Page 176 of The Snowball Effect

She sat leaning back against Regan’s headboard, as Regan had gotten up the energy to go and put their plates from the pizza they’d eventually gotten around to ordering in the kitchen. And she felt so… content.

She liked Regan’s room. She liked the plants in here, how fresh and vibrant it felt. How comfortable Regan’s mattress and sheets were.

Regan’s phone vibrating on the bedside table cut into her thoughts, and Emma peered over at it, wondering who in the world was calling Regan after midnight.

And, ah. A nervous shiver worked through her as she saw Sutton on the incoming FaceTime call.

“Who is that?” Regan asked as she walked through the doorway, her hands falling to her hips. “I swear, if it’s the café and someone called out tonight, I’m going to–”

“It’s Sutton,” she interrupted, tilting her head to the phone next to her. “She’s requesting a video call.”

Regan – standing a few feet from the bed, wearing Emma’s discarded button-up that was too big for her and all wrinkled– blinked back at her for several seconds, before simply saying, “Oh.”

Regan’s eyebrows furrowed, obviously conflicted, as she shook her head. “Um, just – you can just… reject it.” She cleared her throat, her mouth pulling into a small frown. “I can call her back in the morning.”

Emma frowned back at her, her own stomach twisting with discomfort. Both at the clear distress Regan was feeling at concealing this from Sutton, as well as herowndiscomfort.

It was the first time Emma had felt like this, had experienced this niggling guilt about Sutton knowing nothing about what was happening between them. Sutton was a good friend to her, she’d never done anything to make Emma feel like she wouldn’t be there for her.

And more than that, Sutton meant the world to Regan. She didn’t want to be – refused to be, actually – the one thing in Regan’s adult life that she felt she needed to keep from her best friend.

So, even though she still felt a little nervous – because the future was unknown, and she valued Sutton’s friendship, and she didn’t want anything to feel weird, ever – she glanced down at herself, making sure that she had Regan’s sheet pulled up securely over her chest. Yep. She was going to do this.

With a deep breath, she braced herself for whatever reaction might be coming her way, and answered Sutton’s call.

Sutton stared back at her from her own bed, looking as though she’d barely properly woken up before she’d called Regan. “Hey, I–”

Sutton abruptly cut herself off, confusion sliding across her face. “Emma! I’m so sorry.” She reached up, carding a hand through her long, sleep-tousled red hair, as a small, apologetic smile tugged at her lips. “I thought I’d called Regan, but I guess I’m less awake than I thought.”

Emma glanced at Regan, who was still standing a few feet away from the bed, staring at her with luminous, wide, questioning eyes.

“You did call her,” Emma confirmed, pushing through that uncertainty. Through the twisting feeling that she was revealing too much of herself. This wasSutton, she firmly told herself, there was nothing she really needed to keep private from her, even if that demand for privacy inside of Emma still remained in the back of her head.

It was time to push past that.

Sutton’s eyebrows knit together. “Um… okay?” She stared at Emma, obviously puzzled. “Did you accidentally swap phones or something?”

“No.” Emma shook her head, but hesitated before any other words could leave her mouth. Where did she possibly even begin to tell Sutton about what had happened this summer?

Sutton got the conversation started for her. She squinted at the phone critically, leaning in closer. “Wait a second. Wait. Is that – that’s Regan’s headboard? And her purple sheet?” Sutton sat up sharply, her face so close to the screen that Emma’s view of her was obstructed, as if Sutton were trying to crawl through the phone to investigate. “Why are you in Regan’s room? Did you kill her and take over her space?”

Her tone was only slightly joking, but more urgently alarmed than anything, and Emma reeled back, unsure if she was more amused or offended. “What? Are you serious? No!”

Sutton still didn’t look convinced. “With your track record with Regan, can you blame me?”

Emma glanced at Regan, gesturing helplessly at the phone in her hand to wordlessly ask Regan to do something, here. It seemed that was the only encouragement Regan needed.

“I’m alive,” Regan confirmed, sounding breathlessly excited as she quickly crawled back into bed, slotting into the spot nextto Emma. Their shoulders pressed firmly together, and Regan’s face joined Emma’s on the phone, to provide visual confirmation for Sutton. She grinned, beautifully and brightly, waving at Sutton. “Hey, babe!”

“Hey…?” Sutton drew out, slowly, leaning back from her phone, but her eyes didn’t leave the screen. As if she couldn’t quite connect the dots of what was being presented to her.

Because, presented to Sutton, was a veryobviouspicture. Emma stared, surprisingly fixated on their image together in the corner of the screen. They were both flushed with that post-sex glow that Emma had always rolled her eyes about. But it was real, and she saw it right now. Both of their hair was mussed, and it was very clear that hands had been gripping and pulling. They looked so… relaxed.

Which wasn’t weird for Regan. Who looked relaxed almost always.

Emma was far more fascinated by howshelooked. Leaning into Regan, she looked so… at-ease. More than that, she felt it.

Strange, how someone with so much energy, who was so vibrant, made Emma feel so calm. Yet, here they were, and her heart beat a little harder, a little faster at it.

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