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“You should do something big for him,” Nicole piped up. She had been reticent this whole evening, and I don’t think I was the only one surprised to see her suddenly insert herself into the conversation.

“I’m open to any suggestions,” I nodded, folding my legs closer, “Leo deserves something big. He deserves everything.”

Mary smiled at me as she crawled across the various bedding to push me over in a large bear hug, “That is why I think you are going to be good for him, Jacqueline.” She mumbled into my shoulder, “You appreciate him. You see him.” She pulled off of me, before adding, “Thank you for loving him.”

My eyes got misty again before Nicole sniffled.

We all turned to look at the CFO, surprised to see her looking emotional.

She shook her head once before sniffing again, “I’m so sorry—I just went through a super bad breakup and lost all my friends. I didn’t realize—I didn’t realize how much I needed something like this.” She waved around the room, before Violet reached over and wrapped Nicole in her arms as well.

“Thank you all for being my friends,” Violet added, squeezing Nicole tight.

“I love you all,” Jamie added.

“And no one loves love more than me,” Signe straightened in her seat, before rubbing her hands together mischievously, “Which is why we need to come up with something good for Jacqueline to do for Leo.”

Before anyone could add anything, Mary’s phone started going off.

“Is that a ringtone? Can our phones even do that still?” Signe asked with pure disbelief.

Mary rolled her eyes before pulling her phone out of her sweatpants and frowning at the screen, “I told you all, he’s a mess.”

“That’s your ringtone forLeo?” Violet cackled, releasing Nicole from her embrace to properly laugh.

“Every Time We Touch” byCascadawas echoing from Mary’s phone.

An idea came to mind then, remembering Leo’s confession in his car all those months ago.

“Wait,” I spoke up as Mary silenced the call, watching as she thumbed a message on her screen instead, “I…I think I have an idea. Please tell me if it’s too embarrassing or not.”

“The more embarrassing the better,” Violet replied with a shrug, “There’s nothing like proving your love for someone else by sacrificing yourself on the altar of dignity.”

“First of all, I changed my mind, after we resolve this, we’re going to watch10 Things I Hate About You,” Signe high-fived Violet for her movie reference, before turning to me, “Now, tell us what you’re thinking.”

ChapterTwenty-Seven

LEO

“I’msorry to inform you, but as soon as the wheels of your plane touched down on an American tarmac, you have been legally obligated to refer to fried potatoes as fries.” Jacqueline finished her ridiculous statement by placing a fry between her teeth and grinning at me.

I leaned forward, biting the other end of her chip, making her giggle.

“As long as you do that thing with your tongue again, I’ll call them whatever you want.”

* * *

I still hadn’t heardfrom Jacqueline.

Mary blew me off last night for some girls’ night, and I was hoping that she would pull through in this situation and provide me with some intel on where Jacqueline was leaning. Women talked about men with other women, it was a universal truth.

When she texted me last night to fuck off, I figured it was because she was still there. Gaining information for me.

I wasn’t sure how much longer I could do this. I had driven my car to work today, and was sitting in the driver’s seat until Jacqueline made her way into the building. I saw her pull into the carpark at the same time I did, and I couldn’t handle the pain of sharing a lift with her right now. I was too deep in my head.

Taking a deep pull of my fizzy drink I had bought at a McDonald’s drive-thru on the way into the office, my heart rate started to kick up.

Not because of the caffeine I was consuming.