Page 106 of The Fix

Cedar snorts but drops back into her seat. “Fine. For now.”

“So. Since I’ve literally never seen you with anyone else, you wanna tell us what Toby has done?”

I jolt back in my seat.

Breath has left me, eyes have gone wide, and if she didn’t know before, I’m certain my reaction has given me away.

“How in the—"

I swing my startled gaze to Cedar who shrugs. “There’s only two people you spend all of your time with.”

Aria still has that arched brow aimed at me. “And you didn’t mute the phone that night.”

My furrowed brow swings back to Aria and I blink at her. “Mute—what?”

“On the phone,” Aria says easily, like she’s not tearing apart every denial I’ve built up over the last few weeks.

Months.

“When you called about the pictures to cover up more of Toby’s mistakes. I heard him call for you and that phone did not mute when you answered him.”

“The only other option was Leo,” Cedar adds like she’s been in on the secret the whole time. “And he’s just too …” Her lips purse in my peripheral and a laugh bursts past my lips.

“Corporate,” I answer for her, and she nods, Aria snorting her agreement.

“You’d run circles over him, all day long.”

I sigh. “Leo’s great at his job. He just needs to meet reality for a dang second.”

Aria’s eyes roll, but she nods as if she understands and I realize that some of the weight bearing down in my chest has begun to ease.

These women … they’re here with me, accepting of me, and comprehend more of what I’m going through than I thought possible.

The pieces of my heart inflate a little more.

“Do you guys like hot cocoa?”

Chapter Fifty-Six

Anna

“Holy shit,” Cedar calls as soon as we walk through the glass doors of the twenty-four-hour café that’s just two blocks away from my apartment. “They’ve got books!”

I grin when a flash of black hair brushes past me and disappears somewhere near the few shelves the owner keeps stocked with some of her favorite romance novels.

By the time Aria and I order fancy hot chocolate and make our way to a table, Cedar emerges with an arm full of books that she slams onto the tiny table and beams around. “I’ve read all of these.”

Aria shakes her head. “I knew you were a nerd.”

Cedar smacks her lips and snags the cup from Aria’s lifting grasp. “Like you haven’t benefited from a smutty book or two, woman.”

The resulting snicker has my own grin amping up. “How are you two not related?”

“Oh, we are.” Aria cocks her head at me. “It’s called found family and you’re our newest member.”

My mouth drops open, then slams shut when the words evade me and warmth blossoms in my chest.

“Now,” Cedar interrupts, peeking at me around her stack of already-read treasures and sips from the stolen cup against her palm. “Either we talk about books, or we talk about boys. Spill the deets.”

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