Page 116 of The Snowball Effect

Very thoughtful. Very sweet. Enticingly so. She’d sat in the living room with Regan, quietly working on her laptop while Regan had napped.

“Just in case your head really did explode; I figured you could use a witness,” Emma had drolly informed Regan when she’d woken up.

Which was very – platonically – sweet. And had made Regan’s stomach – platonically – swoop.

She’d reminded herself yet again that she was merely Emma’s friend only a couple days later, come Wednesday afternoon.

Because Regan had realized – shit. She was going to be responsible for all of the desserts at a child’s birthday party in only days, and she’d never had that kind of responsibility on her shoulders!

So, she’d buckled down and created a vision board for all of her ideas, which had been approved by both Kimberly and Everly. Then, still a little apprehensive, she’d shown the board to Emma.

But Emma had pulled out her phone and showed Regan a picture of cupcakes posted from Topped Off that she’d made earlier this summer, designed to look like upside-down, melting ice cream cones. “Look – these areincredible, and you made them. You can do this.” She given Regan such a strong reaffirming look, it offered no room for disagreement.

Beth cleared her throat, regaining Regan’s attention. “Yes, you have to come out tonight. For a multitude of reasons. First, because Mike actually has a slot in the comedy show, at the dive bar,” Beth gleefully informed her.

Regan nearly dropped her purse in surprise. “No fucking way! How?!”

Mike was one of their vendors, who frequently updated them on his comedy dreams. Which was actually hilarious because Mike was one of the least funny people Regan knew.

Beth shrugged. “Bribery, I’m guessing? Either way, he’s on at nine, and everyone from the day crew is meeting us there.”

Regan slowly tilted her head in thought. All right, that was a fairly convincing argument. On theotherhand, though, it was Friday night, which meant Emma was going to be much more likely to stay up and hang out later into the night. The sooner Regan got home, the sooner they could hang out, and the more time they could spend together before Emma went to bed.

“Secondly,” Beth pointedly cleared her throat. “It’s Liz’s birthday this weekend. Thirdly, and most importantly, you haven’t gone out with us in over a month.”

Reeling back, Regan refuted, “That can’t be true.”

Ever since she’d started at Topped Off, Regan had been the person to spearhead inter-shift staff bonding. She’d covered for people on every shift, much like she did now, and she’d been looking to widen her social circle. Ever since then, she’d made a point to go out with people from work a couple of times a month. Sometimes even more frequently after Sutton had started dating Charlotte.

Beth arched a look at her. “It’s very true.”

Shaking her head, Regan leaned back against her locker, thinking back…

And she startled when she realized that Beth wasright.

She hadn’t gone out with work friends since before she and Emma had started bonding, which was over a month ago, now.

“Holy shit,” she whispered to herself.

How thatthathappened?

Even when Sutton was living with her, Regan had always spent time with her other – more casual – friends. Mostly because Sutton didn’t enjoy going out very much, plus she often had paper/grading deadlines and stuck to a strict schedule.

“That’s what I’m saying.” Beth tossed her hands in the air, baffled. “Every time we’ve gone out in the last six weeks, everyone’s been asking where you are. Why you never hang out anymore. Who you’re always texting. And they keep askingme, as if I know the answer.” She bit her lip, eyeing Regan. “On that note… whoareyou always texting? A new beau?”

Regan blinked widely back at Beth, still at a loss for words as her thoughts were spinning beyond her control. “Uh. No. It’s no one.” As soon as the words left her mouth, Regan cringed. Her stomach cramped with them, because it felt like a lie. More than that, it felt insulting to Emma, to refer to her asno one. “It’s just my roommate.”

“Ohhhh, Emily.”

“Emma,” Regan quickly corrected, feeling absurdly slighted that Beth didn’t remember.

“Right.” Beth accepted with an apologetic wince. “Anyway – are you coming tonight? We should probably head out soon, so we can meet up with everyone and have Liz’s celebratory birthday shot before Mike goes on stage.”

“Ah…” Regan bit at her cheek, as she looked down at her phone. Her lifeline to Emma.

As if reading her mind – granted,fine, her phone was set to light up and remind her of unread notifications every five minutes – her lock screen lit up to reveal a text from the woman in question.

Emma – 7:07PM

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