Page 42 of The Snowball Effect

“Plus, you have this… quality,” Regan muttered, tilting her head to the side as she narrowed her eyes at Charlotte. “I kindawantto talk to you. How do you do that?” She demanded.

A small smile tugged at one side of Charlotte’s mouth, even as she lifted her eyebrows. “It’s a practiced skill.”

Ah. Well, that answered several of Regan’s questions about Stunning Charlotte.

“Can you teach me how to do it?” She asked curiously.

Especially right now. Maybe, if she could pry the truth from people in the easy way Charlotte could, she would never end up in situations like this one with Emma. Maybe she would have knownyears agothat Emma would never be able to see past their misunderstandings.

Charlotte’s eyebrows raised even higher, the smile slowly dropping from her face. “I’m afraid it’s not something I have a lesson plan for. I’m also afraid you’re a little more forthright, where this requires a decent bit of subtlety.”

She slowly nodded; that was fair feedback.

“Anyway,” Charlotte crossed her legs, the look on her face all business as she re-focused her attention. “Did Emma say those exact words to you?”

Regan’s lips twisted as she thought back to the night before. “No, not all of them,” she admitted, quickly shrugging it off. “But it wasn’t a hard leap to make.”

Charlotte studied her intently. “I may be mistaken here, as I know I haven’t spent much time with both you and Emma together. But from what I know, the news that Emma isn’t your biggest fan isn’t actuallynews. Correct?”

“Well, when you put it like that, it makes me feel a little stupid,” Regan muttered because she reallydidfeel a little stupid after Charlotte’s comment.

Because, no, nothing Emma said should feel like it came out of nowhere. Emma had never once, in two years, made a friendly overture toward Regan. And yet…

“The thing is, I never believed she had such a low opinion of me,” Regan explained, frowning. “I thought – I don’t know. I mean, I knew that we were always on the wrong footing. But I never thought Emma believed I was such an inconsequential fuck up.”

Saying it aloud demoralized her again, the words twisting her stomach painfully. She was glad she hadn’t fixed herself a coffee because it would have been an absolute waste; she couldn’t stomach anything right now.

“It’s interesting,” Charlotte’s voice was low and thoughtful. “I never pegged you as a person that would care so much aboutwhat someone would think. Especially someone they aren’t friends with.”

Regan frowned even deeper, her stomach tying up in bigger, tighter knots. “I guess the humiliating thing is that I considered Emma to be friend-adjacent? Like. I know we weren’tfriends. I would never text her to go out for a drink or anything like that. But I’d always assumed we both had a baseline level of respect for one another? At this point, we’ve been in the same social circle for a couple of years, so…”

She trailed off, hunching in on herself.

That was the truth. There had been moments over the last couple of years where she and Emma had been out with Sutton, and they’d both laugh at the same comment that no one else found funny. Or they’d make eye contact and roll their eyes at something stupid. Regan didn’t believe that made themfriends, but she’d thought it made them… something.

What was more than that – what ate at her even more deeply – was what she wasn’t telling Charlotte. What she couldn’t tell Charlotte was that, even as an open book, there were certain chapters that she didn’t allow anyone to read, and they all revolved around her family. Emma had unknowingly picked at a scab Regan had been carrying her entire life.

“Does Sutton know about this?” Charlotte asked, regaining Regan’s attention.

Quickly, Regan shook her head. “No, she does not.”

“I thought so,” Charlotte quietly mused. “I believe this is something she’d want to know.”

“No!” Regan quickly sat up, vehemently shaking her head as the ardent disagreement with that assessment flowed through her. “Look – Sutton is in Rome, working ten-hour days at this internship, and it’s the first thing she’s doing in her life that’s entirely for herself. Okay? There’s nothing she can do about thissituation other than stress and wonder if she never should have left in the first place. Idon’twant that.”

Which had been the reason Regan hadn’t done what her instincts had been screaming at her to do – which was to turn to Sutton for comfort in the first place. She hadn’t wanted to hang out with her coworkers last night after the fallout with Emma; she’d wanted to curl up in her bed and talk to her best friend, the one person who would understand why Emma’s words cut so deeply.

But she couldn’t do that. Because it was the middle of the night in Rome and Sutton was asleep, first and foremost. And Regan… she didn’t want to be that person to Sutton. The person who held her back in any way.

She fixed Charlotte with a serious look, hoping that Charlotte could see that Regan meant business. “You aren’t going to tell her about this, either. I’m confiding inyouright now because you asked. If you go and tell Sutton, you’ll be breaking girlfriend-of-best-friend code.”

“Girlfriend-of-best-friend code,” Charlotte drawled incredulously. “Now, why do I get the feeling you’ve just made that up?”

“No clue,” Regan shot back. “Because it’s totally real and super valid. Listen, keeping my confidence is a good thing. It proves you have stand-up character and that youaren’tsimply talking to me and offering me council to curry good favor with Sutton.”

She arched a challenging eyebrow at Charlotte, knowing she had her.

Charlotte released a sigh seconds later, holding her hands up in a sign of defeat. “You obviously don’t need me to teach you my methods of persuasion,” she said dryly.

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