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There was one thing I needed to do before the shoot. Re-dye my hair. Lacey offered to help and I didn’t think she knew what she was in for.

“Gloves,” I said. “Gloves, gloves, gloves. Unless you want purple hands.” She laughed and said maybe she did. We did the dyeing job in her bathroom and it was hilarious and we had a few mishaps and my mind drifted into “what if we did this all the time?” What if Lacey was my hair-dye helper for more than this one time? I really wished my brain would stop running with this stuff. It made it harder to think about her saying goodbye in a week. Not that I was counting the hours I had left or anything . . .

“And now we wait,” I said as she set the timer and hid the white towels that were now splotched with purple. The inn was totally going to find those and bill her.

“I’ll reimburse you,” I said.

“Don’t worry about it.” She kissed my cheek and put on some music and started doing a goofy dance to keep me entertained. I started laughing so hard that I couldn’t stop and tears streamed down my face.

“Stop it, I’m going to die,” I wheezed as she moon-walked around the bathroom with a goofy smile on her face. My lungs were dying.

“Stop what? This?” She turned and did a dorky little butt wiggle.

“Yes, that! Stop. I can’t breathe.” Lacey started to laugh as I wiped my eyes. The timer went off and she took me over to the sink to wash out the color.

“If this was blue, it would look like Smurf blood.” I snorted and nearly banged my head on the sink.

“You have to stop being so funny or I’m going to injure myself.” She rinsed the color out and then wrapped my head in a towel.

“This is the most fun I’ve had in a bathroom in a long time,” she said and I started giggling again. She’d hit my funny bone and now I couldn’t seem to stop.

“Ugh, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded!” she wailed, but all was lost. We both had a laughing fit until we were rolling around on the floor and gasping.

“I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun with anyone,” she said, reaching out and taking my hand.

“Same,” I said, turning my head to meet her eyes. We were laying on a bathroom floor, but it didn’t matter. My hair was wrapped in a towel, but it didn’t matter. I was right where I wanted to be. With Lacey Cole.

“I really like you, Anna,” she said in a hushed voice.

“I really like you, Lacey.” She took a deep breath.

“That’s kind of a problem.”

Yes, it was.

“You’re leaving in a week,” I said. It was actually six days, not that I was counting.

“I know. But I’ve already pushed leaving by a week. What’s another?” But what would two more weeks do? She’d still be leaving, she’d just be prolonging it and making it worse. Perhaps it was better to end things now. Then my heart would only be a little broken.

I’d recover. Probably.

“I don’t know what to do here,” she said.

“I know. It’s a rock and a hard place.” She groaned and looked at the ceiling.

“If I go, I could come back. I could always come back.” She could, that was true. But what was I supposed to do? Just sit and wait for her? That wasn’t fair to either of us.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Me either.”

All we could do was enjoy the next few days and see what happened. Six days could change everything.

Eight

Our second day of idleness started with me getting my hair and makeup done by Lacey. Apparently she was good at that as well. She was just good at everything.