"I'm starting to wonder if my car's a lost cause. They've hung onto it for a long time now; they should have had time to get whatever parts they needed. I'd fly everywhere too but eventually somebody would wonder why I didn't have a vehicle in the parking lot. If it didn't rain so much here I'd get a motorcycle. Maybe I'll do that if there's better weather where I go to college..."

"Sounds like fun," he says. By which he means it sounds hot.

Bella finds that amusing. "I wonder," she says very deliberately, "if I'd look nice in all the requisite leather."

"You really fucking would," says Alice, happily.

She laughs. "Well, I wouldn't want to try it in this climate, but anywhere else... maybe this is an argument in favor of Stanford."

"Suddenly I really like Stanford. Where the fuck is Stanford, anyway?"

"Palo Alto, California," Bella says.

"Cool. Good motorcycle weather?"

"I think so. Maybe a little warm for it in summer. But I could go around not wearing a helmet and have plenty of wind in my hair. Or make the leather magically breathable."

"I love how you solve things."

"So do I," says Bella smugly.

Awwwwww. He hugs her leg.

Bella laughs and goes on petting him. "You are a strange, strange creature, Alice."