"Stiff, really?"
I laugh. "Yeah. Stiff."
"What about when Imogen booty called you?"
"She made it comfortable, by being straight with me, but it was nothing compared to the second time. Or the third. It gets better, the more comfortable you get with someone."
"She does have a lot of game. I mean, she's cute, but kind of… quiet. I didn't expect that."
"Quiet is good. Thoughtful."
"Yeah, she is that."
The barista calls her name and drops off our drinks.
Julie pounces, sips, sighs. "This is good."
I take mine. "Should we walk?" When she nods, I lead her out of the coffee shop.
Julie surveys the sleepy street the way Imogen does, taking in everything around her carefully. "I was never nervous when I dated guys. I like guys too. I don't know why it's different."
"Did you really like them, the guys?"
"Kinda. But not the way I like her," she says.
"That's different."
"Yeah. I guess. I should talk to her, huh?"
I nod.
"You're too mature. It's annoying."
"Thanks."
"You're probably going to tell me something dumb with Imogen too. Like, wait for her to come around. The more you push, the more she'll run away. Trust is a two-way street."
"You said it well enough."
"I know." She glances at the bar where Imogen and I experimented. "But I miss her so much. The closeness we had before everything got so weird."
"How did it happen?" I ask.
"I don't know. I guess it started when she went to school. Maybe that's most of it. Maybe this is part of growing up. But it's more than that. She's different when she's home. She's not all the way there." Julie eyes the plates of stacked waffles and tofu scrambles. "That looks good."
"You want to stop?"
She shakes her head. "We used to share the secrets we kept from our parents. She stopped."
"That is part of growing up," I say.
"But what about the rest?"
The rest… I know. But I can still answer as a kid sibling. "If I tell you something, you have to promise to be cool about it."
"No way! What if you tell me you're cheating on my sister?"
"About me. My family."