Page 19 of Shapes of Love
Shirley glances at an overnight bag sitting in the back of the car. “I have an idea.”
Shirley didn’t tell me much about their plan. They just grabbed the bag and told me to trust them, and to text Kai their number. It’s been thirty minutes and I have no news from them. The paparazzi are still stationed outside the building, and I’m stuck in the car.
Students my age whizz past the car on scooters. I fetch a mask from my backpack and tug it tight around my face, feeling invisible eyes on the back of my neck, but no one seems to recognize me through the dark windows.
I hate that I can’t do anything. That I didn’t see this coming. I should have just stayed at the meet and greet. I pull at the end of my ponytail until my scalp hurts. I don’t know how Shirley expects to sneak Kai past the press, but—
“We’re back in one piece!” Shirley gets back into the car with a camouflaged Kai behind them.
Well, camouflaged might be the wrong word. Kai’s wearing a shark onesie, his face concealed by a row of fluffy teeth and a mask.
“Ley, you’re a genius.”
“We got lucky. I had the shark onesie in here from a video my friends and I filmed a while ago. I figured no one would expect Kai to walk out in a ridiculous outfit, so they didn’t pay attention to us.”
“Thank you for the rescue.” Kai lowers his mask and the shark hoodie and breathes out a sigh of relief.
“Are you okay?” I ask, leaning into the back seat to hug him. I give Shirley a quick squeeze, too. “Thank you.”
“I’m okay,” Kai says. “If it came down to it, I could have jumped out a window—”
I huff. “Don’t pull a Mr. Rodriguez again.”
“You still remember that?”
“Wait, what’s a Mr. Rodriguez?” Shirley asks.
“Our friend Mia took this baking class, and Kai wanted to try one of the cinnamon rolls she made, so he tried toclimb up the window while our teacher, Mr. Rodriguez, went to the bathroom.”
“The plan was for Mia to hand me one, then I was going to jump out the window before our teacher could come back, but…” Kai looks down in embarrassment.
“His foot got caught on the curtains, which swung him back into the room, and he crashed onto the counter. It sent everyone’s cinnamon rolls flying.”
My expression threatens to waver. I still remember those hazy evenings after school—the weight of my backpack bumping against my waist as Kai, Mia, and I walked home, sharing whatever Mia had baked, the sky turning into a blend of soft blue and pink.
“Those cinnamon rolls were worth the rolled ankle.” Kai throws me a challenging look, but he smiles, as if caught in the memory as well.
“I can see why you two are friends,” Shirley says, before turning to Kai. “I’m Shirley, by the way. I work with Sasha.”
“They’re my producer. Literally the best in the world.”
“Kai.” He shakes their hand as best he can in the shark onesie, then looks between us, relaxing against the heated seat. “Sash, can you please catch me the fuck up?”
Marissa and Kai sit on opposite ends of my kitchen table, engrossed in their phones. I text Shirley to thank them for driving us and to apologize again for having to cancel our session.
“Would you like something to drink?” I ask Kai and Marissa. Silence spreads like specks of dust in the air. I hate it. I feel like I’ve done something wrong, and I’m about to get scolded. “I’m going to make some tea.”
“Let me help,” Kai says, getting up to rummage through my cabinets. I give him a look. “I still know where everything is. I can help.”
“What if I rearranged my cabinets?”
He smirks. “As if you’d get rid of the system.”
“The system?” Marissa raises an eyebrow.
“Sasha likes to stack her favorite cups in a specific order, right?” he says, looking at me for confirmation. “She chooses a different cup depending on her mood.”
He remembered. I give him a small smile.
