They were nearly finished packing everything away to leave when she caught sight of a reflective glint from beneath the bench. Reaching down, Syd picked up the object and waved it overhead.

"Oi, Amy," she yelled, "you dropped your phone over here!"

"Ah," her roommate distractedly replied from the next stall over. She had the field-stripped components of the cute purple Glock laid out in front of her, and was running a metal brush in and out of its barrel. "Thanks. You can leave it on the table."

"Sure, no problem," she said. "I'll just, um, put it down over here, then."

Without looking up from her work, Amy grunted in response.

A woman of few words, our Amy.

Syd glanced around furtively, and then, unable to restrain herself any longer, quickly traced out the pattern on the unlock screen.

It wasn't like she wanted to spy on her friend, she was just... you know, curious. Concerned. She was concerned. Amy had been acting strange all day, and she was starting to get worried. That was perfectly normal friend behavior, Syd told herself. Not at all weird or stalker-ish.

Okay, I guess maybe it could be considered a little teensy bit stalker-ish. But in an endearing way, right?

Anyhow, something was bothering her friend, and headquarters had assigned Great Detective Syd to the case. She would get to the bottom of this mystery. There's always only one truth!

Flicking a stray lock of hair out of her eyes, she started to skim through the phone's list of notifications, starting from the latest and working backwards. There had been a whole lot of texts recently, she noted, and that was unexpected. Amy wasn't exactly what you'd call a social butterfly.

Her curiosity piqued, she tapped the icon for the messaging app and started to read

"Hmm," Syd mused, speaking to herself but deliberately pitching her voice so that Amy would hear. "Well, well, well. What have we here? Ten new texts in the past hour? From an unknown sender? And there are image attachments, too?" She made a tutting sound. "Amy, you minx, have you been holding out on me?"

"Holding out? What?" Amy looked over, confusion written across her features. When she saw the phone was still clutched in Syd's hands, her tone grew dangerous. "Sydney, you promised me that you were going to stop digging through my stuff without permission. Are you reading my messages?"

"Um, yes, and my bad, but that's not important right now. What matters is that you went out behind my back and got yourself a mysterious new boyfriend! You're already far enough along to be trading sexts with him, and you didn't even think to tell me? I thought we were friends!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Syd. What's a sext?"

"Sexts! Sexy texts!"

"I don't have a boyfriend, Syd, mysterious or otherwise. You know that. And I've certainly never traded..." she made a face "...sexts with anybody."

"Oh, yeah? Then how do you explain this?" Glancing down at the phone in her hands, she started to read off the screen, pitching her voice low and seductive. "6:30 PM, finished moving in 2day," she began. "6:35 PM, lonely. 6:41 PM, missing u. 6:42 PM, cnt w8 4u 2 come by 4 a vzit. 6:42 PM, winky face, banana emoji, banana emoji, banana emoji." Breaking character for a second, she added, "Holy crap, people still write like this? What year is it?"

Amy sighed.

"I'm telling you, it's not what you think."

"Really? Okay then, let's take a look at these pictures your Romeo sent along with that last steamy message, shall we?"

This far out in the sticks, their cell reception had been bouncing back and forth between one and two bars all day, which made the image take forever to open. Even though she knew it wouldn't help, she shook the phone a few times, trying to encourage it to go faster.

Instead of showing alarm at the impending prospect of her deception being revealed, Amy just seemed resigned, and perhaps a bit... amused? That gave Syd a moment of pause. Everybody knew that Amy had the worst poker face on the planet. If she didn't look worried, that meant –

All at once, the picture finished loading.

"...huh."

"Let me guess: not what you expected?" Amy asked.

"...no, not what I expected at all." Syd repeated woodenly. "Amy, is your boyfriend... a monkey?"

"He's not a monkey, Syd. His name is Ook, and he's a gorilla." A pause. "Besides, I already told you, he's not my boyfriend."

"I'm... mildly concerned by the order that you chose to prioritize those objections – hold on, this isn't the same giant green space gorilla that tried to kill us yesterday, is it?"

"That wasn't his fault! The Zorvax were using him, just like they used Ryan. Nobody could figure out where he came from, and I couldn't exactly tell them that he was dropped off here by aliens. The city zoo offered to set up a temporary habitat for him. I, ah, might have called a couple times to check in with the head caretaker at the primate house and make sure he was settling in, okay?"

"I almost didn't recognize him. He looks a lot different when he isn't trying to rip your car in half with me inside it," Syd muttered, shaking her head slowly. "Ames, you know that I love you like a sister, but sometimes you make me worry. At this rate, you're going to wake up one day as a lonely old... what's the monkey-enthusiast equivalent of a cat lady?"

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"That's not a thing," she hastily replied. A second later, less forcefully, she asked, "It's not a thing, is it?"

"You're making it a thing." She squinted at the phone's screen. "Seriously, I know you've always been big on the whole save-endangered-species business, but gorillas aren't cute at all. I don't see the appeal."

"Well, what about you?"

"What do you mean, what about me? I don't have a zookeeper sending me dozens of candid monkey pictures – sorry, gorilla pictures," she quickly corrected herself before Amy could, "in the middle of the afternoon."

"I mean, lately you keep trying to pry into my personal life, but do you really have any room to talk? What about your situation?"

Carefully, Syd set the phone down onto the table between them before turning her full and undivided attention to Amy. Folding her hands beneath her chin, she leaned forward on her elbows, smiling widely.

"Please, elaborate on that," she invited, her tone all-too-innocent.

A long, awkward pause followed.

Syd stared expectantly at Amy.

Amy stared uncomfortably back at Syd.

Neither spoke.

"You and Ryan..." Amy eventually managed, then hesitated before beginning again. "Last night, on the couch in the living room... I... I saw everything."

"No duh."

"W-what do you mean, no duh?"

"I mean, no duh. We made eye contact and then you said eeep and slammed your door. The people in the apartment below ours probably heard it. Did you think you were being sneaky?"

"...and you're not... mad?"

"What is there to be mad about? My roommate sneakily flicking her bean while she watched me give a hot guy a blowjob?"

"Don't say it like that!"

"Oh, you don't like the phrase flicking your bean? Gosh, I'm so sorry! Should I have said that you were caressing your clam instead? Maybe you'd prefer if I called it buffin' your muffin, or petting your peach? Oooh, what about rubbing your – mmph hmmm mmmm!"

Syd squirmed, trying to escape from the judo headlock she'd been put into. After a few moments of futile thrashing, she tapped the tabletop to indicate her surrender, and Amy warily removed the hand that was covering her mouth.

"Gahh! That's so not fair," she complained.

Amy didn't immediately reply. Instead, she took a deep breath, her expression rigid, and looked down at Syd, who was still laying sprawled out across the table beneath her.

"Look, I'm happy for you two," she said heavily. "Really. Ryan seems like a great guy. You and him will make a great couple, I'm sure. And I'm sorry that I almost interrupted you two yesterday. It was a mistake, and it won't happen again. I don't want to come between you two –"

"Amy, I've been trying to give you hints all day. They weren't very subtle, but I know you can be kind of dense sometimes, so I'll go ahead and spell it out for you. I knew you were watching, and I'm totally okay with it."

"You – what?"

"I said I'm totally okay with it. Honestly, I thought it was pretty hot, knowing that you were on the other side of the door, watching us. If that sort of thing is what you're into, I'm not going to judge you for it." Their eyes met, and Syd smirked, arching a brow questioningly. "So, tell me, Amy... is that something you're into?"

Amy's expression was mortified, her complexion having gone pure scarlet in embarrassment long since, and the last blunt question caused the blush on her cheeks to deepen further. Under Syd's knowing scrutiny, she fidgeted uncomfortably.

"...yes," she finally choked out, as if making the admission physically pained her.

Syd put her small hands on top of her friend's larger ones, and her smirk shifted to a more genuine smile.

"Then it's fine. Hey, do you want to watch us next time, too?" Amy made a strangled sound. "I think tonight, if he's feeling up to it, we might go all the way." She waggled her eyebrows meaningfully. "Oh, but you should probably talk to Ryan about it first."

"There's no way I could do that!" Amy protested. Hugging her shoulders, she looked away, staring down at the floor. In a smaller voice, she continued, "It's so... weird, and... gross. If I told him –"

Syd gave Amy a flat, incredulous look.

"Ames," she said slowly, "you seriously think that if a tall, fit, smoking-hot blonde tells a dude that she wants to get naked and touch herself while watching him fuck his adorable new girlfriend's brains out, he's going to say no?" She laughed. "For someone who's spent so long working with guys, you really don't understand them very well."

"...you really think so?"

Standing up, Syd dusted herself off, then leaned back against the side of the stall and crossed her legs.

"Um, yeah? I mean, I haven't gotten into his browser history yet, but –"

"Yet?"

Syd blinked, then quickly made a dismissive gesture.

"Forget you heard that. What was I saying again? Oh, right. Ryan likes you, Amy. I've seen him checking you out. He's definitely interested." She ran her eyes up and down suggestively, taking a moment to admire the woman's athletic figure. "Who wouldn't be? It's just that you shut him down so hard last night, and I don't think he's the kind of guy to push. If you made him an offer, though...?"

"And... if..." Amy swallowed. "...if I wanted more than that? More than... watching?"

Clapping her hands to her cheeks, Syd pretended to be shocked.

"My stars!" she said, in a squeaky-high, affronted voice. "Who is this daring seductress, and what has she done with my boring, stuffy roommate? Amy Reid, are you offering me a threesome?"

"No! Well... maybe?" She groaned in frustration. "Argh, I don't know! All of this... it's not really something I'm used to talking about."

"Relax." She'd returned to her speaking normally, and gave Amy a reassuring pat on the shoulder before turning away. "Take your time. I don't want to pressure you into anything you're not comfortable with. We'll figure it out together, okay?"

"...okay." Amy nodded. "...thanks, Syd."

I think we've made enough progress for one day, Syd decided. If I push any harder, she might actually pass out, or explode or something.

Syd wasn't into girls. Not in that way. Or, at least, she didn't think that she was...?

This wasn't just any girl, though. It was Amy. They'd known one another forever, done everything together.

And it wasn't just Amy, either. It was this new, more open, and much more interesting version of Amy...

Hmm.

Well. Today had already been a day full of surprises. Who could say what excitement the future might hold?