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“So,” she prompted, her arms crossed. “You never told me what happened with that blind date I set you up on.”

“I didn’t?” I gaped. “To be fair, a lot has happened since then, but I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

I hadn’t really told her much of anything after she left for her trip. Apart from Mom’s medical crisis.

“Well, it’s a long way back to my place,” she huffed, getting comfortable in the passenger seat. “So spill.”

I did.

I told her all about the awful date she’d set me up on, about Hayden swooping in and saving me. I told her about Hayden buying the store and everything that had happened since. I artfully left out a few embarrassing moments, but other than that…

Truth.

Mostly.

“She sounds kind of rude,” Nikkie mused, frowning in thought.

My eyes widened and I snapped my head around with a glare. “She’s notrude,” I argued. “She’s just obsessed with business, I guess. I just wish she’d leave my parents’ store alone.”

Nikkie’s silence practically screamed her thoughts.

“Please don’t,” I whined, dropping my head back against the headrest in defeat. My please went unacknowledged.

“Oh no,” she purred. “I like what I’m hearing. Yousuckat keeping your crushes a secret. It’s like you’re incapable of even pretending you’re uninterested.”

“I don’t see why I should be persecuted for being honest about my feelings,” I countered.

“There is a big difference between being transparent and being honest,” she pointed out.

I flipped her the bird and refused to give her the satisfaction of an answer.

That amused her even more.

“I have to meet her,” she announced gleefully, likely already planning my nonexistent wedding. She always took so much pleasure in facilitating my love life.

“You will do no such thing,” I told her, praying my voice was firm enough. Truthfully, I couldn’t imagine anything worse than that.

My best friend meeting the woman I’d developed a crush on despite my best efforts to the contrary. I shuddered at the thought.

“You’re so dramatic,” Nikkie said, clicking her tongue in disappointment. “How bad could it be?”

“I don’t wanna let my imagination get that far,” I deadpanned.

“Wimp,” she teased. “Anyway, where do you want to go tonight?”

“Tonight?”

“We’re celebrating my return, duh,” she said, scrolling through her playlist. “It’s been ages since we went out, and I need to buy you a drink to apologize for that date.”

I instantly warmed up to the idea. “Yeah,” I chuckled. “You really do.”

The music blared through the bar speakers, the heavy bass reverberating through my limbs and shaking the stiffness loose.

The moment I stepped foot inside, some of the tension that had made its home on my shoulders evaporated. Bodies upon bodies lined the walls, moving like an ocean as we squeezed past. Nikkie’s hand was a vice around mine.

I usually ended up drifting too far and getting lost for most of the night.

I didn’t recognize the song but it didn’t stop me. I hopped along behind Nikkie happily.