Page 24 of If You Need Me

A picture of the two of us follows.

Dallas

Does my smile not say madly in love?

Hemi

That smile says too much whiskey. I’m telling them you came to my place and professed your undying love.

Dallas

Whatever story you tell, I will corroborate.

Hemi

You may live to regret that.

Dallas

I survived the clowns and the sauerkraut pierogies—nothing is as bad as that.

Hemi

*evil cackling GIF*

You are so fucked, Dallas.

Dallas

I know. See you at the Watering Hole. I look forward to whatever you decide to dish out.

I don’t respond, just grab my purse and leave the office. Twenty minutes later, I’m tucked into a booth with Shilpa, Rix, Hammer, Tally Vander Zee, and Dred Reformer.

Tally’s dad is the head coach of the Terror. She interned with me last year, too, and is heading to university in the fall. She’s part of our Badass Babe Brigade, and we adore her. Dred lives in the same building as Rix’s brother, Flip Madden. She works at the local library and has been folded into our group over the pastyear. Like me, she wasn’t raised by her birth parents. Unlike me, she wasn’t adopted and spent her childhood shuttled from foster home to foster home. It takes a while to get to know her—I’m still working on it—but she’s a super interesting person.

“This is so exciting! I can’t believe you and Dallas are finally a thing.” Tally does an excited seat shimmy. Her dad was nowhere near that thrilled when I got called in to meet with upper management this morning. Coach Vander Zee can have a very intense face.

I try not to frown. “Finally a thing?”

She folds her hands together and props her chin on them. “We’ve all seen the way—” She flinches. “I mean, I’m just excited. Everyone is falling in love.”

I glance around the table. Rix is rubbing her lips, and Hammer is biting hers together. Dred’s eyebrow is arched, and Shilpa is doing a terrible job of suppressing a smile.

“We’ve all seen the way what?” I try to cross my arms, but we’re sitting in the booth and my boobs are big, so it’s impossible.

“The way you and Dallas look at each other, of course. It was only a matter of time with how much you’re together,” Shilpa says, helpfully digging me out of my hole.

“Oh, right. Yeah.”

“I gotta say, you’ve done a pretty solid job of making everyone believe you can’t stand him,” Dred says, voice laced with what might be skepticism.

“Yeah, well, we were fighting the draw.” That sounds ludicrous.

“Usually you want to murder him. When did that change? How did it change?” Hammer asks, apparently second command in the interrogation committee.

Although I’m grateful she seems more confused than hurt. We work together, she knows me, so pulling the wool over her eyes will be harder. I’m glad I don’t have to do that with Ash and Shilpa.

“Mostly I was trying to convince myself that my feelings hadn’t changed. But it’s recent. The feelings changing. Very recent.”Like this morning recent.God, I suck at this.

---