Page 42 of A Barista's Guide to Love & Larceny
Dani caught the inside of her lip between her teeth. She thought Oliver should let Asa decide that for himself, but she was the last person who’d make an unsolicited comment on someone’s decisions related to their family.
“I know, I know,” Oliver said quickly, a self-aware orange growing like a sunrise in Dani’s mind. “I should tell him the truth. And I will. But I need a little more time to try to figure it out on my own first. Well, not on my own,” they added on second thought. “Silva was waiting for me when I checked out of the clinic. We went straight to the arcanobotany lab. I showed her all the research I’ve been working on, and we picked out a few plants and made another charm together. Her colleagues gave her some suggestions on how to improve it, too, so I’m hoping it’ll be stronger than the last one.” They paused. “Silva also told me that—that you agreed to help us figure this out.”
Dani slid back into her usual spot behind the espresso machine. “Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, I did.”
Oliver looked down, pinching the bridge of their nose as if to stop themself from crying. “I can’t tell you how—I just can’t express how much—”
“You don’t have to,” Dani said softly. “I’m here for you, Oliver. Between all of us, I know we can figure this out. Now,” she said, rapping her knuckles on the counter to signal a change in subject, “do you want your usual, or are you in the mood for something different?”
At that, Oliver smiled. “Surprise me.”
Fifteen
Their first official meeting with Silva was the very next morning. Dani ducked out of her ten o’clock class a few minutes early, refusing to be late for this particular occasion. Her heart thumped ominously with every step down to the oneiromancy department, and the sound of voices trickling out of the dream lab only served to spike her anxiety even higher. She continued at the slowest possible wift, unhappy at the realization she would have to present herself to a group instead of being the first one there, as she’d planned. The glass to the lab was fogged, so she couldn’t even get the lay of the land before entering—a socially anxious person’s worst-case scenario.
Dani took a long, stabilizing breath. She could do this.
Everyone turned at the sound of her entrance, and Dani couldn’t stop her wince of apology, well-rehearsed after years of chronic tardiness, even though she wasn’t late this time. “Um, sorry.”
“There’s no need to apologize,” Silva said. She stood behind the desk at the front of the room, scrolling through her quartzpad like she was getting ready for a normal lecture. “Come in and make yourself comfortable.”
Dani’s gaze passed from the professor to the people staring at her from the cots. She realized she recognized all three of them. Katya was sitting closest to her, her usual expression of vexed boredom freezing her facial features, which she’d accented with white swoops of eye shadow and a septum ring. She was wearing a long mauve trench coat over her usual pseudo-uniform, this time with silver boots that matched her hair.
Next to Katya was Oliver, whom Dani had just seen before class. With their roommate still away, they’d spent the night in Dani and McKenna’s apartment, and the girls had taken turns waking up to make sure they didn’t fall into too deep a sleep. So far, though, the new charm seemed to be doing its job. Oliver waved cheerfully when her gaze fell across them, hand half hidden by the overlong sleeves of their mushroom-print pullover.
The last person she knew the least, and it took her a moment to place where she’d met him: Kass’s party. He’d been the frat guy who very openly hated Kass’s guts. She couldn’t remember his name, but he was still excessively handsome, with sparkling white teeth, a slicked-back crew cut, and a complexion far too clear to belong to a college student. His look was old money, with a luxurious cable-knit sweater and khaki pants cuffed over saddle shoes.
All together, her peers provided a nearly complete sampling of the student population at the Leap, of which Dani, sharply self-aware as always, suspected she was the missing element. She gave a stilted wave and stumbled over to an empty cot in their midst.
“Do you all know one another?” Silva asked. She’d set aside her quartzpad and was observing them with what appeared to be a light interest.
Katya and Oliver both nodded. Dani and the boy looked at each other.
“Hey. I’m Wyatt, he/him. Not sure if we’ve met before.” He stretched to offer Dani his hand. She took it, not wanting to seem rude, and allowed her fingers to be strangled in his overconfident grip. As they shook, his sleeve pulled back to reveal a state-of-the-art Swiss watch, complete with the current weather floating behind the hands.
“Only briefly,” she said. “At that party on Friday night.”
“Oh yeah,” Wyatt said. “You were with that super-hot girl. Mackenzie, right?”
“McKenna.”
“Right. She totally ditched us, by the way. Think you could put in a good word for me?” He winked.
Dani laughed. “McKenna does what she wants.”
“Guess she didn’t want me, then.”
The words landed in her brain with a splash of muddy brown—McKenna’s rejection had made him pissier than he would’ve normally admitted.
“Ugh,” Katya said. “Stop being a douche, Wyatt. Don’t pay any attention to him, Dani, he’s a total ass.”
Wyatt pulled back on his cot, donning an air of offendedness like a cravat. “Moi?You wound me, Kat.”
The girl rolled her eyes. “I’ve known Wyatt since he was a baby first-year at orientation,” she told Dani. “He hasn’t improved much in the past two years.”
“Come on, Kat,” Wyatt said, some minor aggravation bleeding through his chipper tone. “Can you go one minute without trying to take a dig at me?”
“Can you go one minute without winking like a fucking weirdo?”
