Page 11 of The Snowball Effect

And gasped with excitement, Audrey and her irritating texts easily forgotten.

She’d strategically planned her shopping for work hours during the middle of the week to minimize crowds – ergo, to minimize the number of people that might get annoyed with her for needing to take her time browsing; she was indecisive at best and overwhelmed by all of the choices, even with her list, at worst – but she was especially glad now because she understood that it was somewhat ill-mannered to FaceTime while shopping.

But, while she recognized that, she could only speak to her best friend on a very limited schedule while Sutton was in Rome. So, she couldn’t summon enough shits to give to not answer a public FaceTime.

Regan could already feel how widely she was grinning, even before she saw her little, grainy image in the bottom right of her screen.

She couldn’t help it, though.

Nor could she help the excited, “Ahhh! Look at you! A sight to behold!” From escaping her at a decibel that was slightly louder than publicly appropriate.

Sutton smiled just as brightly back at her, even as she rolled her eyes. “Regan, I look exactly the same as I did the last time you saw me. A month ago.”

“Pfft,” she dismissed, leaning in and narrowing her eyes toreallylook at Sutton’s image. The quality of her video connection in the back aisles of the grocery store wasn’t great, so Sutton was a bit grainier than usual. “Let me do a visual sweep,” she jokingly-but-not-jokingly commanded.

Sutton’s smile dimmed slightly as she stared right into the camera. “Regan.”

“Sutton,” she parroted her tone. “Girl, you are halfway across the world! You’ve never been so far away from me for so long! Prove that you’re whole, please.”

Even though Sutton quietly protested, shedidset her phone on a perch and took a step back, holding out both of her arms and doing a quick spin so Regan could inspect. The whole process only took three seconds, so Regan had figured Sutton would indulge her.

“You know, mymomdoesn’t even make me do this,” Sutton grumbled as she settled back into the seat at her desk.

Satisfied, Regan shrugged. “Some might say I’m more protective over you than your mom.” She cut her gaze to Sutton, warning, “But don’t tell Katherine I said that.”

Sutton laughed. “As if I would.”

Regan would never say it to Katherine Spencer, either, because she respected, feared, and loved that woman too much to say anything that ran the slight risk of impugning her. But she did think itwasthe truth.

After all, while Sutton was closer to her mom than the average adult was, there were only so many things Sutton disclosed to her mom.

Regan, as her best friend, knew all of Sutton’s stories. All of her truths, all of her heartbreaks.

Reganwas the person who knew about every manipulative boyfriend, every date who didn’t call, every person who took advantage of Sutton’s giving nature over the years. Ever since they'd become friends in the second grade, she took her duty as Sutton’s closest confidante and fearless mouthpiece very seriously.

While she was so fucking proud of Sutton for obtaining her master’s degree and getting into a prestigious internship in Italy for the remainder of the year, it didn’t mean Regan didn’t worry about her.

“Rome seems to agree with you,” she noted, taking in the tan on Sutton’s fair skin. “You have a lot of time out of the Archives for sightseeing?”

Sutton shrugged, pulling her legs up so that her feet were perched on her chair in front of her and she could rest her chin on her knees. “Not a ton, yet. I was just granted access to the oldest files on record last week,” she reminded Regan, and her voice had an edge of undeniable excitement.

Regan smiled affectionately. “Such a fuckin’ nerd.”

Sutton flipped her off, even as she continued, “But– when we aren’t working with the physical files – we’re allowed to work in the courtyard. And it’s so beautiful – filled with all these natural plants and…” She sighed, shaking her head. “It’s great.”

“Good. I’m happy for you.” And she really, really was.

Regan jumped when someone pointedly coughed behind her, spinning around to face a middle-aged man. Who pointed at the rows of pasta behind Regan, annoyance clear on his face.

She grimaced. “Sorry!” Before she hopped out of the way.

When she looked back at her phone, Sutton was frowning. “Where are you? Are you at the store?”

Regan looked around once more, making sure that the aisle was still empty – other than that man, before turning her attention back to Sutton. “Sure am,” she confirmed, holding back her frown.

Unsurprisingly, Sutton caught it, and she sat up at attention and leaned in to try to look closer at Regan. “Are you okay? What’s up with you?”

As always, Regan had trouble lying in the face of that concern. “Uh…” she hedged. “Nothing’s wrong.”

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