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“You’re so lucky you’ve got your own place.” Andy slouches down in the booth, swiping her drink from the table and sucking back on her straw. “I’m sick of my mom always texting me, wondering when I’m coming home, who I’m with, blah, blah, blah.”

“I don’t have my own place,” I tell her. “I live in Tate’s apartment.”

She rolls her eyes. “You know what I mean. I doubt Tate’s on your ass about where you are and when you’re going to be back.”

I scoff. “Have you met Tate?” The man is a worry wart when it comes to me.

She shrugs with a knowing, “Eh, I suppose.” Her eyes drag from where Micha stands at the bar, having stopped on his way back from the restroom to chat with someone he knows. “How is it living with Tate?” Her eyes drop to the diamond on my ring finger. “Being engaged?”

“It’s good.” I mirror her shrug.

Her eyes narrow on me as she sucks on her straw again. “I still don’t understand how all this happened. How⁠—”

“I don’t want to talk about him, Andy.” I just know my eyes are pleading. I add, “Please. Not tonight.”

“When?”

I cringe. “Never?”

She shakes her head. “No can do, girl. Sorry.”

I sigh. “His dreams are bigger than mine. I just didn’t realize how I was suffocating my own wants with his until—until he was gone, you know?”

“I thought you didn’t want to talk about him?”

“I’m ripping off the Band-Aid,” I mutter. “I know you well enough to know you’re not going to let it go.”

“True.” She studies me. “I really thought you guys were going to be forever.”

My nose burns. I sniff. “Me too.”

“I’ve always known Tate was in love with you, though. Can’t say I’m all that surprised, if I’m being honest.”

I swipe my iced tea from the table, sucking back the cold drink to smother the hot ball of shock I’m having trouble swallowing.

I clear my throat. “Y—you did?”

“I’m pretty sure everyone knew.”

I shake my head. “I don’t think so.”

“You’re in denial,” she accuses. “Or maybe you were just too busy looking at Holt to notice the way Tate looked at you.” She shrugs again. “Holt saw it. He knew.”

Now that she says it, I realize it might be true. There were moments when a dark tension would spill from Holt. When he’d hold me just a little tighter around Tate, kiss me a little longer…

“It doesn’t matter now.” My eyes follow Andy’s to the bar where Micha is smiling down at a girl from school. It’s innocent enough, but Andy looks crushed.

I ask, “How are you and Micha?”

She tears her eyes away from Micha with a roll. “Who knows?”

“Hey.” I scoot closer to the table. “What does that mean?”

“It means I’m a fool.” There’s bitterness to her words. “He’s Micha—just look at him, Faye. He’s so—” She breaks off to shake her head. “He’s so alive. He literally attracts life and I—I just don’t.”

“That’s not true, Andy. You attract life, too.”

“I don’t know. He’s like a ball of sunshine and all the girls want a tan, ya know?”