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“Oh, honey,” Erica said. “I’m so sorry. Do you want to come back over here and eat some of the food I ordered for us and watch a very stupid movie and tell me all about it?”

“God yes.”

She stayed at Erica’s for four hours; they put a series of stupid movies on in the background, ate a lot, and talked and cried a lot more.

When Taylor left, very full of pizza and Diet Coke, Erica gave her another hug.

“It’s going to be okay, I promise,” she said.

Taylor shook her head.

“You can’t know that.”

Erica nodded.

“I can, because I know you, and I know us. I can’t promise that everything with Avery will turn out all right, or even that everything with Sam will turn out all right, but I can still promise it’s going to be okay.”

Taylor tried to hold on to that throughout her sleepless night.

The next day, she had no idea what the fuck to do. This wasn’t the normal “when should I text her?” game she always refused to play—she didn’t want to be pushy or make Avery think something was wrong, but she did, very urgently, want to see her and talk to her that night.

Finally, at three in the afternoon, right before Taylor was about to cave, Avery texted.

Avery

Were you still interested in getting together tonight?

Did that seem weirdly stilted? She thought it seemed weirdly stilted. Maybe Avery knew what she was going to say and wanted to get it over with because she would then have to tell Taylor that she didn’t feel the same way. She knew Avery didn’t like confrontation. Wait, was that why she hadn’t been around the night before and why she “had to get up early” and therefore couldn’t see Taylor? Because she didn’t like confrontation and so she’d been trying to avoid Taylor, and then finally she was like,Fine, I’ll get it over with?

Oh God, she was doing that stupid overevaluating text messages thing, she never did that, she didn’t like being that person! Plus, why would Avery know why Taylor wanted to see her? She’d been the one who had assumed they were hanging out on Tuesday night, and Taylor had blown her off that night. Unless she’d wiretapped Erica’s house—which not even this unhinged mood would let Taylor pretend to believe—Avery would have no idea what Taylor planned to say to her when she saw her.

Okay, but once she’d even thought the wordwiretap, she was officially unhinged. Time to stop thinking. Thinking was overrated anyway.

Taylor

Pick you up at 7? wear your favorite outfit

Shit, shit, she’d said that with no plan. What the fuck was wrong with her,“thinking was overrated”? She at least needed to have some type of a plan for tonight. If she was going to tell Avery she was falling in love with her, didn’t she need to be sweeping and romantic or something? Shit, did she even know how to be sweeping and romantic?

Avery

No fair, isn’t it my turn?

Okaythatwas a normal text message from Avery. Taylor felt a little bit of her tension slide away.

Taylor

Nope, mine. but here: you can give me my dress code, and we can split the night

Avery’s response came quickly.

Avery

Perfect. wear *my* favorite outfit.

Did she mean Taylor should wear the outfit of hers that Avery liked the best, or did she mean that Taylor should, like, dress up like Avery and wear Avery’s favorite outfit? Unfortunately, according to the rules that Taylor had tacitly established months ago, no clarifying questions were allowed, so she just had to figure it out.

Taylor