18. Grant
EIGHTEEN
GRANT
In a strange case of déjà vu, I see Lila before she sees me. She’s strolling up the sidewalk, peering into shop windows she passes, oblivious to me standing outside Perk Me Up. I don’t know much about fashion off of a mountainside, but her shorts and top combo looks effortlessly stylish but still entirely casual. She could be getting on a sailboat in Italy or boarding a private jet in Aspen. Or preparing to introduce a virtual stranger to boba tea.
A virtual stranger she’s claimed as her pretend boyfriend.
Yeah, it still sits weird. Too many qualifiers in there.
When her eyes hit mine, her grin sparkles. My stomach dips in return. I don’t want to lose whatever it is that makes her shine like that.
She beelines over to me, adding a little skip to her step. “Am I late?”
“Right on time.”
“Good. I’m usually late to things, but I wanted to be on time for you.” She wrinkles her nose, as though I wouldn’t appreciate that bit of information. “To show you the magic of boba tea, I mean. ”
“Of course.”
I open the door and trail her inside the coffee shop. A fresh, almost spicy scent drifts along with her. It’s delicious just like her—like a crisp summer day—but I can’t place it.
At the counter, she orders two boba teas from the young barista. I pay for them while the two talk, but Lila catches it.
“I was supposed to treat you.”
“Not this time.” It’s unlikely I’ll let her pay next time either, but she’ll figure that out eventually.
We stand at the counter while the barista prepares the drinks. Lila watches her progress so eagerly, she might as well be making grabby hands and saying, “Gimme.”
“Not to oversell it, but this is going to be your all-time favorite drink.”
There’s that sparkle in her smile again. I’m lost for it. If this is all it takes, I’ll drink boba tea with her every day.
“Better than water fresh from a mountain spring?” I tease.
“You won’t even have to filter giardia out of it.”
“I’m curious about the blobs in the bottom of the cups.”
Her sparkle dims a touch, but she nudges me with her shoulder. “Blobs. That’s the boba. They’re tapioca pearls.”
How did I not know that? I’d seen pictures of them, but had I ever heard what they’re made of? My stomach turns an unfortunate direction.
She nudges me again, leaving our shoulders touching. “What’s that face for?”
“My grandad used to eat tapioca pudding. It was his favorite dessert.” I shudder against her, thinking of the bland, gloppy dish. “I’m not a fan.”
“It’s not like tapioca pudding. They don’t taste like very much, really, they just add chewy goodness to the drink.”
“A chewy drink.” Maybe I should have thought this boba tea date through a little more .
She slips her hand around my biceps. “Stop with the gross face. You’re going to like it.”
“I feel like there’s an ‘or else’ in there.”
Her smile is all wickedness. “How perfect is this? We’re already finishing each other’s sentences.”
I’m in good shape, but this flirtatious side of her just might give me a heart attack.
The barista presents us with our drinks, and Lila releases me to claim hers. I take mine, examining it. It’s half tapioca. I have one very specific reservation about drinking it.
“Looks like fish eggs.”
“Says the man who swims with leeches,” she scolds before grabbing a table.
“I never eat the leeches.”
Lila’s already sipping at her straw when I sit down across from her. Eyes closed, triumphant smile on her lips, she savors the drink. I have never been so jealous of an inanimate object.
She opens her eyes. “So good.”
I take a drink of mine. The milk tea is pretty good—I’m more of a coffee drinker, but I like the flavor. Then I get one of the tapioca blobs in my mouth. It’s a little disconcerting, but she’s right. It’s got the barest hint of sweetness as I chew. Nothing at all like granddad’s gloppy pudding.
She leans forward, hands braced on the white formica table. “So? What’s the verdict?”
“Not bad.”
Her eager expression falls into an unimpressed glare. “I think you mean it’s incredible.”
I take another sip. “Passable.”
“A party for your tastebuds.”
“Tolerable, I suppose.”
She sits back. Eyes narrowing to slits, she’s frozen in place as she stares. Five whole seconds tick by. “Did you just quote Pride and Prejudice ? Or was that completely by accident?”
My smile might be as wicked as hers.
She slaps the table. “That’s a yes. I can’t believe it. I’ve never met a man who’s read Pride and Prejudice .”
“You’ve been meeting the wrong men.”
“That’s a fact.” She leans closer to jab a finger into my arm. “But you said it’s ‘tolerable.’ That means you’re secretly intrigued. By the end of the week, you’re going to be all in for this fair drink with the tapioca pearls and fine eyes.”
“I don’t want to think about eyes when I’m chewing these things.”
“You’re a fan now, and I won’t hear anything else.” She takes another happy sip of her drink. “What did you do last night after you dropped me off? Soak in your fancy hot tub?”
“I did. I turned all the lights off and looked up at the stars from the comfort of the jacuzzi.” I decide not to mention the opossum that wandered past in the dark. That might ruin any chance of her joining me there, and a man’s got to have a dream.
“Oh. That actually sounds nice.”
“You’re always welcome.” Probably shouldn’t admit just how welcome.
“Don’t offer because I will take you up on it.”
“That’s why I offered.”
“Okay. It might help my stiff muscles. Is it normal to be this sore after a hike?” She stretches her neck from side to side, and I have to stop myself from staring at all that beautiful skin.
“Of course. You’re not used to carrying so much. It makes sense you’d be sore.”
“Are you sore?”
“Why do you think I got in the hot tub?”
“It’s bad that I’m happy you’re sore too, right?”
I laugh. “Just a little. ”
She doesn’t seem all that concerned.
“That’s not the only thing I did last night. I also scrolled through Genuinely_Lila. ”
Her smile disappears, and her eyes drop from mine. Not the response I expected from someone whose account reaches so many thousands of followers.
“And?”
“You’re a great photographer.” That, at least, gets her to look at me again. “You’ve got a good eye for details.”
“It’s a useful skill to have in marketing.”
“No doubt. Rhett does all that for us, and he’s not nearly as talented as you are.” He doesn’t manage to breathe life into his subjects the way she does, either. Our accounts might do a little better if he tried.
She looks like she can’t decide whether to accept the compliment or deny it. “You don’t find it…insipid? Inane?”
Something tells me she didn’t land on those words by accident. I’m not a violent guy, but it’d be for the best if we don’t run across her old friend Josh anytime soon. Everything I’ve heard about him makes me want to land a punch.
“I won’t pretend it’s all relevant to me, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s clearly important to you, and that gives it value right there.”
She shakes her head. “I call shenanigans. It’s valuable because I like it? Feels like a line.”
I set my drink aside. “Princess, I have logged ungodly numbers of hours in World of Warcraft. I booked a trip to New Zealand entirely around visiting Lord of the Rings movie locations. I built a lightsaber from scratch. So, yeah. I think if something is important to you, it has value.”
A smile slowly works its way across her face. “Does the lightsaber work? ”
“It lights up, but I have to make the zzshm zzshm sounds myself.”
She laughs at the way I flick my imaginary lightsaber around. “You are such a glorious nerd. I love it. I want to see the lightsaber some day.”
Lila visiting me in Texas? Nothing sounds better. “Absolutely.”
She shakes her drink, redistributing ice and tapioca pearls. “I started Genuinely_Lila a few years ago to try to make friends, if you can believe it. I wanted to connect with people who like the same things I do—cute dresses, cheery motivational quotes, pretty places around the city.”
“You’re still posting about Seattle.” Nothing on her account indicates she lives in Oregon, let alone Sunshine. It’s all cityscapes and botanical gardens and coffee shops hundreds of miles away from here.
She straightens in her seat. “Yeah. I’m not sure my followers are very interested in Sunshine.”
“You could give it a try. There’s a lot of good photography opportunities here.”
I can’t tell if she’s going for a smile or a grimace.
“They’re two very different places.”
“Sure, but you’ve got endless natural beauty. Classic brick storefronts. And think of all the local shops you could feature.”
“Grant, no. It won’t work.”
“Why not?”
She casts around for an answer. “There’s no overlap between people who like big cities and people who live in small towns.”
“That doesn’t seem true. Don’t you think they would want to see the real you?”
“Real?” She draws back as if the word might bite her. “Like how my life fell apart all around me? You think I should share that with my followers? They don’t want to hear about that. Nobody wants to hear about that.”
“Lila, if you give people a chance?—”
“ No . If I start posting Sunshine’s buildings and parks and all their cute little shops, I promise you I will bleed followers. I’ve seen it happen to other creators when they try similar shifts. I just—” She splays her hands, begging me to understand. “I can’t lose the last scrap of success I have left, okay? Once that’s gone, I’ve got nothing. I’m not ready for that.”
Her belief she really has nothing else hits a sore spot in my heart. I take her hands in mine. Comfort I don’t deserve wells inside me when she holds on. “I’m sorry, princess. I shouldn’t have pushed. I know what it’s like to hold tight to the last pieces of normalcy in your life.”
Her deep sigh loosens her shoulders. “No, I’m sorry. I got worked up over nothing.”
She tries for a fake smile, and I hate that she feels she has to pretend. With me, for me, any of it.
“It’s not nothing. Your account is a big deal—you have every right to handle it however you want. It’s not my place to tell you what to do.”
How many times have Rhett and Dean told me I push too hard? Once. Twice. A thousand.
“I still find it mildly horrifying that you saw all that stuff.”
“Don’t be. I liked seeing another side of you.”
We still have our hands clasped on the table between us. I can’t tell if she’s forgotten that point or if she’s indulging in it the same way I am. I want to run my thumbs over her wrists, but if I do, it might wake her out of this spell we’re under.
“Was it better or worse than the side of me in the woods covered in black ants?”
“Princess, I like all your sides.”
We stay like that several moments, staring into each other’s eyes. It takes serious effort not to lean forward and kiss her right here in the coffee shop. I’ve half-convinced myself she would welcome it when she pulls her hands from mine.
“Do you want me to give you a tour of Sunshine?”
I grin. “Sounds perfect.”
I have no room to talk when it comes to Lila’s social media. My easy-going attitude right now is anything but real.