When I make it to The Flour Patch, after spending the whole ride deciding what to buy for supper tonight, Sukie isn't behind the counter. Just a sullen-faced boy I've seen here before. Simon, according to his name tag. 
                          
I glance around the café in search of her, and my eyes land on Niko and Cat sitting on the sofa in front of the window. She's playing with the end of one of the box braids cascading over her shoulder and he's tying his hair up into a floppy bun, and when he finishes, he leans over and plants a kiss on her blood-red lips. 
                          
Well, holy shit.
                          
I had no idea they were together. 
                          
Cat spots me, and she waves, beckoning me over. "Hey, Blaire! Wanna join us?"
                          
I take a seat opposite them, dumbfounded. "Hey, guys. Are you a couple?"
                          
Niko laughs and drapes his arm around Cat's shoulder. "I don't know. Are we a couple, babe?"
                          
Cat rolls her eyes at him, and puts her hand over his. "Considering we've been dating for two years and we live together, I think we're a couple," she says. 
                          
"I had no idea."
                          
"Sukie'll do that to you," she says. My blush flares, eyes widening, but then she adds, "She gets you so twisted up in The Anchor Lakey that it's kind of impossible to see anything else."
                          
Oh. Okay. Maybe she doesn't know that if I'm not thinking about The Key to Anchor Lake or The Anchor Lakey, then I'm thinking about Sukie. And seeing as she's so entwined in both the book and the podcast, she's basically on my mind a hundred percent of the time. 
                          
Cat excuses herself to the loo and when she's gone, I ask, "Did you meet because of Sukie?"
                          
Niko grins, eyes crinkling. "Nope. I did a job for Cat, laying down a new hardwood floor. And the chemistry was undeniable." He winks and says, "I'm not one to kiss and tell, but ... well, let's just say that what happened next involved a lot of the same words."
                          
I piece it together and a laugh bursts out of me when I realise what he's saying. "Oh my god. Lust at first sight then, I guess?"
                          
"One hundred percent. Can you blame me?" 
                          
"Not at all. Cat's stunning."
                          
He gives me a satisfied nod. "And then of course, we kind of entered the land of cliché and went and fell in love. We moved in together last year, and we've laid down a lot more hardwood floors since then."
                          
I choke, and he laughs. Cat comes back, eyeing us like we're a couple of naughty kids.
                          
"What've you two been talking about?"
                          
"Just our origin story, my darling," he says with a cheeky grin, kissing her cheek when she sits down next to him. Cat groans, shaking her head, so I change the topic.
                          
"Hey, is Sukie around today?"
                          
Cat grimaces. "You didn't hear?"
                          
My heart stops, my skin going clammy in an instant, my mouth drying out. "What?"
                          
Cat nods at the other end of the café. I didn't notice Sukie there before, and relief floods my chest to see that she's fine, sitting there in her apron, talking to ... oh.
                          
Oli's back. 
                          
"What's he doing here?" I whisper, leaning close to Cat and Niko. 
                          
"His first year's over," Niko says. "I guess there's only so long he could avoid his impending fatherhood."
                          
"Holy shit."
                          
"He got here, like, fifteen minutes ago," Cat says. "Didn't even say hi to us, even though I know he saw us. He went straight up to the counter and asked where Sukie was, and I swear she looked like she was gonna shit herself when she came out and saw him."