Page 99 of When Ellie Falls in Love

“Not yet.

“Not yet,” Charlie repeated.

“But we might soon.”

“But you might soon,” Charlie repeated again.

“Do you want me to have this talk with Mom?”

“Do I want you to have this talk with,” she must have caught herself repeating Sadie again because she stopped. “No. It’s okay. I mean, yes, I do think you should also talk to Mom about this, but I’m here to listen if you want.”

Picking up her phone from the floor, Sadie texted Delaney to come up to her room.

“Are you telling Ellie about how bad the sex talk is going with me?”

“No,” Sadie laughed. “I told Mom to come up here. I’d rather just have this conversation once than twice.”

“What conversation?” Delaney walked into the room and leaned against the dresser. “How do you wrap a present?”

“It’s not that kind of sex talk,” Sadie mumbled as Charlie laughed and Delaney rolled her eyes and laughed. But her laughing quickly stopped when it registered with her what Sadie said.

“Wait.Sex talk? Are you and Ellie having sex?”

“No.”

“Not yet,” Charlie giggled.

Sadie was beyond thankful that her parents cared enough about her to have a safe and open conversation about sex. They’d chatted about it for nearly half an hour before all three felt better about Sadie’s next big step in life. She had promised to be safe and not do anything before both she and Ellie were ready. Which Sadie was already planning on doing.

She and Ellie hadn’t talked about sex yet, so Sadie knew that had to come first. There was no way Sadie was going to have her firstrealtime be before either of them were ready. And she could be misreading all of Ellie’s signals. Like why else would she have brought Dylan over the other night if not to dampen any mood that might arise again like it had in Ellie’s bedroom.

“But that’s not even the biggest news,” Charlie smiled widely as she looked at Sadie, who picked up on the hint.

“I asked Charlie if I can call hermama.”

“Aww,” Delaney, who had been standing the whole conversation, sat beside Charlie on the floor. She took her hand and squeezed it. “You’re gonna make me cry.”

“I already have.”

“Oh, geez,” Sadie pretended to be annoyed. “Can you two stop being sentimental and help me wrap Ellie’s present? Her birthday party is Friday.”

“Did you get Brayden anything?”

Sadie stared blankly at Delaney.

“It’s his birthday party, too,” she chuckled. “They’re twins.”

“Iknowthey’re twins; I just didn’t know I was supposed to get Brayden something, too.”

“Welp,” Charlie stood and put her hands on her hips. “Back to the store we go.”

Chapter 33

Ellie

There were a handful of dream roles that Ellie wanted to perform in her theater career.

Janis inMean Girls.

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