Page 89 of The Snowball Effect

A titter of laughter escaped her as she felt her cheeks heat. “Funny. Funny woman.”

Regan forced herself to walk past Emma so she could brace her hands on the porcelain edge of the sink. Shewasattracted to Emma. She wasattracted to Emma. A woman she’d known for two years. Her roommate. Her new-found friend.

What did it mean? What happened now? Her mind buzzed with questions, and Regan felt like her veins had been lit up by a sparkler.

“Where were you? I saw that you didn’t have work on the calendar,” Emma commented.

Regan could feel Emma’s eyes on her back, and she couldn’t help but wonder what Emma saw when she looked ather.

Emma had said that she’d looked good in her underwear. But – as Regan well-knew – that didn’t denote feeling attraction.

“I was hanging out with Charlotte,” she pushed herself to answer. Did she sound normal?

“Sutton’s Charlotte?” Emma clarified, sounding surprised.

“The one and only. Why? Did you miss me?” She couldn’t help but ask, meaning to tease, not feel like she was invested in the answer.

But… she hoped Emma missed her. At the very least, she liked that Emma had thought about Regan when she’d been gone. Because she thought about Emma whenshewasn’t home.

“Desperately,” Emma dryly responded. “I just didn’t realize you two were friends. Like, hang out without Sutton there to buffer kind of friends.”

Regan shrugged. “It’s a relatively new development.”

There were a lot of those going around in Regan’s life.

Speaking of Charlotte, Regan pulled her phone out of her pocket.

Regan – 2:34 PM

Mayday, captain, mayday!

The attraction is REAL and verified

Looks like I’m in the club

Regan spun around, finding that sheneededto face Emma. To be able to look at her, to take her in. To try to make sense of this attraction or brush it off or…

Or immediately dip her gaze to Emma’s chest.

“Have you always worn such low-cut tops?” She demanded to know. She could see the cups of her bra, and… yeah. Wow.

Emma really did favor those pretty bras, like the red one she’d been wearing in the kitchen last month when she hadn’t expected Regan to be home early from work.

Regan’s mind conjured that image in perfect clarity as if playing on a tape.

Oh,wow.

Had she been attracted to Emma, even then?! Was that why she could picture every time she’d seen Emma in any state ofundress so easily? That was definitely not normal; she couldn’t summon an image of any of her other friends in specific bathing suits or similar attire for the life of her.

“What?” Emma spun around in her chair, draping her arm over the back to stare at Regan above the frames of her glasses. “Did you seriously just ask what I think you asked?”

Regan forced herself to stop staring at Emma’s chest like a perv, which honestly wasn’t that difficult. Because she found that exciting, buzzyzingcontinued thrumming through her when she was also looking at Emma’s face.

Had she always found glasses to be so attractive? That was something she was going to need to look into.

“Do you always wear glasses?” She asked.

“Yes – I mean, kind of,” Emma corrected, still frowning concernedly at Regan. “I’ve had them since I was little, but I normally wear my contacts.” She rolled her lips before softly confessing, “Last night was… emotional for me.”

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