Page 46 of Lose You to Find Me

I know you do.

“I don’t think Raine is listening,” Olive muses, tossing a balled-up napkin at me.

Skylar laughs. “She probably checked out after your ten-minute summary ofStar Warsand why it’s better thanStar Trek.”

Olive waves her off. “Ten minutes is impressive considering how many movies there are in the franchise. And you obviously weren’t listening because the whole point of my rant was that youcan’tcompare them.”

“Sorry,” I apologize, rubbing my eyes. “It was a long day. Bea offered discounts on certain coffee and pastries for anyone who came in dressed up between twelve and five. The place was swamped.”

It’s hard to believe it’s Halloween already, but here we are. When I walked in for my shift and Elena saw me without a costume, she made me wear cat ears and drew whiskers on my cheeks with eyeliner. She, on the other hand, was dressed to the nines as some sort of badass leather fairy that’s supposedly based on a book series I haven’t read.

“It’s fine,” Skylar reassures me. “We’re glad you were able to come tonight.”

“You still haven’t answered the question. What color is the puppy?” Olive cuts in, sipping the Shirley Temple she ordered from the waiter dressed as Baby Yoda. “That could impact the name.”

Skylar scoffs, peeling a piece off the blooming onion that’s sitting in the middle of the table. “Says the girl who names everything after Marvel characters no matter what they look like.”

“You can’t tell me that my betta fish didn’t look alittlelike Steve Rogers,” she argues, causing me to smile.

“How can a fish look like Captain America?” I ask.

Skylar gestures toward me. “Exactly!See, she gets my point. Your fish looked like a fish. You should have named it Bubbles or Nemo or something.”

Olive crosses her arms over her chest, which is covered in a Rangers hockey jersey that still somehow does little to hide her double Ds. Her brother signed on with the professional team after he graduated and has been getting a lot of airtime recently. She said she was dressed as his biggest fan for Halloween.

The hockey fanatic says, “I refuse to name any pet something that unoriginal.” She focuses on me. “Don’t let Skylar name your dog. It’ll probably be something like Spot or Rover.”

“Hey!” Skylar laughs, clearly not fazed by her friend’s assumption. “I’d like to point out that your name is Olive. I don’t think either of us are in the best place to name anyone or anything.”

Olive starts to argue but stops herself, lifting her shoulders as if to saytrue.

I play with the straw wrapper I folded accordion style. “The puppy I saw was gray, but I haven’t heard from Emma yet. So I might not even be getting him.”

Both girls frown at me. Then Skylar says, “There’s still time. Maybe she’s busy. You said she knew Caleb, right? You could always ask him to put in a good word for you or something.”

We didn’t do a whole lot of talking the last time we saw each other, so I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Would I have a right to ask him for a favor? I’m not even sure I want to bring her up since she’s helping take care of his father. It might be a sensitive topic. “No, I’ll let it be. What’s meant to be will happen, right?”

Each of them nods, but they look at me like I might break down at any second.

Thankfully, Skylar decides to change the subject. “I think you should come with me to the football party. Olive is coming, and Danny will be there. It’ll be fun.”

Clearing my throat, I grab my water and take a long sip to quench my dry mouth. “I don’t think that’d be a very good idea. I’ve been trying to give myself some room from…all that. Find my own people and give the guys some space. You know?”

Even though she doesn’t seem happy about it, Skylar nods. “That’s understandable.”

“Agreed,” Olive chips in.

Still, Skylar says, “But if Caleb is there, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. You two are both on campus and the town is small. There aren’t any rules saying you can’t both be at the same place at the same time. Plus, Danny misses having you around. You’re the voice of reason, and he really needs it sometimes.”

My lips twitch. “Still trying to get you to agree to a tortoise?”

She blows out a breath. “Yep. I think it may be a losing battle at this point. He’s hell-bent.”

That’s a conversation for another time, I guess. “All I want is to make sure Caleb is happy. And I don’t know if he can be if I keep showing up places. I already took over Bea’s. It’s obvious he tries to avoid the place when I’m working. I know DJ and Matt like the coffee, but they don’t drink two cups at a time, especially not one that’s specifically Caleb’s order.”

Skylar winces. I’m sure she knows her boyfriend has been sneaking coffee and snacks to Caleb so he wouldn’t have to see me. I get it. I’d probably do the same if I were him.

Olive decides to change the subject back to puppies. “I still think that you should consider something cool for your dog’s name when you get one. Like Kylo Ren or Darth Vader.”

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