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Kay laughed. “Um… no. And we don’t do tabs.”

“Dammit. It was worth a try.” I went begrudgingly with her to the register, where I had to make the great personal sacrifice of swiping my card, and Jamie still gave me a disbelieving look as he stepped up to the register next to place his order. I stood off to the corner, underneath the shelves of cute knickknacks, and I took a picture of myself with the drink and texted it to Emberlynn, typing a caption underneath.

guess who’s the winner now????

She replied right away.I’m not jealous that you bought your own, if this was some weird ploy for that

I rolled my eyes.ugh!!! you’re boring. I’m showing off to Harper instead

She started typing, and then she stopped, and then after too long for such a short message, she sent,Go for it

I wrinkled my nose. I… probably shouldn’t have blabbed to Emberlynn about having fucked Harper that one time. It had made things awkward between me and Emby every time Harps came up. It had been anaccident.And at least I didn’t mention the second time.

I texted back,managed to free kay from the shackles of modern employment for the evening so she’s coming to the picnic!!! want anything from here?

hey, you finally have some good news. thanks, Pais. I’m all good tho, see you two soon

I stuck out my tongue at the screen.Iamgood news, em

Not content with showing off to just my loser best friend, I went to text the selfie to Harper too, but I paused looking at it before I went back in and ran it through a filter. Just clearing up my complexion a little. It was fine if I looked like a raggedy mess to Emberlynn, but… to other people I just wanted to look good.

guess what I have that you dooooooooonnnn’’’’’’ttttttt

She replied even faster than Emberlynn had.who the fuck stretches out an apostrophe like that

I scoffed.me!!!

There was no reply for a while, and I glanced over as Dani came out from the back, pulling on an apron and talking to Kay in low voices. The way Dani wouldn’t make eye contact with Kay, fussing with other things—that wholeopen-relationshiprevelation had really done a number on her. I could practically hear her fantasizing about hitting on Annabel at the party.

Another excellent job done by Paisley Macleod.

My phone lit up with a text from Harper, a selfie of her with a massive cake. She’d used a filter, too, so at least I wasn’t the only one.guess what i have that you doooonnn’’’’ttttt

Surreptitiously, I scanned both ways before I saved the picture. It wasn’t a weird thing—Emberlynn would never let me live it down—but I just liked seeing pictures of my friends happy. It was nice to have a collection.

trade?I replied quickly.

a hundred-fifty-dollar cake for a five-dollar drink you’ve probably mostly finished by now. tempting. somehow i will pass up on this.

boo. you’re going to the picnic, right? you never replied to my invite.

invite?? you never sent me an invite

I rolled my eyes.oh my god woman pay attention!!! I sent you a letter and everything!

a letter??? why a fucking letter?

Admittedly, I hadn’t really thought about that. I’d just had paper and a pen and a fancy envelope—come to think of it, I wasn’t sure where I’d gotten the envelope—so it felt like the obvious thing to do. I’d spent, like, an hour styling the letter making it pretty, too, and she was just going to ignore it?

Honestly, I didn’t know why I bothered with the effort. People didn’t deserve all of me.

“You didn’t need to wait for me,” Kay said, stepping over from behind the counter to where I was standing in the corner. I scowled.

“And walk over there alone? Like a loser? I was just showing off my drink to my friends anyway.”

She laughed, eyes sparkling. Out of everyone in Bayview, I think Kay had the most genuine laugh, like she’d never heard of anything other than just… big smiles and genuine compliments and sunshine and rainbows. “You’re a mystery as ever, Paisley. You mind if I head upstairs and just get changed first? I want to look cute.”

“Only on the condition I get to raid your fridge for cheese.”