “Oh. Okay.” She shrugged. “You guys should have come in a couples’ costume! You know, Batman and Poison Ivy or something. Since you didn’t have to come alone like last year, Celeste.”

Celeste stiffened at John’s side, her fingers flinching in his hand.

“Didn’t Hy—” Andrea paused, frowning.

John spoke up. “Hypatia.”

She nodded. “Right. Didn’t Hypatia have a special Grecian guy?”

Celeste shook her head. “As a matter of fact, she didn’t. Hypatia was celibate.”

This seemed to shut Andrea up for a moment before she blew out a loud breath. “Oh god, can you imagine?” She leaned in close to Celeste but winked at John. “Good thing you don’t have to worry about that, girl.”

Andrea moved on to greet someone else, but Celeste’s fingers stayed curled over John’s knuckles. “Jesus, that woman. She and Bridgette are like a salt-and-pepper set, always matching. Apparently they’re ‘couple goals’?”—she used air quotes on the last words—“but no thanks. If I ever need a reminder of why I’m single, I just think about how Andrea won’t even make plans without checking Bridgette’s calendar.”

Celeste pushed her shoulder into his. “The celibacy line gave her a shock, though. Though you think that was true? Like, sure, she was a scholar and never married, but would a smart-ass woman like that let convention control her? I bet if she wanted sex, she got it.”

John had been trying hard as hell to not put Celeste and sex in the same sentence, even in his thoughts. Hearing the word from her mouth was the dangerous slide of a key into a lock, threatening to open the store of fantasies he’d been trying to shut down.

Her thumb swiped across his knuckles once, twice.

Their eyes caught. Celeste’s free hand rose quickly to fiddle with her braid, her lower lip drawn between her teeth. Her lips parted as her gaze lowered to his mouth.

“Attention all heroes and villains!” Maria’s shout broke John out of the fantasy. Celeste dropped his hand as Maria claimed everyone’s attention.

“If everyone will please head outside, we will let the games begin!”