Just Try to Stop Me. Gregg Olsen

      * * *

      When he saw his aunt pull up in her familiar Prius, Elan jumped up and went outside to help her unload groceries.

      “Amber’s here,” he said.

      Birdy stooped to pick up one of her reusable shopping bags from the backseat. She shifted it into Elan’s outstretched arms.

      “Really?” she said, with mock seriousness. “Should I leave?”

      Elan scooped up a second bag of groceries. “You’re kidding, right?” he asked.

      She shut the car door with her hip. “Yes. Kidding, Elan. And really, I’m not so sure it’s a good idea to be alone with a girl.”

      “Nothing’s happening.”

      “Well if it does . . .”

      “We’re not having this conversation,” he said. “You know I’m not a virgin, Aunt Birdy.”

      Birdy looked right at him. “I didn’t need to know that, Elan.”

      “Well, I don’t care,” he said. “I just didn’t want you to think I was some loser and that I didn’t know what I was doing.”

      “Like you said,” Birdy sighed. “We’re not having this conversation.”