Benjamin and Felicity came throttling down in the RV a few days later.

  Well, Irish Navajo, along with their loyal hound Triple H, walked over to meet Benjamin and Felicity. We couldn’t just leave him behind in my parents’ house, and right now being singer-songwriters didn’t pay the bills enough to afford a dog kennel for him for the next few days.

  Of course, we didn’t let them know that. Instead, once Benjamin’s RV had pulled up, we made sure to steadily sneak up to the RV’s door with Triple H in our hands and out of sight once Benjamin had left the driver’s seat behind.

  Felicity opened up the door, and soon she got a front-row seat to Triple H’s slobbery snout and penchant for kissing all things new to him.

  “Nathan,” she hissed through horrible breaths, “get your mutt off me!”

  “He likes you,” I said.

  “Don’t tell me you want to bring him with us too?” Benjamin moaned.

  “We can’t afford a dog kennel for him, being poor students after all,” Winona said.

  “We’re talking about the mutt here, not Nathan, Winona,” Benjamin countered.

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  The sniping comment should’ve hurt me, but it didn’t. Maybe I’d heard enough from Benjamin. Maybe I’d heard too many like it before. Regardless, Winona and I steadily walked our way into the RV, unperturbed by whatever put-downs might be thrown at us.

  “Well then, I’ll pay for some stupid dog kennel!” Felicity sputtered out between desperate breaths. “Just so long as you get this thing off me!”

  Winona would’ve liked to see Felicity struggle more, but I did as I was told and took Triple H into my arms to get him off her. At least she wasn’t dressed in her Sunday best. In fact, it wasn’t really the stylish Felicity I knew.

  Soft blue jeans and a black band T-shirt with the words HADESTOWN printed in big, bold red letters. That wasn’t a band, however. It was a musical — something I only knew because Winona prided herself on being the world’s biggest Hadestown stan in existence. Ana?s Mitchell, the creator of Hadestown, also happened to be one of Winona’s favourite songwriters too.

  And so was Ani DiFranco, who performed as Persephone on the Hadestown CD. And a plethora of other facts and things that she talked my ear off about as we played through one round of Overwatch or another last night. So many facts — I could never hear the end of it.

  The T-shirt didn’t go amiss with Winona, either. She steadily helped Felicity up from the ground, and I hoped this might actually be the thing that helped build a bridge between them.

  That, and being the unwanted source of Triple H and all his affectionate kisses. He started to whine in my hands.

  “You can’t come, sorry boy,” I said.

  He whined again.

  “Look, once we come back, I’ll spoil you with the biggest steak I can find in O’Brien’s discount section. Happy?”

  He barked happily. We were best friends, once more.