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“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear anything you said over the sound of chocolate,” she said, wiggling her fingers as she tried to select a chocolate.

I chuckled and then watched as Tenley finally picked one and took a bite, her eyes rolling back on her head as she let out a soft moan.

Fucckkkkkkk. I hadn’t known she was going to do that. Between the moaning and the outfit, I was starting to get warm in the kitchen.

“You are officially my favorite person,” she said once she’d finished the chocolate and licked her fingers.

“You’re welcome,” I said, my voice rough as I cleared my throat.

I was saved by the timer going off so Tenley had to take the salmon out of the oven. She set it on a metal rack to cool a little bit before serving. It smelled absolutely heavenly.

This time I knew where the plates were, so I pulled them out and set up the trays and it was a little unnerving how comfortable I was in her house. Tenley’s house was just so cozy that it was hard not to relax here. The books and the cozy furniture and bright colors just soothed me. I had even seen a few things that inspired me to make some updates in my own apartment.

Tenley set up the salmon and salad and also brought in a bottle of crisp white wine.

“Cheers, doll,” Tenley said, and my stomach did a little micro-flip at her calling me “doll.” So much different than when we’d been in public calling each other “babe” so people would think we were together.

“Cheers,” I said before almost inhaling a sip of wine right into my lungs.

The salmon was so good that I briefly considered licking my plate. The panzanella salad was totally delicious and full of fresh tomatoes and still-crusty sourdough bread and olive oil.

Without even asking, Tenley put on the show we’d been watching together and started the next episode. Like we did this every night. Watching this show had become our thing. Our routine.

I gulped some wine so I didn’t think about that too much. There was no law that said I couldn’t be friends with Tenley now that I wasn’t pretending to be her girlfriend. I could be her friend while remembering exactly how she kissed. How she tasted. How relentless her tongue was. People had done it before.

“A few of my friends have reached out,” Tenley said after a lull in our conversation.

“Is that a good thing?” I asked.

“I mean, it was all pretty much that they’re sorry that we broke up and to reach out if I need anything, but it’s clear that they’re choosing Shane over me. Just what I thought would happen.” She sighed and gave me a tight smile.

“That blows,” I said.

“It does. Karissa was the only one who said something nice and asked me if I wanted to hang out with her,” she said. I’d seen Karissa go over to Tenley at the coffee shop today and had wondered what Karissa had said.

“Are you going to?” I asked.

“I think so. Like I said, she and I have never been close, but maybe it’s time we change that. I do love her hair,” she said.

“She does have great hair.”

Tenley pulled some of her hair in front of her face. “I want to do something with my hair. It’s so boring.”

“Your hair is not boring,” I said. Tenley’s color was gorgeous, like honey when hit with sunlight, and since I’d never seen her with roots, I was pretty sure it was natural.

“Easy for you to say, princess ginger,” she said.

“Princess ginger?” I said, almost choking. “That’s a new one.” I’d been called all kinds of things for having red hair and most of them weren’t that complimentary.

“Your hair is gorgeous, do you know how many people would love to have that color?” Tenley said.

“Yeah, I could say the same about you, blondie.”

Tenley made a face. “I still think I could do something cool.”

“My friend Everly has pink hair,” I said. “But she has to bleach the hell out of it to get it that way and constantly touch up the color.”

Tenley waved that off. “Way too much work. But I could do a color streak or something.” She pulled some more hair in front of her face and thought about it.