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“Bryce?” she said mostly to herself.

“Huh?” Kyle asked.

“Bryce,” she repeated and stood abruptly, nearly knocking over the table made of heavy metal as her knees hit it.

Without further explanation, she left her new friends at the table and headed in the direction of the crowd outside, but given how packed the café itself was, that actually made two crowds that she had to somehow make her way through in order to get to Bryce. She wasn’t entirely sure if thiswas, in fact, Bryce, but she thought she recognized the hair she’d had her hands running through just last night. Sophie tried to run but couldn’t because there were too many damn tourists trying to get the café’s famous beignets, take pictures of them eating them, and post them on Instagram or TikTok. If only they knew she was trying to find the possible love of her life and that their need to get to beignets wasn’t as important as that, she might have known for sure if she’d seen Bryce.

When she finally made it out onto the street, she got one more glimpse of the back of that head as it disappeared into a car. She couldn’t run because there were still way too many people out there, but she jogged and bobbed through families and groups of tourists, probably looking like a crazy person, until she realized that she’d never catch the car as it turned left up ahead. Sophie stopped then and tried to catch her breath.

“Fuck,” she said to herself. “Shit. Fuck.”

“Excuse me. Will you please watch your mouth around my children?” a woman scolded her as she attempted to cover the ears of her young son.

“This is New Orleans. You want family-friendly? Go to Disney World,” Sophie replied angrily as she turned and headed back to the café where her friends waited.

“Sophie? You okay? You’re sweating.”

“I haven’t run like that since high school gym class,” she said as she sat back down. “And I think I just introduced an eight-year-old to some bad words.”

“It wasn’t Bryce?” Melinda asked.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “Whoever it was got into a car, and I tried to catch it, but cars are faster than humans who only ran track for one year as a freshman in high school because their parents wanted them to try a sport.”

“Sorry,” Jill offered.

“Yeah, me too,” she said. “I guess it really is over, huh?”

“Maybe,” Kyle spoke. “I’m sorry, Sophie.”

Sophie just nodded in response, and after the café, she walked home instead of ordering an Uber because she needed the fresh air. Admittedly, part of her thought process to take a walk was that if Bryce was still in the city, maybe she’d be walking around, looking for her, too. That probably wasn’t the case, but it made her feel better, at least.

Around dinner, Sophie walked by the bar where they’d met, but it was already crowded, and she knew she’d never find Bryce inside, even if the womanwasthere. She somehow had this feeling that if Bryce returned to the bar, she’d stay outside and wait for Sophie to show, if she really wanted to see her again. After that, Sophie finally gave up and went home, where she sat on her sofa and tried to push past the intense pain that she felt at losing someone she hardly even knew.

CHAPTER 6

One Year Later

“And what was wrong with this one?” Kelsey asked.

“Nothing,” she said as she sat back down at the table.

“Nothing, but you came back over here when she was clearly into you?”

“She’s nice…”

“And gorgeous,” Megan added. “She has those big blue eyes you can fall into.”

“Megs, if you’re interested, I can make an introduction,” Bryce replied before taking a drink of her beer.

“What? No. I’m okay. I meant for you,” Megan said.

“You should, Megs,” Sean suggested, giving Megan a playful elbow nudge.

“Hey, leave her alone,” Kelsey admonished. “If Megs doesn’t want to, don’t force her. The point is thatBrycehere isn’t interested.”

“That is correct,” she confirmed with a nod.

“But you never date anymore. When was the last time you–”