“Daphne,” he says. “The first piece of advice anyone is going to give you for improving your situation is going to Big Louie’s. How is it possible you’ve lived here for . . .”
“Thirteen months,” I supply.
“Thirteen entire months,” he says, “and haven’t had their Petoskey fries.”
“What are Petoskey fries?” I ask.
He tuts. “No wonder you’re so depressed.”
“Is this place in Petoskey? Are we driving an hour and a half for fries?”
“No, they’re named after Petoskey stones.”
“Which are . . . ?”
The country road has reached a four-way stop, and he essentially pulls over to look at me. “Daphne.”
“Such an air of disappointment. Every time you say my name.”
“Was Peter keeping you locked inside a bunker?” he says.
“Just tell me about these rocks, Miles.”
“They’re fossilized coral,” he says, like this should be obvious. He eases off the brake and we roll through the empty intersection.
I say, “And this is connected to french fries . . . ?”
“Tenuously,” Miles answers. “But they’re amazing. The fries, I mean. They’re slathered in cheese and jalapeños.”
“Well, that explains why I’ve never had them,” I say. “Peter isn’t a big slatherer. He’s more of a wheatgrass-shot-and-lean-meat-after-leg-day kind of guy.”
“What?” Miles says, faintly amused. “You weren’t allowed to eat without Peter?”
I roll my eyes. “It wasn’t about ‘being allowed.’ I don’t know how to cook. He does.”
On our second date, he’d made me dinner. Salmon and asparagus and a keto-friendly pasta salad. I would’ve been less impressed to learn he was an Olympian. Cooking was the one thing Mom didn’t do while I was growing up. We lived on takeout, and weekly nacho nights. But Peter started every day with a green smoothie, and made dinner from scratch most nights. Peak domesticity, as far as I was concerned.
A couple months into living together, he’d tried teaching me the basics, but I always slowed things down too much, so I’d moved back to dishes duty.
“Wheatgrass.” Miles shakes his head. “You were a gym couple too, right?”
“I mean,” I say, “we were a couple with gym memberships.”
“And you went together,” he says. “On a regular schedule.”
We did. It was one of very few silver linings to our relationship ending that I no longer felt any guilt about not going. Peter was into pretty much every form of physical exercise, but I was slower and less coordinated than him, so the few times we’d tried hiking or biking, it was more frustrating than rewarding. At the gym, we could do our own things, but still spend time together. With how busy his job kept him, that time was valuable.
“We’re both really organized,” I say. “We did everything on a regular schedule.”
He gives me a look. The back of my neck prickles. “Fine, yes, we did that on a schedule too,” I say.
“Nothing wrong with that,” he says. “Life can get busy.”
I stare at him, trying to work out if he actually believes this, or if he thinks I’m hilariously boring. Maybe Peter thought it was boring too.
Misreading my expression, Miles says, “No, we didn’t have a schedule. But it could’ve been helpful. Sometimes, she and I fell into sort of living our own lives. But I’m not anti-schedule. Just anti-wheatgrass.”
I accidentally snort, a little disbelieving pony.
Miles’s eyes narrow on a grin. “I’ve never had wheatgrass in my life. With a knife to my throat, I’m not sure I could say what wheatgrass even is.”
“No one could,” I say. “But I’m talking about the calendar.”
“The calendar?”
“Yes, the calendar.”
He affects a look of innocent confusion. “Could you by chance be referring to the wall-sized whiteboard where you track your paychecks, your phone calls to your mom, and your menstrual cycle?”
“No,” I say, “I’m talking about the one where I track your complete unwillingness to plan ahead and stick to a schedule. Thus indicating you are anti-schedule.”
“I just didn’t realize how important it was to you to know where I was,” he teases. “Should I share my phone location with you?”
“No, it’s fine. I wouldn’t want to clip your wings, tether your spirit, all that.”
“I’ll put my stuff on the calendar,” he says. “If it really matters.”
I shrug. “It’s fine. Just don’t get mad if I come home while you’re in the middle of entertaining a lady fr—oh my god. This song actually is from A Star Is Born!”
