Ian:Me neither. But I promise, we’ll talk tomorrow.
Tomorrow.
Me:Fine. But if you make me hunt you down, I’m bringing Rachel. She’s meaner than I am.
Biting my lip,I waited. I mean, I could ask Rachel. I wasn’t sure we were at the ride or die stage of friendship here. To be honest, it had been love/hate for years. The fact Rachel had turned out to be Mr. Thorns and said she thought I needed a friend had been a rather shocking, if delightful surprise.
She had a crush on me, but not an unrealistic one. I didn’t swing that way, and if I did, she’d have totally won me over with the way she’d sent the roses and the gifts. The last of the roses had already wilted. I’d pressed some of the petals into a book to keep them. I had all the notes, too.
But I thought if I called Rachel and said I needed her help, she’d do it. She liked giving the guys shit. To be honest, I thought she’d liked doing it because she’d had a crush on one of them and they’d blown her off or something.
Nope.
My mistake.
Ian:Wow. You took that to mean right away. I promised, F. I won’t let you down. Gotta go, Mom hates phones at the table.
Well,he was talking to me again. That was a good start.
Flopping back on the bed, I stared at the ceiling. I should be doing homework or something, but I kind of just wanted to lie there and savor my two huge successes of the day.
I got a scholarship.
Ian answered me.
Good things.
Ian might be waiting to break up with me for real. Maybe he wanted to tell me he didn’t want to ask me to not date the other guys. Or maybe he wanted me to just choose him. That was the stitch, wasn’t it? At some point, I’d have to choose between them?
How did I choose between my best friends? I adored all of them. It would be like asking me to pick only one of my cats.
Okay, the guys weren’t cats, but the idea was essentially the same. Tiddles leapt onto the bed as if summoned by the thought, and he rubbed along my arm. I’d found him when he was a kitten, hiding under a bush in a downpour. He’d been a miserable little thing.
He’d also bitten the hell out of me when I scooped him up and carried him inside. The vet had said he was young, maybe ten weeks—if that. I couldn’t figure out if he’d just gotten lost or if someone had let him go. It didn’t matter. From that day forward, he’d been mine. He was the first cat I found. Tabby and Tory came along later.
But I loved all three of them.
The cat rolled over and purred as I stroked him. My phone buzzed, and I picked it up to see Jake’s message.
Jake:What are we doing?
Me:Takeout. Mom isn’t here. It would be just us.
Jake:Sold. Preference?
Me:Surprise me.
Jake:See you in fifteen.
I smiled,even if he couldn’t see me, and glanced at Tiddles. “We’re having company tonight.”
To say my cat wasn’t impressed was an understatement, and I laughed. Then my phone buzzed again.
Mom:Dinner tomorrow evening. You. Me. No boys. No excuses.
I made a face.
Ugh.