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Sloane nodded, her eyes bright again as she waited for the mortifying confession. Maybe she needed the levity after a decidedly heavy conversation.

“A few years ago, I was doing a sweep through the store checking on things when I saw this super cute, way overdressed woman waiting in the floral department. You know where those big helium tanks and balloons are?”

“Oh, this is going to be good,” Sloane decided.

“So, I went over and asked her if she needed anything.”

“Smooth, smooth,” Sloane said with a nod.

“Oh, this was the epitome of smooth,” Ari replied sarcastically. “She goes on to tell me it’s her mom’s fiftieth birthday and the party place messed up her order and she was in charge of getting this huge balloon bouquet—”

“And here comes Arwyn to rush in like the hero and save the day,” Sloane guessed.

Ari pretended to polish her fingernails on her shoulder before continuing. “Oh yeah, I was on a mission.”

“Where did it go wrong?” Sloane asked as if wishing she could fast forward to the end.

“We’d been having the worst time with kids stealing helium,” Ari explained, her stomach tensing as embarrassment washed over her. “To deal with it, we took the tap o the tank, you know that little wheel thing,” she said as she made the gesture of turning it on and o , “and assigned it to one person per shift.”

“I seriously can’t imagine where this is going,” Sloane said with her brows furrowed.

Ari signaled for her to be patient. “I got on the store intercom in order to call the kid I’d given the valve thing to

—”

“You’re killing me!” Sloane shouted when Ari paused to shudder at the thought of what came next.

“For some reason I have still not figured out despite many sleepless nights thinking about this, I paged the entire supermarket and said . . .” Ari took a deep breath. “Jerry, I’m in floral and I need you to blow me ASAP,” she confessed before dropping her head against the desk.

“What? Why? Why did you say that!” Sloane implored, laughing.

Ari’s face burned like the sun’s surface. “I don’t know! I guess I meant to say blow me up some balloons, although that’s not so great either.”

When Sloane was finished cackling, she motioned for her to keep going. “Well, don’t leave me hanging! What happened to the girl?”

“Do you think I stayed to find out?” Ari screeched. “The moment that monstrosity came out of my mouth, I hung up the phone and fast-walked away! I hid in the walk-in fridge counting grapes for the next half hour until I was sure she was gone.”

Sloane held her belly as she laughed. “And you didn’t quit after that? Impressive.”

“Don’t think for a minute that I didn’t consider a transfer. After a couple of weeks of jokes, I put the damn valve back on the tank and steered clear of floral for months.”

Before they went back to work, Sloane pushed her long hair back behind her shoulders and cocked her head to the side. “I know you’re fresh o your big win, and you might be a hot commodity, but do you want to be my trial partner for this case? It’s kind of a weird one and I could really use your help.”

Ari stared at Sloane for an eternity. Her tone hadn’t sounded like she was joking, but it had been so long since they talked normally, she couldn’t really believe there wasn’t some trick attached to the request.

“You’re probably busy. It’s fine. I can ask someone else,”

Sloane said, turning away from her. “Dave doesn’t seem like a total moron—”

“No,” Ari said too loudly. “No, I’m not too busy. I mean there’s only five of us and we’re always going to need a trial partner, so we’d have to help each other eventually, right?”

Ari could hear herself rambling, but she was powerless to stem the tide.

“Cool,” she replied. “I’ll pull together everything I have and email it to you.”

“Cool,” Ari repeated like a dork, still unsure of what she’d gotten into with Sloane and wishing she didn’t like it.

CHAPTER 20