Page 9 of Allured By Her

What else was I going to say? It was as good an excuse as any. None of this made any sense. She’d just looked so…sad. Must have triggered some primal impulse in me to help her or something.

It didn’t really matter, because I wasn’t going through with it. I was going to send her a message later tonight and tell her I was out. She’d have to find someone else to fake date. It wasn’t going to be me.

“You coming over for dinner tonight?” Lark asked. “Sydney’s cooking and she’s making her potsticker soup.”

I did love that soup, but I also needed some alone time.

“No, I’m good. I might stop over after for a little bit, though,” I said. One of the upsides of living down the hall from each other was that either of us could drop in just about anytime. It was also great for when I’d run out of milk.

“Sounds good. I’ll see you later then,” Lark said as we both logged into the employee computer to clock out. Mindy had arrived for her evening shift and she was on with Brianna, who was a senior in high school and a really hard worker.

Since I hadn’t made any dinner plans, I stopped at the grocery store to grab a rotisserie chicken and a bag of salad so I didn’t have to do any actual cooking. Some days after a shift at the coffee shop I just didn’t have the energy. All I wanted to do was eat food that required the least prep and sit down. There was simply no getting around the fact that I was on my feet most of the day. No amount of supportive shoes and stretch breaks helped when my body was over it.

After I’d put the groceries away, I tossed the salad in a bowl and topped it with some of the shredded chicken and dumped the package of dressing over the whole thing.

“Oh fuck yeah,” I said as I sat on the couch with the bowl and turned on the TV. I had absolutely needed this.

I stabbed a piece of chicken and flipped through my streaming services to see what was new that I might want to watch. Nothing complicated. Something that didn’t require my brain to process. I settled on old episodes of a fashion designer show that I’d seen plenty of times before so none of the designs was a surprise, but I could still make snarky comments about anything that I didn’t like. No one was here to appreciate my comments, but that didn’t matter too much. I shoveled my salad into my mouth and wished I had some kind of machine to rub my feet. I was going to have to get that lacrosse ball and roll them out, but that was too much work right now.

I’d bought some macarons on impulse from the bakery section, so I told myself I was only going to have a few, but soon the container was empty, and I was wondering where they’d gone.

Lark and Sydney probably had something sweet at their apartment but getting it would require me getting up. For halfa second I thought about messaging her and asking her to come to me, but she’d been on her feet all day too. Just as I was trying to convince myself to get up, there was a knock at my door.

“It’s open,” I called.

“Hey, I brought you some brownies. Layne dropped them off with Sydney today and there’s no way the two of us can eat this many.”

I looked over the back of the couch to see her holding a big plastic container with a lid.

“Have I told you how much I love you recently?” I asked as she came over and sat next to me, setting the container between us.

“It’s been a few hours,” she said with a sigh, pulling the lid off.

“I don’t know what Layne’s obsession with brownies is, but I love it,” I said, grabbing one of the brownies. It had swirls of marshmallow and was studded with white chocolate chips and graham cracker pieces.

“What even are these?” I asked, taking a bite and almost fainting because it was so good.

“I didn’t ask,” she said, selecting one for herself and biting into it with a satisfied sound.

“They’re always amazing, so I don’t think it matters,” I said.

“I’m glad Layne finally started making them for more than just Honor, although I’m pretty sure they’re going to do a brownie bar or something for the wedding.”

“Have they picked a location yet?” I asked.

“Nope. It’s a whole thing. Mark keeps saying that he’s happy to foot the cost of renting a place for the ceremony and reception as a gift, but Layne keeps trying to fight him on it and I don’t know why,” she said, leaning back into the couch and pulling one of my blankets over her lap.

“I think Honor is going to tell him to go ahead and put down a non-refundable deposit and then she won’t have a choice. She’ll be mad, but hopefully she’ll get over it,” Lark said. “At least, that’s Sydney’s idea. I’m not sure if I agree with it.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a bad way to book your wedding venue,” I said. “Not that I’d know anything about that.” I’d never even been to a wedding. The only experience I had with them were movies and other people talking about them. I had no idea if a wedding was in my future or not, but I knew that I wouldn’t be spending thousands of dollars I didn’t have on it, that was for sure.

“It’ll work out. They always work their shit out,” Lark said with a smile as she licked her fingers. I handed her a tissue from the box on my coffee table for the rest.

“Thanks,” she said. “So, what is the deal with you and Tenley anyway?”

That was an abrupt and unpleasant topic change.

“You know what my deal with her is,” I said. “She was that popular girl in high school, and I wasn’t. We have been natural enemies ever since.”

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