Page 12 of Heart Like Yours

I leave in a daze, my mind racing with thoughts about the offer and the folders practically weighing down my bag with their presence. If there’s one thing I can say for certain, it’s that sleep will not be easy to come by tonight. I’ll be too busy reading and rereading every single word to try to figure out what I’m going to do.

PAIGE

“Please tell me you’re home,” I plead to Lilly without giving her a second to say anything past ‘hello’ after answering the phone.

“Um, yeah, I am. What’s up?” she says warily. I start pacing the length of my small apartment living room, sparing a quick glance at my roommate’s door and lowering my voice. If this were any other subject, I wouldn’t mind sharing with Sam. Hell, I probably would have already unloaded on him. But considering this is about work and assuming no one should know yet, I can’t exactly go blabbing to him about this.

I spent all night after getting home reading through the folders Garrett gave me. Luckily, Sam goes out every Friday night, so it was just me, my dinosaur chicken nuggets, and the overwhelming job proposal.

“Are you home alone or is there a certain hockey player waiting to pounce the moment you’re off the phone?”

Lilly scoffs playfully. “I’m all by myself, for the entire night.”

“Can I call an impromptu girls’ night?”

“That depends…does it require me to put on actual pants?”

A laugh bubbles free and I shake my head even though she can’t see me. “No, I was thinking more of a sweatpants and ice cream on your couch kind of night.”

“Oh, thank God.” The sound of a refrigerator door opens in the background. “You’re gonna have to stop for ice cream. Which if you do, can you get panda paws? I’ll order pizza so we have some actual sustenance, not just a sugar high.”

Tension eases from my shoulders as I head into my room to throw together an overnight bag.

“Perfect, I’ll be there in the next half hour.”

After finishing packing the essentials and grabbing the folders from my nightstand, I make sure to shoot Sam a text that I’m crashing at Lilly’s tonight. I grab my keys and head out, locking the apartment behind me. The quick stop for ice cream ends up taking a little bit longer than planned thanks to the distraction of picking out a bottle of wine that fits the mood for the night. Which turned into me getting one red, two whites, and a case of seltzer to pair with both our ice creams.

A variety of drinks is never a bad thing.

By the time I park my car and knock on Lilly’s door forty-five minutes later, I’ve almost forgotten why I even needed to see her so badly. That is, until I see her face and the weight of a life-changing decision comes crashing back down on me at full force.

“I need your help,” I plead, slipping past her and beelining for her kitchen.

“With what? Sticking to a list that only had one item on it?” Lilly laughs, taking one of the multiple bags from my hands and setting it on the counter. I stick my tongue out at her as I place the rest of my impulse buys on her kitchen island.

“It’s not my fault they make such pretty wine labels that make it impossible to choose just one bottle.”

Lilly raises her brow and points to the case of seltzer. “And that?”

I pick it up, dramatically pointing to the cans on the box. “They have new flavors!”

We stare at each other, both trying to hold a straight face before promptly bursting out laughing at the same time. Lilly gathers the refrigerated goods and turns to put them away.

“It’s a good thing that I ordered actual sustenance to go with all this alcohol and sugar,” she says, motioning toward the oven. “I put the pizza in there so it would stay warm.”

While we set out our food and drinks, Lilly updates me on how things are going with her and Dominik, the hockey player from her dad’s team, who also happens to be her neighbor, whom she’s secretly dating. By the time she’s caught me up, we have an aesthetically pleasing picnic made up on her living room floor. We even moved some fluffy pillows and cozy blankets to the ground for us to sit on.

Lilly nudges me with her elbow and hands me a glass of white wine.

“We haven’t done this since our senior year of high school.”

“Oh my God, wasn’t it that night we decided to binge-watch the entire Star Wars series?” I ask, taking a seat on one of the cushions and grabbing a piece of pizza.

“Yup. My brother’s made fun of us for spending so much time on our setup, but by the time we were finished and had all our snacks set out perfectly, they were begging to join us.”

I laugh, my chest tightening at the memory. That night was one of many nights that Lilly came to my rescue to get me out of my house while my dad was on one of his benders. She always knew when I needed an escape, offering to hang out at her house for dinner and to do homework or to have a last-minute sleepover. It made it even easier that her mom never questioned why I was always over. She simply acted as if I was right where I was supposed to be.

Calling Lilly my best friend almost doesn’t do our relationship justice.

---