Page 4 of Joy to the Girls (She Gets the Girl #2)

“You think ice-skating is the same as roller-skating?” I whisper to Alex, wondering if we’re both going to suck at it or if our roller-skating dates together will have prepared us adequately.

She shrugs. “I guess we’ll find out.”

I settle in next to her, deciding that I’m not going to tell Alex about London here in the car. Why risk interrupting Cora and May’s conversation now that we finally stirred it up?

So I take a deep breath and lay my head on her shoulder, ready to finally just relax the entire ride, but less than a second later, Alex grabs onto the back of Cora’s seat and leans up.

“Hey, I’ve gotta pee when you hit a gas station or something,” she says.

“We just left!” Cora replies. “I can literally still see Cathy.” Out the window, I spot the Cathedral of Learning towering over the rest of Pitt’s campus in the distance.

“I had, like, three coffees at your place!”

Cora pulls off at the next exit and finds a Sheetz gas station not too far away. May and Alex jump out, while Cora and I wait in the car. She unbuckles and turns around to face me better.

“Have you told her yet?” she asks, just like she did last night in our kitchen after I told her I got my acceptance email.

“Cora! Shh! ” I reply, quickly looking out the window to see Alex disappear through the door behind May.

“Why have you told me but not your girlfriend yet?” she asks, refusing to whisper.

“Because you’re like… my best friend, and…

” My voice drifts off, my head scrambling with the million reasons why.

The ones that have spiraled out of my control late at night, keeping me up until the sun starts to rise, until they finally culminate in the scariest one of all…

that sometimes even the strongest relationships can’t overcome the distance. Especially not for two years.

“Moll, she’s going to be really happy for you. You know her. You know that’s the truth. So what’s the problem?” she asks.

I sigh. I think deep down, I still don’t totally understand the full reason why.

“I just don’t want things to change. This …

college… has been the best experience of my life.

It’s been better than I thought my life could ever be.

I found my person and things are, well… they’re perfect .

” I let my head fall back against the seat.

“Things are going to change for all of us after graduation. We can’t stay at Pitt forever, but if that’s what you want, then why go to London?” she asks.

I don’t reply at first.

“Molly,” she says, then waits until I pick my head up to look at her before she continues. “Why did you even apply?”

“I… I love it here, but I’ve always just been here.

I went to college thirty minutes from where we grew up, Cora.

And I was almost too afraid to even do that.

But I don’t feel that way anymore, and if I’m going to live here forever, I at least want to see what another part of the world is like first. I want to carve my own path and really know it’s the right one.

Everyone has their things they’re moving on to next year, Alex with her job at Rabbit-Labs, you with the cool internship.

When I heard about the program, it just felt like this was mine in a way nothing else has, like I had to do it.

” I shrug, feeling frustrated with myself that I want to go so badly, that I can’t just stay here and be content.

“You still want to be with her, though, right? I mean, you don’t want to break u—”

“No!” I cut her off, offended that she’d even ask. “Of course not! That’s not what this is about. I just don’t know if this is the right weekend to tell her.”

“Well, the longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be on both of you. I think you have to tell her this weekend. Don’t let her go off on the rest of winter break without knowing.”

I let out a big sigh and run my hands down my face, pausing to speak through the cracks between my fingers. “Yeah, plus I got an email from King’s College this morning. An invitation for an accepted international students meet and greet over Zoom. Tomorrow at one in the afternoon.”

“And how do you plan on pulling that off if you’re not going to tell her?” she asks.

“I don’t know,” I reply. Then I see Alex pop back out of Sheetz swinging a red plastic bag packed to the absolute top with snacks and drinks.

Classic Alex . “But how am I going to live without seeing that every day?” Cora just rolls her eyes, readjusting in her seat to face forward before Alex opens the car door.

Alex is barely seated before she holds a package of cookies out to me.

I just stare back at her. “I thought you had to pee.”

“What? A girl can’t multitask?” She pops a cookie into her mouth. “It was kind of a twofer. Can’t have a road trip without enough snacks to make you want a salad when you arrive at your destination. Right, Cora?” Alex asks.

But Cora is paying zero attention. Instead, she’s staring longingly out the window, and we both follow her eyeline to where May is walking across the parking lot, juggling two coffees.

“Molly, what did it feel like back when we were freshmen, when you were hanging out with me but falling in love with Alex at the same time?” she asks quickly, and even Alex stops her chewing to listen in.

“Well…” I pause to lay my head back against my headrest again and let it fall to the side to look right into Alex’s green eyes, filled with a nervous curiosity.

“It felt like she was the only thought I ever had. I just couldn’t get her out of my head.

Like even when I wasn’t thinking about her, I was still somehow making it about her.

And honestly, I don’t think much has changed.

I always feel… I don’t know… tied to you?

” I ask, searching Alex’s face until her eyes crinkle and she grins, a small nod to let me know she feels the same.

Then she leans up from the backseat. “What can I say, Cora? She just couldn’t resist.” She laughs, and cookie crumbs fly out of her mouth and onto the console.

“Yeah, you’re so charming,” I joke, pulling her back into the seat, but I wrap myself around her arm so she stays close. Cora’s words are still echoing in my brain, and I just want to savor this time when everything is still the same, when nothing is changing yet.

“I think maybe I know that feeling…,” Cora says just before May opens the door and slides onto the passenger seat, holding out one of her coffee cups to Cora.

“Just plain ol’ black, right?” May asks.

Cora’s eyebrows jut down, but her lips spread into a smile. “How’d you know?” she asks.

“Oh…” May suddenly looks embarrassed, stumbling for words nervously. “I—uh… remember your order from a few weeks ago when you were ahead of me at the café in Cathy. I remembered because it’s the same as mine.” She holds her own coffee cup out to cheers Cora’s.

“Our mornings will be easy, then,” Cora replies, and that makes even me blush all the way back here. She quickly catches herself. “I mean this weekend! Like making coffees in the mornings in Barnwich. I…” She pulls the gearshift into drive. “Let’s get on the road.”

May laughs nervously, and Cora shakes her head at herself.

Alex and I exchange a knowing look, and then she leans in to whisper in my ear, “I’m excited to spend this Christmas-filled weekend with you. I love you,” she says just to me, serious for the first time all day. She kisses me softly on the lips and then very gently on the tip of my nose.

“I love you too.” I nuzzle into her as Cora pulls onto the ramp to get back on the interstate.

It’s during moments like these that I almost convince myself I should just call the whole thing off. Decline my spot at King’s and find somewhere here in Pittsburgh to go. Or at least here in this country.

But every time I try to picture what it would be like if I stay, I can only see me, standing beside Alex.

I can never see what I would actually be doing.

And that’s when I always swing back and realize King’s is exactly what I need this next chapter of my life to be.

I need to get out of Pittsburgh for a bit.

The only thing is, I don’t know if I can do it without Alex.

I don’t want even a single chapter of my life to be without her. But she already has a job lined up, and the second she got it, I knew I couldn’t ask her to give that up to come with me.

Maybe that’s the reason I haven’t quite been able to put my finger on. Maybe that’s why I’ve been holding back from telling her. Not because I think she won’t want me to go or that she won’t support me, but because I don’t want to be the one to throw a wrench into her expectations for our future.