“Heyo”

  “Hello,” Ever texted back, a smile on his face. “What are you up to?”

  “At home, just taking it easy.” No sooner had the message landed that a new set of message bubbles appeared–then they disappeared shortly afterwards.

  Ever leaned back on the park bench, scanning the open, green grass. Thirty feet away he could see his silly sausage rolling and twisting in Zeus knows what, like a kransky that was starting to pop and sizzle on a smoking pan. The cold had well and truly settled in by now. While it didn't snow closer to the city, that didn't mean that the chill didn't bite. He stood up, shifting his weight from foot to foot while typing out a new message.

  “Did you still want to see work fires tomorrow?”

  “Do you mean the end of year fireworks? ??” She added: “Thankfully I don’t see many actual work fires in my line of work.”

  “Anyway yes, of course! Wouldn’t miss it for the world. Got to make our New Years Resolutions, right?”

  Ever was going to ask what ‘New Years Resolutions’ were when a new message came in.

  “Sup.”

  His thumbs hovered over the screen for a while as he stared at the greeting that floated next to the initials, “T.P.”

  “Taylor?”

  “Yep, It’s me”

  Ever narrowed his eyes slightly. “Prove it.”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Ever looked up again. Mimi was barking and sniffling a leashed dog, which also happened to be a dachshund.

  His phone vibrated. He unlocked it, bringing up the new message from Taylor. It was a photo of her in a black tank top. Her skin looked darker than before. She was fanning herself with her hand, tongue sticking out.

  “Happy?”

  “Yes. Good to see that you haven’t been kidnapped this time.”

  “Dude let it go, I said I was sorry. ??”

  Ever gave a wry smile. “How’s Mexico?”

  “HOT AF”

  “Yeah, you look hot.”

  “You think I look hot? ??” Bouncing bubbles. “Wonder if I should screenshot this and send it to the vet.”

  Ever had a flash of panic. “No, don't.”

  “I kid. How are you and her doing?”

  “Good. We…” he thought about how much he wanted to tell Taylor. After starting over a few times, he just sent off: “Good.”

  “Have you ?? her yet?”

  “What?”

  She added a ?? expression to his flummoxed response.

  “You know… have you ?? ?? ???”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  This time, she added a ?? emoji to his response.

  Ever replied back with a ??. Before changing the topic: “Logan fired me after you left.”

  “WHAT?”

  “Yeah. He said business was too slow in winter.”

  “That son of a bitch. He didn’t say anything when I messaged him last week.”

  The balls barely had time to bounce now between messages. “I’m going to rip into him now.”

  “Hey if I don’t message you again, HNY. Tell Zoe I said hi.”