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Tenley sniffed hard and walked in. She wasn’t even wearing shoes. Just socks.

“How did you get here?” I asked.

“I drove,” she said in a robotic voice as she stared into nothing, tears still running down her cheeks. It was lucky that she’d gotten here in one piece, given how she looked.

“Do you want some coffee or something?”

She shrugged one shoulder and continued to stare and cry. Okay. Looked like I needed to take matters into my own hands. I guided her over to the couch and pushed on her shoulders until she sat down. I ran to grab tissues from the bathroom and then went to make some coffee. Having caffeine this late at night was going to fuck everything up for tomorrow, but this seemed like an emergency.

Once I had the coffee brewed, I added some vanilla syrup and almond milk because I knew that was the way Tenley liked it.

“What happened?” I asked gently as I sat down next to her and held out the cup of coffee. She took it in both hands, gripping it tight.

“Shane broke up with me. Again.” I assumed as much, but I waited for her to continue.

“He, um,” she said, sniffing and then taking a sip of coffee, “we went to his place together and I thought everything was fine. We had sex and then I made him breakfast and he said he had stuff to do so I went home. He was gone for hours and I was freaking out. I couldn’t get a hold of him and finally he messaged me back and said that he didn’t want to be with me anymore and that we were definitely done.” Her voice broke and she sobbed.

This turn of events was absolutely predictable, but that didn’t mean it was right. I ripped a fresh tissue out of the box and handed it to her.

“Tenley, I’m so sorry,” I said.

“Thanks. But I know you want to say that you saw this coming. It’s written all over your face.”

Oops. I thought I’d been hiding my emotions well.

“I am sorry. I truly am. You don’t deserve this. Any of it.” My voice was sharp, and I reached out and put my hand on her leg so she would believe me.

“Why do I love him?” she asked, and I took the cup of coffee away from her and pulled her into a hug.

“I don’t think anyone has figured out the formula on love yet,” I said.

“I don’t want to love him anymore,” she whispered into my shoulder.

“I know,” I said. “You won’t love him like this forever.” On some level, she probably always would. Wasn’t that the thing about first loves? That they stayed with you for the rest of your life, even if you’d moved on.

“I don’t want to feel like this,” she said, sniffing, and I just kept holding her.

Chapter Eight

Eventually Tenley ran out of tears and went to the bathroom to wash her face and blow her nose again. When she came back out, she tried to give me a smile.

“I hate that you keep seeing me like this,” she said, gesturing at her face. “No one sees me like this.”

“That’s what fake girlfriends are for,” I said.

“You don’t have to do that anymore, Mia,” she said. “You don’t owe me anything. I owe you a hell of a lot more than a favor at this point. God, I’m so sorry I dragged you into this.” She took her hair out of the messy bun and tried to run her fingers through it, but everything was so tangled that she gave up. She let out a frustrated sound and I went and got her a hairbrush.

“Here,” I said.

“Stop taking care of me,” she said, but she took the brush and started working it through her hair.

“It’s kind of hard to stop taking care of you when you’re the one who ended up at my apartment in the middle of the night after a breakup,” I said.

“I didn’t know where else to go,” she said. “I didn’t even think about where I was going until I realized I was pulling into the parking lot.”

She’d only been here one other time to pick me up, so it was kind of a surprise that she remembered I lived here. True, it was on the main street of Arrowbridge, but I couldn’t help but be touched that she came to me.

“Your friends wouldn’t have given you tissues and coffee and a hairbrush?” I asked.