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Okay fine. My middle name is Rachel. I didn’t want to use that either.Wow. She was remarkably willing to converse via messages. Interesting.

I bet more people have made fun of my name than of yoursI responded. Over the years I’d heard every single joke about my name, as well as people not believing that people would legally name their daughter Honey. But with so many unusual names becoming popular, Honey wasn’t so strange anymore.

I bet. What was that like?

Did she just ask me a question? I dropped the knife I’d been using to slice the tomatoes, but it just clattered onto the counter.

“Crap,” I said under my breath.

“Sooo,” Ember’s voice said behind me as she jumped up on the kitchen island. “What’s the deal with you and Bren?”

I sighed and stared at the slices of eggplant that I’d breaded earlier.

“There is no deal with Bren,” I said, keeping my voice even as I slid the tray of eggplant into the oven and set the timer.

“Uh huh. Sure.” She was baiting me, but I wasn’t going for it. Instead I stirred the sauce and filled a pot with water for the pasta.

Ember’s legs made thunking noises as she swung them, and the sound was getting on my nerves.

“Do you have to do that while I’m trying to concentrate?”

Ember snickered. “You’re concentrating a little too hard on dinner. You’ve made this a million times.” It was true. I could make most meals in my sleep. Some days I’d been so tired that it felt like I had.

“I’m trying not to burn the eggplant. You’re welcome.”

“I love how I’m supposed to tell you everything going on in my life, but then you have something interesting happening finally and we’re not allowed to ask about it. How is that fair?”

I exhaled a slow breath.

“Life isn’t fair,” I said, pointing at her with my pasta tongs, but she just grinned at me.

“You like her. It’s been obvious forever. But she likes you too.”

I dropped the tongs and held back a curse. Picking them up, I went to the sink to wash them off.

“She does?” I asked. “She doesn’t act like it. She glares at me all the time and every time I’ve tried to talk to her, she’s been mad.”

Ember nodded. “Yeah, that’s how I know she likes you.”

“I’m not following.”

Ember huffed as if I was being difficult. “She’s mad at herself for liking you. I know you think I’m always on my phone, but I do pay attention. Bren looks at you, a lot, and you don’t see the look on her face when she knows you can’t see her.”

My fingers gripped the tongs. “Are you sure?”

She nodded and hopped off the counter as her phone buzzed with a new message. She read it and smiled before glancing up at me.

“Yeah. I’m sure.”

Well.

Bren gotquiet later that night and I assumed I’d pestered her enough for one day.

Guess what? I was right and you were wrong. I didn’t give up and now I’m going to get them to accept my apology. So there.

I grinned as I sent the message to Bibliofile. If there was someone I could gloat to about my success, it was her.

But HAVE they accepted your apology? Officially?