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“I thought you’d beat Sam-I-am for sure,” Alex said to Taylor, nudging Sam’s shoulder.

“Hey!” Sam replied, shooting some well-deserved daggers at her best friend. “You’re meant to be on my side.” She folded her arms.

“Sam-I-am?” Taylor snorted. “I haven’t heardthatnickname before.”

“Do not,” Sam warned.

“But it’s so cute!” Taylor pleaded. “Or I could just call you Ham instead? Oink oink—OW!”

Sam slapped her on the arm.

Now it was Will and Alex’s turn to share a look.

“How long have you two been together?” Will asked.

“Oh, they’re not—” Alex started.

“We aren’t—” Taylor spoke at the same time.

“Just friends,” Sam finished, avoiding looking directly at Taylor.

“Riiiiiight.” Will looked between them, eyes sceptical. “Well then,”—he downed the last of his beer—“anyone up for another round of mini-golf?”

A chorus of groans from the rest of them said Will was outnumbered on that front. Thank god. Sam’s stomach lurched at the thought of swinging any more clutters…HA wait. Clubs? Putters? Ah who cares. She did not want them Sam-I-am. Oh no, now she’d started referring to herself in the third person. This was not good.

Taylor had gone to grab a big bowl of fries for the table along with another round of drinks. Sam was drooling at the thought of greasy food. By the time she’d tuned back into the conversation, they were now on the topic of household appliances.

“How did we get so old?” Will said, swilling his new beer with one hand, the other resting on the back of Alex’s chair.

“Old? There’s nothing cooler than a round of golf on a Tuesday night and a little debate on the best vacuum over chippies,” Alex said proudly.

“Touche,” Taylor agreed. They both picked up a chip, high fiving each other with them.

By this stage, Sam was halfway through her third drink, a regular champagne, and really starting to feel the buzz kick in. She was having so much fun, but talking was best left toeveryone else right now, as she wasn’t sure she trusted herself not to speak her thoughts out loud again—especially with Taylor sitting right next to her, looking so damn good.

“What’s damn good?” Taylor asked, head tilted.

Shit.

“These chips!” She smiled quickly, grabbing a few more.

She was surely heading for disaster at this rate.

Chapter Fifteen

The night had turned out so much better than Taylor originally anticipated.

Alex reminded her a bit of Jess, and she could see why Sam liked her so much. She was the kind of friend you could talk to about any topic, but also give them shit right off the bat with no hard feelings. Will seemed a bit more on the quiet side, but clearly not afraid to speak his mind. She’d almost spat out her drink when he’d asked about her and Sam. She knew they were definitely getting closer, and they were going to have to talk about it soon. Though tonight was not that night. She watched as Sam launched herself back in a howl of laughter, almost falling off her stool at one of Will’s jokes. She waited for a lull in the conversation.

“Well,” she said, grabbing her keys off the table, “I think I’m going to make tracks.”

“Yep, we’re with you there. We’ve got work in the morning anyway.” Will stood up, picking up Alex’s coat off the back of her chair to help her slip it on.

Sam joined them with a slight wobble, so Taylor slipped her arm around her without a second thought.

“Thank you,” Alex mouthed, though she was looking pretty tipsy herself.

As they walked to the stairs, Sam got out her phone and tried to order a ride, one eye squinted at the screen. Taylor turned the screen off. “How about I drive you home, huh?”