Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 47287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
He shook his head and lit a joint. Tracy took it from him for a few hits and passed it back.
"Are you gonna—"
"Honestly, I don’t wanna talk about it, okay?"
River nodded. It was a firm rule among them that they all respected.
"You want to hear about how I’m a total bonehead instead?" River asked.
"Always," said Tracy.
"You? Impossible!" Nate said.
"Har har har." River glared at Nate, but the weed was making things soft around the edges and unknotting the snarl their stomach had been in since that morning.
They told Nate and Tracy the story of meeting Cassidy at the shelter, then accidentally insulting him to his face.
Nate frowned. Tracy’s eyes widened in horror.
"A Daniel Boone weirdo who stuffs animals for fun?" she repeated, dissolving into laughter.
"Wait, is that the coonskin cap dude?" Nate asked.
"I think that’s Davy Crockett?" Tracy said.
"It is. I googled it after," River muttered. "And Daniel Boone owned slaves, so clearly he’s awful in ways that had nothing to do with killing every animal he could. And I compared Cassidy to him."
"Oh no," Tracy groaned mockingly. "You compared a straight white man to another straight white man who was a hunting slave-owner; how will he ever recover from the inaccuracy and injustice? Please."
She blew out a scornful raspberry.
"I actually … kinda … maybe think he’s not totally straight," River said haltingly.
"Reaaaally," Nate said just as Tracy said, "How can you tell?"
River sighed. This was a source of exquisite discomfort for them and they were still working on how to explain it without a bunch of gender shit that felt bad.
River was nonbinary, so when people expressed attraction to them, they couldn’t really draw any conclusions about what that might say about people’s sexual orientation. Not that anyone could, for that matter, but it was especially difficult for River to parse people’s attraction to them. Which was fine, in practice, but when it came to attempts to speculate about whether feelings were requited, it left something to be desired.
"He told me to sleep well."
"When?" Nate asked.
"Today. This afternoon. Evening. At Craftmas."
"What time was it exactly?" asked Tracy.
"Um, doesn’t matter," Nate said. "Dudes don’t just tell random people they aren’t thinking about romantically or sexually to sleep well. Doesn’t happen."
"Surely it must happen sometimes?" Tracy said.
Nate gawked at her. "Do you go around randomly telling people to sleep well?"
She opened her mouth and then closed it.
"That’s what I thought. You say that to children, old people, and people you’re dating. The end."
"Also, he bought me a cookie. A gingerbread cookie."
"Okay," Nate drawled. "That could go either way."
"Yeah, some people are weirdly friendly," Tracy agreed. "Remember when Letitia Barrington paid my bar tab for no reason?"
River and Nate exchanged a look.
"Um, dude. Letitia Barrington didn’t want you to get arrested for underage drinking so she paid your tab to get you the hell out of the bar."
"Plus," Nate added, "she totally wanted to bone you."
"She … no she didn’t. Did she?"
"She absolutely did," River confirmed.
"But … but … she’s a librarian." Tracy spat out librarian as if she were saying priest.
"I think they repealed that law that said librarians weren’t allowed to experience attraction," River said.
"Shut up," Tracy grumbled. "Well, damn. Why didn’t y’all tell me earlier."
"Cuz it was completely obvious and we assumed you knew?" Nate said.
"Because you were still with Betsy," River corrected. Then they grinned and added, "And because it was completely obvious and we assumed you knew."
"Damn, missed opportunity," said Tracy.
"Not like she’s dead," Nate said with a shrug.
"Anyway, can we pivot from my pathetic obliviousness back to River’s?"
"Yes." Nate looked at River seriously. "You know what you have to do? Make it up to him."
Visions fell unbidden into River’s mind: dropping to their knees before Cassidy and apologizing; bringing him breakfast in the morning and watching him eat it; kissing a slow trail from his anklebone to his throat.
They shook their head to clear it.
"Uh. Make it up to him how?"
Tracy and Nate shared a smile.
"I’m sure you’ll figure it out."
CHAPTER 7
River
River had psychedelic video game dreams that they were still trying to wake up from when they got to the convention center to set up for the second day of Craftmas. That was what happened when you stayed up stupid late trying to defeat the Soul Tyrant in Hollow Knight while cats crawled all over you because you didn’t want the morning to come when you’d have to say goodbye to some of them.
Their stomach lurched at the sight of Cassidy already at his table when they got there. Nora, whom River had learned was Cassidy’s sister, was buzzing around, arranging the table and muttering to herself. Cassidy, two steps up a ladder, seemed to be able to tell which of her mutterings were actually directed at him and responded accordingly. Must have been a sibling thing.